The Prodigy tells the story of John (Peter
Mooney) and Sarah (Taylor Schilling), a married couple who have been trying to conceive
a child for quite some time. Finally the stars align, and Sarah becomes
pregnant, eventually giving birth to a baby boy, Miles (Jackson Robert Scott). From
a very young age it was clear that Miles was a special child. He is incredibly
bright – begins speaking extraordinarily early, is able to solve math and logic
problems well before other kids his age, and has an innate ability to process
information around him. Yet, there is
something off about Miles. At first, Sarah visits specialists that think Miles
has abnormal growth in regions of his brain. While some areas are growing more
rapidly than children his age, other areas – specifically ones that deal with
socialization and behavior – are behind the curve.
This seems plausible to Sarah until Miles begins blacking
out and becoming violent. An outburst towards another student leads to Miles having sessions with a psychiatrist, Dr. Strasser (Paula Boudreau). When Sarah overhears Miles muttering what she perceives to be
gibberish in his sleep, she makes a recording for Dr. Strasser, who immediately passes it on to her colleague Dr. Johnson (Colm Feore). Sarah meets
with Dr. Johnson who believes that another soul might be
occupying Mile’s body. As absurd as this may seem, Miles continued erratic and frightening behavior leads Sarah to think maybe Dr. Johnson’s theories aren’t as crazy as
she originally thought. Dr. Johnson believes that souls come back to occupy
bodies in an effort to complete one final task. The question is, who’s soul is
in Mile’s body and what does it want? 
The Prodigy doesn’t
reinvent the wheel and follows many of the same ‘possessed child terrorizes his
parents’ clichés we’ve seen in the past, yet Director Nicholas McCarthy and
writer Jeff Buhler manage to create an atmosphere of suspense and dread
during the film without having to resort to many cheap scares or an
overabundance of blood and gore. Many classic horror film techniques are used,
such as the typical eerie music, the slow camera movements that sweep across a
room, the long shots of hallways and basements with one central light in the
scene trying to draw the audience’s eyes towards it. The Prodigy plays with the idea of dual personalities, or in this
case dual souls – and it isn’t shy about making it perfectly clear what is
happening. Not only does Mile’s behavior drastically change, but we get blatant
visual cues like Mile’s only wiping off half of his Halloween skeleton makeup
and only half of his face being framed in shots. Schilling and Scott give
strong performances which carry the film and help you overlook some flimsy
plot pieces and general absurdity. Their performances coupled with strong
direction make The Prodigy an
interesting watch for a matinee or future Redbox rental.
Rating: 3 out of 5
