It figures - I just recently submitted a review here on imdb of another Alfred Hitchcock Hour episode in which I made a point of stressing that Hitch never did supernatural or sci-fi in his TV series or movies....guess I should've waited until I saw this one, since it was already on my DVR. I even had a vague memory of Hitch saying that in one of his wraparound segments or maybe I read it somewhere in the 60 years I've been following him and his works, but...whatever. While watching this ep, it kept going through my mind that it must all be a dream/nightmare of one of the parents or most likely the child himself, but nope! The theme of this ep is definitely supernatural, all the way to the end, to the point that I kept thinking I was watching Twilight Zone.
Speaking of which, I noticed most of the reviewers here compared it to the TZ ep 'It's a Good Life'. I wish they had stuck to just reviewing this ep on its own without comparing it to anything else. The main difference between the two is that the cause of the magic powers was never shown or explained in the IAGL ep, as it was shown in detail in 'The Magic Shop'.
If I had seen this as a child when it was originally shown in the early 60s, it would have scared me to death - I would have had nightmares about that evil overly-toothy narrow-faced kid (his facial characteristics reminded me so much of the 'Alien' creature!) every night for a year. But now, 5 decades later, after all manner of evil/possessed children in scores of shows and movies....meh. The BEST of the bunch, when it comes to evil children (with only heredity to blame - no woo/hocus pocus involved), will ALWAYS be the original "The Bad Seed" with Patty McCormack as Rhoda.
7 out of 10 - grade B-