The last two movies I watched this week were both in the horror genre. By sheer coincidence though, they both tackled the same horror premise -- the possession of a child by a malevolent spirit of a person who just died. Since they both largely followed the same plot progression with similar basic story elements, I decided to merge my thoughts about these two and just write a joint review for them.
Jet Leyco's "Second Coming" was about Imee, a young girl who was recovering from a terrible vehicular accident which cost her the life of her mother Raquel. When she was brought back home from the hospital, her father Paolo was already living with his former mistress Bea, who already had a baby Sophie of her own. Later, Imee began to display increasingly disturbing violent behavior resulting in serious injuries to people around her. Bea figured that Imee was being possessed by the spirit of her angry mother.
Nicholas McCarthy's "The Prodigy" was about Miles, a young boy who was noted to possess extraordinary intelligence from infancy. Later, Miles began to display increasingly disturbing violent behavior resulting in serious injuries to people around him. Upon the advice of his child psychologist Dr. Strasser, his mother Sarah eventually consulted a reincarnation expert Mr. Jacobson who believed that Miles was being possessed by the spirit of an evil older man.
Ever since Mervyn LeRoy's "The Bad Seed" (1956), the evil child is a particular subgenre of horror on its own. Among the most unforgettable of these children were Regan in William Friedkin's "The Exorcist" (1973) and Damien in Richard Donner's "The Omen" (1976), who were both evil incarnate. Locally, among the most memorable evil children were those in Peque Gallaga's "Tiyanak" (1988) and Erik Matti's "Seklusyon" (2016). Matti is also involved with "Second Coming" as co-executive producer.
Jodie Sta. Maria's Bea was acting and sounding a lot like her former nanny character Maya dela Rosa (on the long-running telenovela "Please Be Careful with My Heart"), with her signature sweetness, meekness and kindness. Marvin Agustin was giving uncomfortable vibes from his very first scene as Bea's new live-in partner Paolo. Angelica Ulip had to do a lot of disturbing scenes as the possessed girl, Imee. In smaller roles were beauty queen Queenie Rehman (as Paolo's ex-wife Raquel), Bing Loyzaga (as Raquel's mother Edralin), and John Arcilla (as a priest).
I did not know anyone in the cast of the American film, but they all did their parts well. Child actor Jackson Robert Scott was truly unsettling in his portrayal of Miles Blume. with the shifting characters. Scott's scene with Colm Feore (as hypotist Arthur Jacobson) was the most distressing of all. Taylor Schilling and Peter Mooney played his distraught parents Sarah and John Blume. Paul Fauteux played the shadowy Hungarian man Edward Scarka, while Paula Boudreau was the helpful psychologist Elaine Strasser.
As far as production design was concerned, "Second Coming" had some pretty bizarre choices, particularly with those creepy bubble-wrapped statues of saints on the second floor of the house. It was not explained convincingly what they exactly were there for. It was also unbelievable that a modern house would have no electric lights for such a long time. While this condition gave director Leyco some pretty interesting experiments in subdued lighting, it was quite a stretch that this family will not have this lighting problem fixed. "The Prodigy" did not resort to such additional eerie gimmicks to build the atmosphere of dread.
The first two acts for both films followed basically the same path. Child developed violent behaviors both in school and in the home, and that was the only time the mother sought professional help. However, I found the resolution in the third act more satisfactory in the American film because of the straightforward, yet unusual direction the story took towards its ending. The horror was more tense here. In the Filipino film, the story went down an old familiar melodramatic road, hence the very predictable ending, despite trying a twist with some misleading initial clues. The suspense did not translate to the desired horror effect.
SECOND COMING: 5/10.
THE PRODIGY: 6/10
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