What’s wrong with Miles? Could be a lack of a strong story? The Prodigy stars Orange is the New Black alum, Taylor Schilling as Sarah, and 2017’s remake of IT star, Jackson Robert Scott as Miles. Peter Mooney rounds out the family as John, the not nearly featured dad. Despite the overall creepiness that Scott brilliantly delivers throughout the film, the minimal scares are relegated to sitting squarely on his performance. Plot holes, and lack of structure, continuously grasp at the potential of adding some serious brutality but fall desperately short.
Taylor Schilling is the normally nurturing mom, who wants to see her giftedly intelligent son excel, but still fails to see the red flags that exhibit the warning signs that will cause her world to unravel. The film briefly shows the tendency of something being off with young Miles, but skips ahead quite a few years to where he has become a bit of a loner, in special academic schools, until his behavior becomes so erratic, and blatant, his mom Sarah can no longer ignore, and has to unravel the mystery, and gives Schilling her time to shine as she begins to become unglued.
The mystery itself, was a great idea for filmmakers to throw in, versus the normally tired old spook story plots. But revealing it would spoil what becomes a bit of a predictable ending and leaves you with a lot of ‘why’ type of questions. Sadly, none of those are answered, and flatly ends the film on a predictable note. Creepy, sure, but not made as smartly as you would’ve hoped.
Horror Pulse 