The story of a young boy who shows early signs of genius who turns out using it for the wrong things sounds like a really good movie plot but in all honesty, The Prodigy really didn’t live up to the hype. The movie is about a little boy named Miles who is clearly mentally advanced for his age but when he turns eight, he starts showing unusual signs of violence and his parents become worried. The main issue regarding the movie is by the first 20-minutes, we already know the reasoning behind everything that is happening; this eliminates any suspense throughout the movie. I’m not sure if this was something that they wanted us to know right off the bat, but it seemed like they literally gave everything away in pretty much the first few opening scenes.

Besides that, The Prodigy is still able to deliver a movie that fills you with the creeps and will get you to jump occasionally. It could have been much better if the audience didn’t find out what was going to happen to Miles, it follows pretty much every other possession story: a family is living a happy life when a kid starts to act a little strange. The family then goes to a professional who says they should be a little worried and maybe find some help. The family refuses to believe it, letting the problem get worse, but it all ends up working out in the end. That is essentially the main plot for the entire movie and I really could have guessed that coming before even sitting down in the theater.

All in all, the general audience enjoyed the movie — as did I — even though I’m really not the type to enjoy scary movies. I would recommend this movie for anyone who is looking to watch a casual creepy movie for a date night or even something to do with your friends. However, I do not really recommend this for anyone who is passionate about scary movies. It delivered enough creepy vibes to keep me interested until the end but at the same time, it could have been much better if the makers used more suspense, letting us figure out for ourselves why certain things are happening rather than exposing it early on.

The Prodigy is a good movie to watch for anyone looking for a little bit of a scare but doesn’t live up to an elite level scary movie. I would rate it a 6.5/10 for the main purpose of keeping me somewhat entertained.