In the horror genre, scary children have become worthy of a sub-genre all their own. From <\/span>The Omen<\/span><\/i>\u2019s Damien to Gage in <\/span>Pet Sematary <\/span><\/i>and the slimy ghost girl in <\/span>The Ring<\/span><\/i>, horror films have proven that it doesn\u2019t take much to turn an innocent youngster into a creepy little embodiment of pure evil. This particular sub-genre has become less prevalent in recent years, but occasionally another terrifying tyke arrives to remind audiences that procreation isn\u2019t all it\u2019s cracked up to be. Enter <\/span>The Prodigy<\/i><\/strong>, starring Taylor Schilling as a mother who slowly begins to realize that her brilliant son might actually be a psychopath. <\/span><\/p>\n The Prodigy<\/span><\/i> doesn\u2019t quite earn a place in the evil kid hall of fame, but it takes a decent crack at it with a predictable story that takes a surprisingly unpredictable third-act turn. In the brisk opening act, Sarah (Schilling) and her husband John (Pete Mooney) finally welcome a baby boy after years of struggling to conceive. Just as they welcome Miles into the world, a brutal serial killer who murders women is shot down by the cops. The central conceit of <\/span>The Prodigy<\/span><\/i> should be immediately clear at this point, but just in case you don\u2019t get it (as at least one person in my audience somehow didn\u2019t), Miles\u2019 intelligence develops at a rapid rate; his eyes are two different colors, just like the serial killer who died; and he starts displaying some odd, violent tendencies. The thrill of <\/span>The Prodigy<\/span><\/i> isn\u2019t in figuring out what\u2019s wrong with Miles, despite the tagline \u201cWhat\u2019s wrong with Miles?\u201d We know what\u2019s wrong with Miles, even if Sarah doesn\u2019t. What makes the film suspenseful is in waiting to see what Miles will do next, how long it will take Sarah and John to accept what\u2019s really going on, and what they will ultimately do about it. <\/span><\/p>\n As it turns out, it takes this couple of knuckleheads a little too long to accept that there\u2019s a misogynistic serial killer taking up real estate in their son\u2019s brain. Jackson Robert Scott delivers on the promise of his brief role in <\/span>It<\/span><\/i>, with his natural cuteness working in direct (and sometimes hilarious) opposition to his complete creepiness. There are moments, however, when Scott showcases legitimate acting skill, as when the serial killer takes over and he\u2019s forced to act like a very horrible grown man in an unsuspecting child\u2019s body. This lends itself to some morbid humor along the same lines as <\/span>Orphan<\/span><\/i>, Jaume Collet-Serra\u2019s utterly bonkers flick about a murderous orphan. That film, which had a killer third-act twist, was probably the last truly great evil kid movie, and although the two share similarities in tone and content, <\/span>The Prodigy<\/span><\/i> is no <\/span>Orphan<\/span><\/i>. It\u2019s too bad because there\u2019s quite a bit of potential, especially in the more ridiculous moments. <\/span><\/p>\n The best parts of <\/span>The Prodigy<\/span><\/i> occur somewhere in the second act, when Sarah meets with a psychologist (Colm Feore) who specializes in reincarnation. When the doc meets his young patient and, through hypnosis, the killer inside him, Miles has a couple of truly insane lines. Scott commits to the delivery with a straight face, which really makes this whole exchange even more bananas. Scott\u2019s commitment to this wacky role and Schilling\u2019s pitch-perfect reactions are what make <\/span>The Prodigy<\/span><\/i> work as well as it does, though it never quite manages to rise above the realm of \u201csolid thriller.\u201d Directed by Nicholas McCarthy (<\/span>At the Devil\u2019s Door<\/span><\/i>) and written by Jeff Buhler (the <\/span>Pet Sematary<\/span><\/i> remake), the film is competently made, if nothing else. There are a few chilling moments, particularly involving Miles\u2019 encounters with a classmate and a babysitter, and a couple of gasp-inducing ones that are best left unspoiled, but it\u2019s only during the film\u2019s climax that <\/span>The Prodigy<\/span><\/i> attempts to skirt predictability \u2013 and when it does, it\u2019s really <\/span>something<\/span><\/i>. <\/span><\/p>\n Perhaps the most potent thing about <\/span>The Prodigy<\/span><\/i> is this: There are movies that feel like \u201cthe one we need right now\u201d \u2013\u00a0movies that reflect society in ways that feel relevant and sometimes poignant. <\/span>The Prodigy<\/span><\/i> is basically the opposite. It\u2019s a movie about a little white boy who commits acts of violence, in which his psychopathy is explained away by supernatural magic. It\u2019s not Miles that\u2019s evil, you see, it\u2019s some foreign entity (figuratively and <\/span>literally<\/span><\/i> \u2013 the killer is Hungarian) that\u2019s controlling this kid and making him hurt women. In this day and age, when young white men are committing horrible acts of violence at an alarming rate, and their motives are often revealed to be misogynistic in nature, <\/span>The Prodigy<\/span><\/i> feels more like an absurd fantasy film than a horror flick.<\/span><\/p>\n In the horror genre, scary children have become worthy of a sub-genre all their own. From The Omen\u2019s Damien to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":553,"featured_media":11309,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1381,340],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11308","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-movies","category-movie-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11308","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/553"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11308"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11308\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Grade: C+<\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n
1 hr., 32 min.; rated R for violence, disturbing and bloody images, a sexual reference and brief graphic nudity<\/em><\/h5>\n
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