Quartile rating: 6/10 · 1 rating
A mother concerned about her young son's disturbing behavior thinks something supernatural may be affecting him.
The Prodigy follows a well-worn path of 'evil child' horror, blending reincarnation and serial killer tropes without much originality. Taylor Schilling delivers a committed performance as the increasingly desperate mother, elevating fairly generic material. The cinematography is competent genre work — functional but unremarkable. The plot relies heavily on familiar beats from films like Orphan and The Bad Seed, and the reincarnation angle, while mildly interesting, is executed in a predictable manner. The ending is abrupt and unsatisfying, failing to deliver meaningful payoff or closure, leaving the film feeling incomplete rather than provocatively ambiguous.