Movies

The Prodigy

Edgy creepy-kid tale in which a gifted 8-year-old (Jackson Robert Scott) born on the same day that a serial killer (Paul Fauteux) was gunned down by police shows signs of having a split personality, the darker side of which disturbs and bewilders his caring parents (Taylor Schilling and Peter Mooney). Though it reaches a bloody climax, director Nicholas McCarthy’s chiller is mostly restrained in its depiction of aggression and effective in unsettling viewers. The reincarnation theory underlying the plot, improbably peddled by a psychiatrist (Paula Boudreau) and an academic (Colm Feore), will be easily dismissed by grown moviegoers.

Watch out for: Occult themes, some graphic gory violence, gruesome images, partial male nudity, at least one use of profanity, a couple of rough terms and a few crude expressions.

Rated: L, limited adult audience, films whose problematic content many adults would find troubling; MPAA: R

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