HAMMER HOUSE OF HORROR EPISODE 4 - GROWING PAINS (1980)

DIRECTED by Francis Megahy

SCREENPLAY by Nicholas Palmer

STARRING - Barbara Kellerman as Laurie Morton, Gary Bond as Terence Morton,  Matthew Blakstad as James,  Christopher Reilly as William Morton 

PLOT - The Morton's are a successful couple - Laurie is a diplomat and her husband Terence is a respected scientist who is currently developing a new type of fungus/foodstuff which will hopefully feed the starving nations of the world.

They have everything - top flight careers, a beautiful home in a rustic village...but they are beset by heartache...

Several years ago their young son William got into Terence's laboratory and fatally poisoned himself after eating a chemical compound (I'm guessing he didn't inherit his dad's brains).

To ease thier heartache, the Morton's have adopted another young boy - James - from the local orphanage.

However, it soon becomes obvious that all is not what it seems with James. What is the reason for his strange behaviour ? why do strange events always seem to happen around him ?, and why does he seem so fascinated with the Morton's dead son ?

The ghost of William is influencing James's behaviour and he's not happy with his parents for the negligence that led to his death. Not happy at all...

PERFORMANCES - After the complex character study of the previous episode we're back to our protagonists being painted in broader strokes for this creepy little ghost story.

Barbara Kellerman and Gary Bond give decent performances as the successful but childless Mortons. There's an uneasy feeling to the scenes they share together, like they're trying to put on a united front against the tragedy that befell their family but neither Laurie or Terence can quite forgive each other for not keeping an eye on their son on that fateful tragic night. There's a frostiness, an aloofness between them.

This strained feeling also comes across when they adopt James (Matthew Blakstad) and take him to his new home. Thier attempts to bond with thier new "son" feel forced and awkward. This isn't helped by the fact that James himself is somewhat... eccentric for a ten year old to say the least.

For the life of me I can't actually decide whether Blakstad gives a good or bad performance as young James. He comes across as being very "stage school" and slightly wooden at points, BUT...I think that's kind of the point. James is supposed to be socially awkward, he's supposed to be a misfit who's spent most of his short life in a care home. So I think his stilted delivery and stooped and stiff body posture is intentional - if it is then it's a brilliant piece of work from one so young, if it isn't...then at least it's a happy accident. Either way, he works in the role and succeeds in being suitably unnerving in places.

If I'm being honest all the characters in this (mainly due to the sheer awkwardness they have around each other) feel very cold. None of them even remotely approach being anywhere near likeable, but for some reason this isn't the deal breaker you'd automatically assume it to be.

This disconnection you feel from the characters only serves to heighten the weird off-kilter feel of the whole story. The viewer feels uneasy and uncomfortable in the presence of these people and that only serves to heighten the feeling of growing horror as the story reaches it's unsettling climax.

VIOLENCE - At the episode's opening we get to see the death of William Morton. He breaks into his father's lab, gets the munchies, stupidly decides to snack on some random chemical, starts writhing around as he's poisoned, staggers and falls through a plate glass door and promptly drops dead. You'd think a scene depicting the death of a child would be harrowing - it SHOULD be harrowing - but unfortunately this scene is so OTT and the child actor is so terrible that it just ends up being unintentionally funny. A completely misjudged scene.

James carries out a grisly practical joke involving a toy rabbit and some animal guts (where he gets the entrails from is never explained).

Later on Terence's lab rabbits are all savaged to death by the family dog which has momentarily gone feral (it's implied that the dog is possessed by William's ghost). The "dead rabbits" look about as convincing as the stuffed toy rabbit seen above, but I'd rather see unconvincing props than actual animals killed just for shock value anyday of the week.

SFX - Again not much in the way of effects work except for the small amounts of gore and fake rabbit corpses.

RATING - Apart from a few very minor flaws this is yet another episode that holds up well. It's an atmospheric little ghost story with an ominous atmosphere and a sense of brooding menace. 

It also has one of my favourite scenes in the entire series where William's gravestone starts to vibrate due to a supernatural storm. This scene REALLY got me and my friends talking at school on the Monday morning following the broadcast in 1980. We just thought that the very idea of vibrating gravestones was extremely cool. It's an image that's stayed with me ever since.

4 gyrating grave markers out of 5.

ART -