The Bad Seed, starring Patty McCormack as a young girl with a taste for homicide. Since then, dozens and dozens of horror films featuring evil tykes have bee produced, some great, some good, and some best left forgotten.
While The Prodigy didn't set out to reinvent the wheel when it comes to killer kids, one of the things that did help set it apart from the pack is just how relentlessly downbeat it is. Almost nothing ends well, and by the end, it feels like Miles Blume and his mother Sarah's tragic fates were simply inevitable, with every attempt Sarah made at saving her son from his rising darkness being essentially a waste of time.
Another aspect that set The Prodigy apart is its central plot twist concerning why exactly Miles seems less and less in control of his actions as the film progresses. What happened to Miles is a truly novel circumstance, and one that only adds to The Prodigy's sense of despair.
How The Prodigy's Big Twist Put a Dark Spin on Possession Movies
In a very smart move, IT's Georgie, Jackson Robert Scott. Was he simply a "bad seed" kind of young psychopath? Was he possessed by a demon, or otherwise influenced by a supernatural creature? The answer turned out to be no, instead, Miles was the reincarnation of a brutal serial killer named Edward Scarka, who was shot to death by police mere minutes before Miles' birth.
Complicating things is that Miles is actually still his own person with an independent soul, and tries to fight off Edward's spirit when he takes over his body, but isn't strong enough. Miles' mother Sarah (Taylor Schilling) comes to believe that Edward plans to use Miles to murder the victim that escaped Edward and led the police to him, but after a cruel set of twists lead to that happening, the terrifying truth becomes clear: Miles is gone completely. Edward now has full possession of Miles' body, and doesn't plan to ever leave it. He even manages to get Miles' mother killed. There are dark, downbeat endings, and then there's The Prodigy's conclusion.
