There are few things in cinema more unsettling than horror movies focusing on creepy kids with murderous tendencies, especially when the youthful antagonists possess that dead behind the eyes look. Not all of them are worth watching, though, but streaming subscribers have determined that The Prodigy is worthy of their time this weekend.
Horror veteran Nicholas McCarthy’s 2019 chiller was a solid hit at the box office, recouping $21 million on production costs of $6 million, but reviews were fairly middle-of-the-road. A 42 percent Rotten Tomatoes score and 37 user rating is unremarkable to say the least, but iTunes audiences have pushed the boat out to give it a shot anyway.
As per FlixPatrol, The Prodigy has used its unnerving intelligence to assume a strong position on the platform’s global charts, with viewers determined to find out what’s really going on when Jackson Robert Scott’s 8 year-old Miles begins speaking in an obscure Hungarian dialect while threatening to tear out people’s peepers.
A gifted child burdened with erratic and increasingly violent outbursts, all becomes clear when the experts weigh in to offer their professional opinion, which involves malevolent and supernatural forces. It’s all a bit silly, but that’s the name of the game when you’re dealing with possession-based stories, although it helps that the cast do their best to give it the hard sell.
The Prodigy might not break any new ground, but for genre aficionados and demonic diehards, it might just do the trick for a brief 92 minutes.