The Prodigy Filmmakers Play Tricks with Tropes of Evil-Kid Movies. P2-3
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Community Community According Indian flautist to a study, Naveen P4brain’s P16 Kumar to metabolism slows as perform at the Qatar people grow older, but National Convention it may diff er between Centre’s Al Mayassa men and women. Theatre today. Friday, February 8, 2019 Jumada II 3, 1440 AH Doha today 160 - 230 Expect the COVER STORY unexpected The Prodigy filmmakers play tricks with tropes of evil-kid movies. P2-3 CUISINE SHOWBIZ Tortellini, treasure Nicholas McCarthy gives of Italian cuisine. new life to evil kid horror. Page 6 Page 15 2 GULF TIMES Friday, February 8, 2019 COMMUNITY COVER STORY Twist in the tale Though the film’s premise feels predictable, there is a twist in the third act that horror audiences will not see coming PRAYER TIME Fajr 4.56am Shorooq (sunrise) 6.14am Zuhr (noon) 11.48am Asr (afternoon) 6.59pm Maghreb (sunset) 5.25pm Isha (night) 6.55pm USEFUL NUMBERS Emergency 999 Worldwide Emergency Number 112 Kahramaa – Electricity and Water 991 Local Directory 180 International Calls Enquires 150 Hamad International Airport 40106666 Labor Department 44508111, 44406537 Mowasalat Taxi 44588888 Qatar Airways 44496000 Hamad Medical Corporation 44392222, 44393333 Qatar General Electricity and Water Corporation 44845555, 44845464 Primary Health Care Corporation 44593333 44593363 Qatar Assistive Technology Centre 44594050 Qatar News Agency 44450205 44450333 Q-Post – General Postal Corporation 44464444 Humanitarian Services Offi ce MOM-CHILD DYNAMIC: Jackson Robert Scott, left, and Taylor Schilling in the film The Prodigy. (Single window facility for the repatriation of bodies) Ministry of Interior 40253371, 40253372, 40253369 Ministry of Health 40253370, 40253364 Hamad Medical Corporation 40253368, 40253365 (The stories) feel like these moral object Qatar Airways 40253374 lessons where we’re being asked, ‘What would you do if your child was capable of something awful?’ ote Unquo u te — Nicholas McCarthy, director Q “If you’re walking down the right path and you’re willing to By Sonaiya Kelley keep walking, eventually n the new horror movie The Prodigy, you’ll make progress.” out Friday, a mother’s love is put to — Barack Obama the test when her precocious young son begins to exhibit signs of an otherworldly possession. IDespite the spooky overtones, the mother-child dynamic at the heart of the ‘ fi lm inspired scriptwriter Jeff Buhler’s wife to organise a special screening for an Community Editor unsuspecting audience. “On opening weekend, she’s organising Kamran Rehmat like 30 moms from my kid’s school to go e-mail: ’ [email protected] see this movie,” said Buhler with a laugh. Telephone: 44466405 “She’s telling them it’s all about parenting Fax: 44350474 and they’re all excited to come. And then we’ll be changing schools next year.” We’re standing in front of the Tommy Friday, February 8, 2019 GULF TIMES 3 COVER STORY COMMUNITY Doyle house from John Carpenter’s accomplish that was to inject horror 1978 genre classic Halloween, a large themes into settings and institutions but unremarkable Dutch Colonial that people inherently associate with just north of Sunset Boulevard in safety and familiarity. Hollywood and one of several spots “There’s a million horror movies, on a tour of horror movie locations in and they’re all set in these suburban the area. houses or very familiar locations,” “Halloween was probably one Vinson said. “When we were working of the trigger points for me that on this, that was very specifi c. We anchored me in the genre,” said wanted this movie to take place in Buhler. “I remember being too young a neighbourhood that you could to go to a rated-R movie when it recognize.” came out but sneaking in with my The fi lmmakers drew inspiration sister and friends who were older. It from Jordan Peele’s Get Out was one of those experiences when with respect to sneaking social I knew immediately that I was not commentary into the oft-disparaged prepared for what I was going to see. horror genre. “What Carpenter did that was “Horror as a genre has always so genius, and that you can see been sort of the stepchild, and it’s throughout the genre since then, was rarely critically revered,” said Buhler. take suburban family life and insert “Now it feels like what we refer to horror and danger into it. And that’s as ‘elevated horror’ has started to sort of the touchstone of