171. The Prodigy; movie review
Cert 15
92 mins
BBFC advice: Contains strong violence, injury detail, references to sexual violence
Groan. Yet another child who is possessed.
I feared that The Prodigy would add little to a genre which has probably been exhausted and I was right.
It can surely only appeal to people who have never seen a horror film. Anyone who has would find it as pale as its title character's Halloween make-up.
Nicholas McCarthy's film stars Jackson Robert Scott as Miles whose supreme intellect is detected as a baby.
As he grows up his rapid development initially excites his parents but they become progressively more worried because he can't make friends and develops a fearsome temper.
Of course, Miles is not a normal little boy - he was born seconds after a crazed serial killer whose spirit has been transferred to his body.
As time goes on, there is a wrangle the boy and the evil spirit over who has control.
My main problem with films such as this is the reaction of those in the immediate firing line.
For example, in real life, Miles's mother (Taylor Schilling) would have been hysterical long before she is in the film.
Meanwhile, his father (Peter Mooney) simply sees running away as a solution.
And the kid becomes more evil and things start to become more and more violent..... and I began to yawn.
For me, The Prodigy is horror by numbers. No spark of originality - just an attempt to lure audiences with the same material which has previously worked.
Why should its makers care what I think? They took no risks and have turned a $6m outlay into $20m box office takings.
As long as people keep paying to see them, expect more such hokum.
Reasons to avoid: Really dull
Laughs: None
Jumps: None
Vomit: None
Nudity: None
Overall rating: 3/10
Did you know? Polls conducted in recent decades by Gallup and YouGov suggest that roughly half of Americans believe demonic possession is real. Gallup polls sho that those who believe in the devil rose from 55 per cent in 1990 to 70 per cent in 2007.
Final word. Nicholas McCarthy: "What (writer) Jeff Buhler had done is take that evil kid subgenre and create a real twisted, dark version of one of those movies that I was happy to read. And then he took it in a direction that really blew me away because it's a horror movie that does not end with an exorcism, and what happens arises out of the choices that these characters make." Daily Dead
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