The Prodigy
The Prodigy is an often chilling and disturbing - if not particularly meaningful or impactful - horror movie weighed down its by derivative plot.
There ’s a reason filmmaker keep making movies about vicious kids . They ’re an in force way for storytellers to search parents ' bad fearfulness about their kid , whether through some kind of supernatural parable ( The Omen ) or a more ground story about how some fry are , apparently , just bear nasty jerks ( The Good Son).The Prodigyis cut from the same material as the many movies about creepy-crawly kids that’ve issue forth before it , but adds a plait where it have-to doe with the cause of the nipper ’s unsettling behaviour . While the ensue film generally succeeds at being macabre , it does n’t go far enough to really split up the mold for its subgere . The Prodigyis an often cool and troubling - if not particularly meaningful or impactful - revulsion movie weighed down its by derivative plot .
Orange is the New Black ’s Taylor Schilling star inThe Prodigyas Sarah , a fair sex who ’s expecting with her hubby , John ( Peter Mooney ) . While their boy Miles is born importantly earlier than expected , he otherwise seems to be in perfectly good health . In fact , as Miles grow up , he starts demonstrate more and more foretoken of genius - spirit level word , much to Sarah and John ’s delight . However , by the time he turns eight years old , Miles ( Jackson Robert Scott ) is still clamber to socialize with other kids his age and typically isolates himself . More than that , he ’s begun to do more and more unsettling things , precede his parent to worry that there ’s something rottenly incorrect with him .
On the advice of one of their Dr. , Sarah meets with an unlawful therapist named Arthur Jasobson ( Colm Feore ) . Arthur , as it turns out , has receive children like naut mi before and has an outlandish explanation for the cause of his problem . At first , Sarah dismiss his advice , believing that there must be a more coherent reason for Miles ' increasingly hostile and violent behavior . But as Miles remain to act out in disturbing slipway , Sarah begins to uncover more and grounds that suggest Dr. Jacobson is proper … and she ’s running out of time to save Miles , before the blue little son she make love is exit eternally .
Written by Jeff Buhler ( The Midnight Meat Train),The Prodigyworks better as a suspenseful revulsion - thriller than a psychological one , for the most part because it tips its hand way too early . The motion picture makes it pretty clear what ’s really going on with Miles from the very rootage , so there ’s never any reason to interview his mother ’s mental health or question if her position is untrustworthy ( a laThe Babadookand its own exploration of the repulsion of maternity ) . At the same clock time , this heightens the tautness throughout the first two - thirds of the picture show and leaves spectator wondering when and how ( rather than if ) knot will run into next . The Prodigystill takes the time to show Sarah and John interrogate their own sanity and wonder if there ’s another explanation for the way Miles is acting . For the most part , however , these scenes ( including the references to John ’s abusive father ) do n’t really go anywhere and mostly do to stretch out the story out until Sarah take over the unfathomable the true about her son .
Like most horror film villains , Miles command some suspension of disbelief when it comes to his actions and what he is and is n’t physically capable of . Scott , who played ( tragical ) Georgie in the firstITmovie , does a nice chore of bringing the character to life , specially in the setting where Miles is quietly plotting ugly things to do or switches from being malicious to ( on the face of it ) innocent in the blink of an eye . That said , The Prodigyabruptly veers into campy territory when Miles starts talking like a deranged super - villain , much in the same way that a movie likeThe Good Sondid . Still , he works well with Schilling in their scenes together , whether he ’s playact like a short sociopath or a normal boy . Austrian schilling is also stout in her performance here , though the motion-picture show ends up short - changing her part in terms of exploitation . This becomes a self-aggrandising trouble in the film ’s third act , when Sarah get a spectacular issue to her discharge that does n’t feel in all earned .
Speaking of which : a few surprise in the final third away , The Prodigyfollows a predictable flight from start to cultivation . Director Nicholas McCarthy ( The Pact ) also borrows liberally from many a renowned horror claim here , including cult classics likeChild ’s Playand more recent hits likeInsidious . The moving-picture show terminate up feel pretty derivative for it , but is help by its willingness to go to dark-skinned places than similar horror movies have in the past . It help that McCarthy avoids leaning too heavily on jump scares ( though , of course , there are those ) and focus more on make a sense of atmospheric apprehension with his way . He ’s further aid in these cause by his trusted cameraman Bridger Nielson ’s bleakly lit and often shadowy visuals , as well as the haunting score by Joseph Bishara ( who , after his work onThe ConjuringandInsidiousseries , have it away a thing or two about spooky musical cues ) .
The main problem withThe Prodigyis that its story is ( put frankly ) kind of superfluous . apparently , it ’s a film about the dark side of parenthood and how far someone ( specifically , a female parent ) would go to protect their minor , but the theme comes off feel half - scorched in the end . The Prodigyoften bring home the bacon at being unpleasant and freaky , but without a clearly - defined throughline it struggles to allow for much of a last impression . There ’s not really a moral or lesson to be involve from the motion picture either since , at the end of the twenty-four hours , even the characters ' unethical and sometimes confounding decision have a limited upshot on how the film ultimately break up itself . It ’s all darkness with no real purpose , in other words .
All things considered , though , The Prodigy is a serviceable repugnance offering for those in the mood to watch something that can be genuinely dreadful in the here and now , if not inevitably memorable or likely to inspire nightmares . Those who are concerned in seeing this one for Schilling might want to check their expectations too , seeing as this film is really a case for Scott more than any of the adult cast members . thing will start picking up for the horror - loving crew in the weeks ahead , as we move on to promising new releases from studio apartment like Blumhouse and/or directors like Jordan Peele . For those who ’re willing to wait or can do without a shuddery moving picture fix in the interim , you might be safe off saving the latest addition to the evil tike thriller stilt for a viewing at home .
TRAILER
The Prodigyis now playing in U.S. theatre nationally . It is 101 mo long and is rated R for violence , disturbing and bloody image , a sexual denotation and brief vivid nudeness .
Jackson Robert Scott in The Prodigy
Jackson Robert Scott and Taylor Schilling in The Prodigy
Colm Feore in The Prodigy
