This story has all the creepiness you would expect from a Hammer production, as a married couple is plagued by a series of unfortunate events after they adopt a young boy following the death of their natural born son. As if to preface these unusual occurrences, the new son James (Matthew Blakstad) states that he gets 'thoughts in his head', thereby suggesting the idea that maybe he's the cause of the unnatural phenomena disrupting the family. A car the mother (Barbara Kellerman) was driving goes out of control. Maggots appear in their steak dinner, a stuffed rabbit literally spills it's very real guts, and the mild mannered family dog goes berserk, killing the father's (Gary Bond) experimental rabbits and attacking him as well. The business with the rabbits was a bit over the top, as there's no explanation how Nipper could have opened their cages in the father's laboratory, so you have to skim over the inconsistency there. What it all boils down to is an apparent payback for the parents lack of attention toward their first son, which appeared to be taking place with James as well. It's nipped in the bud so to speak, with the father's demise following the appearance of the first son's apparition, as if seeking atonement for his neglect while alive. It's a bitter ending for the mother who quite late comes to understand what had transpired, as she hugs her new son with a renewed sense of what family should mean.
Review of Growing Pains
