The Prodigy is a different kind of thriller, in a good way

The Prodigy is a great movie for a movie night. While it has some minor flaws, it makes up for them by doing things differently than most films of the genre.

I try to avoid watching trailers for horror movies. For whatever reason, it’s hard to cut a trailer without giving away the movie. With The Prodigy I didn’t watch any trailers. I barely saw a poster and that was perfect for me. I knew going in that there was going to be a creepy kid and that was all I wanted to know.

Even then, Prodigy is a very different horror movie or thriller. It doesn’t follow many of the stereotypical tropes, there are jump-scares, but they weren’t random or used to mess with the audience (a pet peeve of mine). The characters make decisions that I wouldn’t make, but the decisions aren’t the typical dumb decisions that many movies use to move the story along with the hope that you won’t care.

There are many things that The Prodigy does well, and while it wasn’t perfect by any means, it is one that will have viewers talking as they walk out of the theater.

Pacing

The first 20 to 30 minutes of The Prodigy will feel rushed, but this was necessary. They needed to set up the story, then advance you to a certain point with some understanding of how we got here. Rather than having you figure out what’s going on along with the characters, The Prodigy gives you the answer right at the start.

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Part of the drama and tension of the story is that you know what’s going on with Miles while everyone around him is oblivious. You see the signs early that something is off with him, but his loving parents aren’t going to put things together until they have to. Because of this, things will happen that you will laugh at because you know why it’s happening. Whether or not this was the intended effect, this works for the movie.

Once you have the baseline and the story advances to 8 year-old Miles, that’s when things start to get going and the film settles into a great pace that tells the story in a way that doesn’t meander or have a ton of filler moments.

Jackson Robert Scott

The kids never get the love they deserve and that will probably be the case here as well. Jackson pulled this role off amazingly and sold it so well. From the delivery of his lines to his body language and expressions, he’s picked up where he left off in IT and hit the ground running. I can’t say all that I want to about how great a job he did in this movie, but his performance in the last 30 minutes of the film was perfect and a ton of fun to watch.

Oh, mother

In the intro to this review I mentioned decisions being made that I wouldn’t have made. Most of these are on the part of Taylor Schilling’s character who plays Miles’ mother, Sarah. The only reason I don’t completely hate them and they didn’t ruin the movie for me is because she is his mother. I’ve seen and read stories about the mothers of serial killers and her reactions fall in line with a lot of them.

In this case, Sarah and her husband had tried for a while to have children before she finally got pregnant with him. All mothers love their children but this makes that bond and the need to protect him at all costs that much stronger. She is slow to believe that there is anything going on with him but not to the point that she completely ignores the signs. I thought that this back and forth between being concerned and not wanting to accept that something is off made her a believable mother in this position.

The flaws

As I said The Prodigy is by no means perfect. The biggest flaws for me were the relationship between the parents, how quickly the issue with him was identified, and a few moments of people making self-destructive decisions that the audience immediately knows will go badly.

On the first front, I don’t know if it was just a lack of chemistry or the sped up first 30 minutes, but Taylor Schilling and Peter Mooney didn’t come off strongly enough to me as a couple. Later in the movie, it feels a lot better, but early on they felt like two people just existing in the same space. This wasn’t that important to the film but it stood out for me.

The more glaring problem for me was how quickly the issue is identified. Not only was conclusion reached almost immediately, but the line of questioning from the specialist was way too spot-on. It would have been great to see them cycle through a few options before just immediately going to the extreme that they did.

They diagnosed him quicker than a doctor is able to identify what’s causing a person’s cough. With that said, there’s a scene in the movie where Sarah is asked to watch a video and the video she watches is one that I saw when I was very young and always stuck with me. It was an old ABC investigation show and you’ll know it when you see it. It’s a true story and I love that they incorporated it into the movie. When you know that the story is true it adds credibility to the movie.

On the last front, you almost have to expect some of this and I can’t decide if it helps or hurts the story. The sense of dread immediately sets in for the viewer and while I try to just accept that something is coming, it still affects you.

Overall

Overall, The Prodigy is worth a watch. For horror fans especially, but also just for movie goers in general who don’t mind horror. It’s not predictable, it tried something new, it has funny moments, and the scares are real scares. there are some goofy moments as well but not enough to take away from the quality moments. If you have a family or friend movie night this is the type of movie you want to see.

The Prodigy is a fun movie and is currently available in theaters.