Troubled, potentially possessed little kids are of course a staple of the horror genre with roots all the way back to The Exorcist, but rarely do we get a first trailer for that sort of movie with as much patience and gravitas as The Prodigy. This film, which we’d never heard of before now, just became a 2019 horror movie to watch. It’s currently projected to hit theaters on Feb. 9, 2018.
Details on The Prodigy are very scarce, with a tagline that is only one sentence long: “A mother concerned about her young son’s disturbing behavior thinks something supernatural may be affecting him.” That’s certainly clear from the trailer below, which sees young Miles undergoing hypnosis. It’s a long, entrancing scene, as the hypnotist slowly brings Miles under his power and helps him regress through earlier life experiences. It all seems to be going in an understandable direction, right up to the point when the hypnotist starts addressing “the person who’s taken residence inside his body.”
Ah, so this is that kind of movie, eh?
More than anything, the trailer is notable for looking very crisp and well shot—sort of a midway point between James Wan and Richard Linklater in Boyhood. The same goes for the final scare sequence—a bit predictable, but undeniably effective. The film’s director, Nicholas McCarthy, has authored a few other horror films, including The Pact and At the Devil’s Door, but it seems clear that The Prodigy would represent his biggest project yet. Oh, and it also stars Taylor Schilling of Orange is the New Black as the little possessed boy’s mother.
Let’s hope it makes next February worth celebrating. Check out the full trailer below.