Multiple Personality Disorder is a difficult condition that takes many forms and can be difficult to treat. In some cases where a different persona becomes the dominant one, the main one has no recollection of what has happened during the time they were repressed, and there have been cases where a form of demonic possession has been mistaken for the condition, and it is this type of situation that sits at the center of director Nicholas McCarthy’s “The Prodigy”.
Staring Taylor Schilling (Orange is the New Black), Jackson Robert Scott (It), Peter Mooney (Rookie Blue), Colm Feore (Chicago), Paul Fauteux (Frontier), David Kohlsmith (Mouthpiece), and Brittany Allen (The Boys, Falling Water), it is the story of Miles (played by both Kohlsmith and Scott), a boy who seems to have great intelligence but at the same time is having difficulties emotionally. After strange events have him at their center, his mother Sarah (Schilling) and father John (Mooney) decide that he needs to see a specialist. After a few appointments, Dr. Arthur Jacobson (Feore) is called in, who tells the family that a re-incarnated spirit of a serial killer named Edward Scarka (Fauteux) is trying to take over the soul of Miles, and what follows is the battle of Sarah and the doctor trying to free miles of the evil spirit.
The film takes place mostly in Pennsylvania and a little bit in Ohio, and even though the filming took place mostly in Toronto, this film portrayed the “rust belt” of the country very well. I had no complaints by any of the performances by any of the cast with some of the experienced cast does well like Feore and Schilling, but my shout out has to go to Scott who really knows how to convey both the sweet little boy and the child possessed that is evil but cool, calm and calculating all at the same time.
“The Prodigy” does get somewhat predictable towards the end, but still has a few good twists for a horror film with some good scares that are not the cheap ones that audiences are used to. There are also some good suspenseful scenes that had me upright, so if this type of film is your cup of tea, I will recommend it as a Saturday afternoon or matinee showing.