If creepy kids in horror movies really freak you out, this upcoming release should be on your radar. The Prodigy, which comes out on Feb. 8, stars Taylor Schilling, who plays the mother to young boy named Miles (Jackson Robert Scott), who appears to be possessed. In this exclusive clip from The Prodigy, you'll get a sense of how sinister the invader seems to be, and how crucial it is that Miles is returned to himself right away.
As you'll see below, the clip provides a bit of context to the freaky hypnosis that you see in the teaser trailer for The Prodigy. In the teaser, Arthur Jacobson (Colm Feore) hypnotizes Miles, and you see a series of flashbacks to some of the boy's haunting memories. While the teaser highlights Miles' experience with the hypnosis, this exclusive clip shows Arthur talking to Schilling's character, Sarah, about what the hypnosis will entail.
"Miles goes out of body when the invading soul is present, he won't even remember the experience. The goal here is to identify the person who has returned," Arthur, the sort of psychological-exorcist says. Then he warns, "this may be your last chance, Miles is eight now, soon the invading soul will have control and Miles will be gone." Spooky right? Just wait till you watch it with the spooky metronome sound.
As much as The Prodigy centers around Miles, a misfit child with advanced intelligence, it also focuses on Sarah's relationship to her son. As the clip above portrays, Sarah wants to do whatever it takes to drive out whatever being has possessed her child. In an interview with Marie Claire, Schilling explained that Sarah's relationship to her son is what drew her to the role in the first place — not the horrifying plot.
Schilling told the magazine, "I remember reading this script and being completely shocked by where Sarah went with her choices. It’s pretty radical: This woman doesn’t go belly-up; she doesn’t submit. She keeps following her instincts, trusting her gut, and fighting. I really love and appreciate her." Interestingly enough, the horror stuff just kind of comes as an extra bonus to a story that she told Marie Claire is, "The story of a real mother warrior."
The story of mother who wants to do everything that she can to save her son might be a relatable for many, and with Sarah's maternal instincts activated, the stakes are high. After all, the best scary movies are usually rooted in reality in some way, making their big twists all the more haunting.
You might think that you know what to expect from The Prodigy based on the frequently used horror movie trope of precocious/possessed children, but an interview with director Nicholas McCarthy suggests that you can't be all too sure that this one will pan out like you expect. McCarthy recently told Entertainment Weekly, "This is a really interesting, and creepy, and twisted variation on the evil kid subgenre."
It sounds like even the twists have twists in The Prodigy, so expect the unexpected.
