Also deadly: Miles (Jackson Robert Scott), an eight year-old wunderkind who, we are told, is super-smart in some unspecified areas, but also developmentally delayed in other unclear ways. Realistically, it's pretty hard to tell what's wrong with Miles because Buhler doesn't spell it out. Miles appears to be somewhere on the autism spectrum, based on the way that he skittishly interacts with his understandably worried mother Sarah (Taylor Schilling). Then again, you might also think that Miles looks normal enough, right until he starts cursing out Sarah in Hungarian, attacking another kid with a pipe wrench, and doing unpleasant things with the family dog.
You'd be wrong, by the way, since "The Prodigy" is a horror movie that sticks closely to the post-"The Omen" formula for Evil Kid Flicks. You probably know this formula, even if you haven't thought of it as such: Young Mother gives birth to Violent Child; Kind Doctors find early signs of concern for Violent Child, but re-assure Young Mother that there's nothing to worry about yet; Violent Child begins to act squirrelly; Young Mother is worried enough to consult with Well-Meaning Spiritualist (Colm Feore), who tells Young Mother that Violent Child has become a vessel for Big Evil; Young Mother doesn't believe Well-Meaning Spiritualist until more Bad Stuff happens; then Young Mother takes matters into her own hands, by which time it may or may not be already too late to help Violent Child.
I realize that outlining this type of film's plot is like ragging on the apparently scripted nature of pro-wrestling matches. Why bother? We all know that the fights are rigged and the wrestlers are actors. I appreciate that, but I must re-assure viewers: there is nothing to "The Prodigy" beyond what I just outlined to you. And honestly, I did try to love this movie, having previously enjoyed films by both Buhler and McCarthy. I also tried to ignore all the little tropes and jump scares that Buhler and McCarthy took from earlier horror films, and often blatantly, as in almost shot-for-shot nods to lesser-known films, like Mario Bava's "Shock" and Damiano Damiani's "Amityville II: The Possession." I tried to focus on what I was looking at on a moment-to-moment basis, just so I could suspend my disbelief long enough to invest in these types of characters again.
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