Progeny : L'Enfant du futur

I put in the DVD expecting camp perversion from the creators of Society and Re-Animator, and was quite surprised to become involved in an authentically suspenseful tale. Acting was top-notch (nice to see Vosloo in a protagonist role after a long string of villains), the storyline involving, and the few twists fairly surprising. I figured I would fast forward through much of it to get to the abduction scenes, but instead watched it through, only being let down at the very end.

Maybe I'm being too lenient, but as I stated before, I wasn't expecting much more than alien sex. Of course, if you ARE looking for some hot alien sex, you will be let down. It was mostly quick-cut exam table nonsense with a blink-and-you'll-miss-it glimpse of an interesting 'impregnator' alien.

I wanted to see this movie since a long time ago, and i finally got it. Boy am i disappointed or what? The whole story was terrible! Bad screenplay, bad fx, i can go on and on. It's about an ER doctor (Arnold "The mummy" Vosloo) whose wife is pregnant, but the baby is not normal. Well it sounds like that lousy movie about the astronaut with Charlize Theron, i can't remember the name, except that this one was made with a very low budget. Anyway, I enjoy low budget movies sometimes, like "The return of the living death" and stuff, but this one is not among my favorites at all!

This movie will undoubtably not go over well with some, because most of the horror is mental. But it does have a little something for almost everyone, including a couple of really cool abduction scenes with aliens. The film makes extensive use of alien abduction mythology, while also showing a bit more intelligence about some facets of abduction myths than you would expect out of a movie. Jillian McWhirter is excellent in what had to have been a grueling performance.

It would be so easy to dismiss an alien abduction movie before even seeing it - as I did - but this is well worth a look. If you think about it, its not an easy subject matter to handle but this film manages to suspend disbelief which in itself is a feat for such a way out subject. Casting the main character as a doctor was a sensible move which lends credence to his willingness to believe in the possibility of alien abduction. Vosloo plays it very sensitively involving us in his pain and confusion at the weird events that befall himself and his wife. Special Effects are used sparingly but to shocking effect and at times the movie is totally gripping but sadly there are a couple of points where the plot wanders and leaves some confusion. Also, after building to a tense climax the ending is something of a let down. The supporting characters were unnecessarily weak (the alien hunter) or menacing (the psychiatrist) which also served to detract.

But all in all it raised some interesting issues amongst which was a telling line "How do think animals feel when we experiment on them".

The concept of "lost time" was also thought provoking.

i caught this movie on showtime one weekend afternoon, expecting a good ole b-grade gore-fest... boy, was i surprised... :OP this turned out to be one of the better horror movies i've seen in a long time, and i've seen my fair share... while there were a couple of scenes which were extremely gory, they were the exception, rather than the norm... i rather liked the way in which the entire film kept you really wondering if the good doctor was really crazy, as everyone else thought... one thing i didn't really like about the film was the very last scene, which i personally felt detracted from the film... i thought it would have been more effective if it had left the ending more open to interpretation, which it would have been had they not included the very last 30 seconds... but that was about my only substantial complaint about this film, which provided a good sense of suspense and dread, as well as keeping you guessing as to the whole "crazy vs sane" aspect of the story... the alien abduction sequences, in particular the last one involving the wife, were quite reminiscent of japanese hentai, specifically tentacles... just thought i'd mention that... quite disturbing...

overall, i'd give this an 8 out of 10, but be aware that it does not cater to a large audience...