The Prodigy
By Michael Ordona,
Common Sense Media Reviewer
Common Sense Media Reviewers
Graphic violence, language in "bad seed" horror movie.

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The Prodigy
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Based on 6 parent reviews
Not too scary
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good movie
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What's the Story?
In THE PRODIGY, a serial killer (Paul Fauteux) dies at the same moment a baby is born. As the boy, Miles (Jackson Robert Scott), grows, he develops an alarmingly split personality. His mother, Sarah (Taylor Schilling), realizes -- with the help of an expert (Colm Feore) -- that something sinister is occurring. Can she and her husband, John (Peter Mooney), find a way to save their son before it's too late?
Is It Any Good?
Clever direction and moody, effective cinematography can't quite rescue this horror movie from some confounding clichés. The Prodigy leads viewers to believe that it's going to rise above the genre when the adults figure out pretty early on that something very wrong is happening. But, nope. They proceed to make pretty much every possible bad choice to enable the horror to roll right along. That's a real issue when the gag isn't particularly original to begin with: This film fits neatly into the Bad Seed horror subgenre, along with The Omen, The Good Son, Orphan, and many others, albeit with its own slight wrinkles. But to say those bells and whistles make it original would be to give sole credit to Vanilla Ice for "Under Pressure."
The film isn't terrible. Director Nicholas McCarthy and cinematographer Bridger Nielson have worked together frequently, and it shows. There's a seamlessness to the use of imagery to set tone and convey information. The opening sequence, for instance, could be said to reveal too much, leaving audiences to sit and wait for the evil to emerge in the kid. But the way it's presented, with some thoughtful matching of images, shows promise. The movie's atmospheres are suitably foreboding and draped in poisonous shadows. And the performances are solid throughout: Schilling and Mooney are believable as a couple facing something unimaginable, and young Scott is outstanding in the most demanding role. But the characters' terrible decisions seem nakedly required for plot purposes, crippling any hope for tension or surprise. The movie also relies too heavily on startle scares. It does go to darker places than usual for most horror movies, but even that isn't new or different -- at least, not enough to make The Prodigy especially memorable.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about the violence in The Prodigy. How does it compare to other horror movies you've seen? To violence in non-horror movies? Which has more impact? Why do you think that is?
Was this film like any others you've seen (e.g., The Omen)? If so, was it original or effective enough to make you not care about similarities?
Does it bother you when, in horror movies, characters make clearly bad choices to enable plot points to occur?
Movie Details
- In theaters: February 8, 2019
- On DVD or streaming: May 7, 2019
- Cast: Taylor Schilling, Jackson Robert Scott, Colm Feore
- Director: Nicholas McCarthy
- Studio: Orion Pictures
- Genre: Horror
- Topics: Monsters, Ghosts, and Vampires
- Run time: 100 minutes
- MPAA rating: R
- MPAA explanation: violence, disturbing and bloody images, a sexual reference and brief graphic nudity
- Last updated: October 2, 2022
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