A mother concerned about her young son's disturbing behavior thinks something supernatural may be affecting him. New horror movie (set on Halloween) from Orion. From the director of The Pact and the writer of Midnight Meat Train and the upcoming remakes of Pet Sematary, Jacob's Ladder, and The Grudge. That's a whole lotta remakes! This is getting a wide theatrical. I'll definitely be there.
Anyone catch this one yet? Going to a late night showing tonight. Keeping my expectations in check, we'll see.....
I highly recommend checking this out in theaters while you still can. Pretty fucking cool little flick, man. There were at least a couple of times I said to myself "man, that was pretty fucking creepy". It starts right off, it's a straight forward horror story.....kind of a dreadful tone from start to finish. Really good acting from everyone involved. Miles did a fantastic job I thought (Georgie from the IT remake). Even has a little bit of blood. I thought I was going to have the theater to myself.....but two other younger dudes came in right before showtime.....then their dates arrived 15 mins into the movie. How in the fuck you going to be that late for a movie that starts at 11pm? For fucks sake.
I had wanted to do a double feature of this and Cold Pursuit on Friday, but ice storms prevented that. This was the first day I could get out of the house, so I caught the early matinee of it. I had the entire theater to myself. I don't think this exactly set the box office on fire. As for the movie... I was mixed. I didn't dislike it, but for a majority of the running time, this is a pretty generic evil kid movie with bursts of unintentional comedy. It reminded me of Little Nicky, because the kid mutters things like "GO FUCK YOURSELF" in his sleep. I laughed out loud more than once. Some of it is pretty outrageous. It's not super violent or anything, but they aren't afraid of going for that R-rating. Without giving too much away, the opening scenes tell the audience what is going on with Miles and why he is evil. So for about an hour of the movie, you're just kind of waiting for the parents to catch up, and this part of the movie is definitely your generic evil kid movie. Once the parents are finally up to speed, what they decide to do with that information is when the movie really gets interesting. I thought the last 20 minutes or so were terrific. So patience is definitely required here, and also rewarded. I will say the movie is only 90 minutes, which was extremely refreshing given all the 2 hour movies I'm always sitting through. When the credits started rolling, I thought it might have been a fake-out like Vice, and there was still more movie left. It felt like only an hour had gone by. I loved the suburban mid-western feel. I was disappointed that the trailer somewhat sells it as a Halloween movie, and there's really not much Halloween in it beyond what is shown in the trailer. I did not even realize the kid was Georgie from It until I read Natas' post. The great Colm Feore plays a psychiatrist here, trying to figure out what's wrong with Miles. My favorite role in the movie would have to be scream queen Brittany Allen from the stellar What Keeps You Alive and Jigsaw. LOVE her! Paul Fauteux is also a standout, I was completely unfamiliar with him before this. You certainly won't forget him after this! So overall, I wouldn't consider it a must-see, but it's fairly entertaining for the most part. Certainly no Orphan when it comes to the evil kid genre. If you're going to see it theatrically, I would go for the cheap matinee. Do it quickly though, as I can't imagine it will be around for long. At the very least, the movie does go by rather quickly.
Solid write up, my man. I agree with your thoughts. I really enjoyed the one on one with the psychiatrist. I loved how "Miles" turned the tables real quick lol And YES! 90 minutes should be the God damn standard for horror movies. Comedies as well. The running time definitely added to my motivation for wanting to catch it in the theaters. The Prodigy moves as a brisk pace.....I was never bored. I actually stuck around till the end credits to see if they added a quick scene.....no such luck, but the very end of the credits had Miles humming that creepy little tune.
Especially the Spoiler close up of his teeth after he threatens to plant pubes in his mouth! I don't know why, but I find children swearing hilarious. And Miles is one potty-mouthed kid! I got some good laughs out of him. There's been a mild bit of internet controversy over the fact that this movie lifted a scare directly out of Mario Bava's Shock. I have never seen Shock, but I did watch the clip. Here it is, if anyone is interested (spoilers, obviously): https://twitter.com/EricVespe/status/1094527965868765185
Wow......that sequence is spot on ripped from Shock. Doesn't bother me though, that was a cool little scene I thought. Spoiler yes, the pubes was a riot. I loved the translation of what Miles was saying in Hungarian in his sleep. "You fucking whore,, I'm gonna watch you die" LOL
Blu-ray release on May 7th. Special Features: Audio Commentary by Director Nicholas McCarthy Promotional Featurettes Gallery Optional English SDH, Spanish, Quebecois
