FILM REVIEW: THE PRODIGY (2019)

Hot on the heels of Lee Cronin’s much-anticipated The Hole In The Ground comes 2019’s latest ‘creepy kid’ flick, The Prodigy.

Sadly not the tale of the late great Keith Flint’s band, it is instead the story of proud parents Sarah (Taylor Schilling) and John (Peter Mooney) who start to suspect that their precociously bright little cherub Miles (It’s Jackson Robert Scott) might not be quite so angelic after all.

Could it have something to do with the random deranged serial killer we see meet a sticky end during Miles’ birth? Why yes, yes it could.

I’m sure plenty of eyes will have rolled during that synopsis and, in truth, there’s very little in the way of surprises in terms of plot in The Prodigy. It has a throwback horror-thriller hybrid feel along the lines of What Lies Beneath, Hide And Seek, and Cape Fear. And just like those movies, if you’re in the right mood, there’s still plenty of fun to be had here.

The cast is great, especially Schilling and young Scott, and there’s some fine support from Colm Feore as a hippy doctor with a very open mind when it comes to the paranormal, and Paul Fauteux as the aforementioned creepy serial killer. Yes, there are some clunky moments of dialogue, but this is a very talented group of actors and they do a pretty good job with what they have to work with.

Director Nicholas McCarthy also impresses, making sure the film looks fantastic and delivering some very good scares along the way. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that The Prodigy contains the most exquisitely crafted jump scare I’ve seen since the first crawler reveal in The Descent.

As a piece of entertainment, The Prodigy can’t really be faulted (well, except for the fact that it could clearly finish a good five minutes before it finally does), but it simply doesn’t do enough to get close to classic status.

If you only have the time or inclination for one scary-child-driven film, The Hole In The Ground is clearly the winner. But if you fancy a fun evening at the cinema with some cool moments and memorable scares, you could do far, far worse than checking out The Prodigy.

The Prodigy is in cinemas from 15th March by Vertigo Releasing.