The Prodigy, creep back into appreciation by that idea of taking safe places or mainstream press and critics, but relationships and inserting some that’s relatively new.” form of threat into it.” “When you look at the success In the fi lm, Orange Is the New Black of a movie like Get Out, which is star Taylor Schilling plays Sarah, a refl ecting horror that exists in our fi rst-time mom whose gifted young society, in a sense we’re looking son Miles (Jackson Robert Scott) in a mirror at all these things that begins to develop a disturbingly are very diffi cult for people to talk unpredictable dark side. For Buhler about,” he said. “Genre allows and director Nicholas McCarthy, it you to explore it because you take was just as important to focus on the this leap of faith like, ‘Oh, we’re in pitfalls of new parenthood as it was to this crazy world where crazy stuff pack in the scares. happens.’” “There’s a lot of pressure in our “It’s almost controversial to say, society and also a lot of anticipation ‘Having a child could be a mistake, or that people have for what it’s going dangerous,’” he added. “Like, that’s to be like to be a parent and how not something you can talk about. exciting that change is in your life,” And so genre allows you to sort of said Buhler. hold up a mirror that makes people “We wanted to explore this idea FEAT: The director feels it is some sort of a feat that the film is not a sequel or a remake. think about their own feelings. I think of a young couple that had really there’s a wave of genre fi lms that are worked hard to get to this place and to a place where they really start to your child was capable of something said. “All those movies end with the doing that really well right now, and the cherry on top would be that they make you think about ever having awful?’” destruction of the parent. They’re I would say we sort of fi t into that are having their fi rst child. And then children. Our goal with this movie Though the fi lm’s premise feels about the transformation you are universe.” the fl ip side of that is that when you was not to depress the birth rate, predictable, there is a twist in the forced into when you have a child. “Well, we hope to,” Vinson said. have a child, you never know who but it’s as important to focus on third act that horror audiences You have to accept that your life has “One of the things that I’m most that person is going to be. You’re what’s happening with Sarah and will not see coming, something vanished, or whatever version you proud of in the movie is it’s not a basically inviting a stranger, a person the changes that she goes through in the fi lmmakers hope will quell thought you had of your world will be sequel or a remake,” said McCarthy. you’ve never met before, to live with her marriage [as what happens with the comparisons to memorable destroyed.” “It can be great to watch a movie you for the rest of your life.” Miles].” contemporary fi lms in the genre such Another goal of the fi lmmakers that is revisiting old ground, but “And that’s the mistake I think The Prodigy falls squarely into the as The Omen and The Good Son. was to create a movie that fi t into the along with this culture of remakes all parents make,” joked McCarthy, evil or creepy kid subgenre of horror “We didn’t want to end on one of landscape of “elevated horror,” which and reboots there’s clearly, I think, whose previous genre work includes that was pioneered by movies like the big tropes of the genre where an conjures the bulk of its fear factor out an appetite for new stories. When I the indies The Pact and At the The Bad Seed (1956) and Village of the expert character comes in and then of realistic settings and ideas. fi rst saw the poster for our movie at Devil’s Door. “But it’s true that if Damned (1960). there’s some kind of ritual that makes “We wanted to keep everything the Arclight, every other movie in you think you know what being a “If you look at these movies everything go away,” said Buhler. “It grounded in the real world and to tell the line of posters was a sequel or a parent is going to be like, you have no collectively, these stories almost was really important to us to fi nd a a story that felt like it could really remake. And the top of our poster idea. It was one of the fi rst things I feel like parables from the Bible,” departure from that.” happen,” said Buhler. “And I think did not say, ‘The next chapter in The responded to when I read the script. said McCarthy.