March 28 will arrive in our rooms The Prodigy, the new horror film directed by Nicholas mccarthy and written by Jeff Buhler, starring Jackson Robert Scott in the role of Miles Blum. This film was born in the middle of the period of demonic horror, mainly based on possessions - so to speak - and this work is no exception. However, unlike the usual demon, this time we wanted to go to the concept of reincarnation.
A second life
The film opens with the birth of Miles Blume exactly at the time of the death of Edward Scarka (interpreted by Paul Fauteux), a mad murderer and torturer of women, who dying leaves an unfinished business with one of them.
The story of the film is all about the possession of Miles by Scarka who wants to use the child, once he reaches the age of 8, as a means to finish the job left open. Opposing this is the baby's mother, Sarah Blume (or Taylor Schilling), who will somehow try to save his son from the clutches of this otherworldly entity.
The concept of Reincarnation
In the film, as mentioned above, the spirit theme of possessions is treated, but in a way that differs from classicism, that is through the concept of Reincarnation; this would allow (according to the film) someone to live a new life like second soul of another person until one of the two prevails over the other or until the goal of the "clandestine" possessor is met. Although the plot of the film is original and interesting, unfortunately it is necessary to specify immediately that there is a problem in the management of the narration, as from the first minutes of the film it is clear the point at which the feature film wants to go, effectively rendering by involuntary impression the duration of 92 minutes of almost superfluous film, since the ending will be exactly what you expect.
However, we must not draw too hasty conclusions since this film, despite this, is equally appreciable, as at a given moment it raises a doubt of a moral nature which as a parent may not be obvious: how far am I willing to go and what am I ready to sacrifice to "save" my children?
Speaking of the horror component of the film, this is not particularly managed, in fact the film looks more like a thriller with some Jump Scare obvious and in some cases easily avoidable. On the other hand, the level of interpretation: in fact in The Prodigy we are faced with very good actors who are perfectly able to trace the roles that are assigned to them. An honorable mention should be made in this case a Jackson Robert Scott, who managed to perfectly render both the child's part and the murderous maniac part, giving life to a better (and more widely arguable) interpretation of the one seen in IT di Andy Muschietti.
Also speaking of the colonna sonora, this wraps perfectly with the film while still managing to maintain a theme and a Moods dark and horror, although (as already said) the narrative and structural code used is not exactly what can be defined as a horror film.
However, the film manages in its small way to hold up a comparison with recent titles such as for example The Doll's House, a title with which, in addition to having similarities to a degree of mental madness, it also has a good comparison with regard to the courage in quietly showing decidedly raw scenes with the aim of making everything as realistic as possible. Finally, a point of merit must be given for the choice of the final that (avoiding spoilers), despite being the direction taken from the beginning, it manages to give a touch of class and to surprise through a peculiar brilliant choice.
Return from the afterlife
in short The Prodigy is a horror film that has some flaws from the narrative point of view, however it also has weapons in its favor and demonstrates that it knows how to exploit them wisely. The film is definitely tending towards thriller and the subgenre of Mystery.
Surely the surprise factor could have been better calibrated in order to generate a general wow effect on the big screen. However, we are still talking about a good title with one original plot, which must be recovered absolutely if you are passionate about the genre or if you want to see a horror movie that is not too heavy to bear.
