By Melissa Antoinette Garza
“There’s something wrong with that baby.”-Dr. Wetherly (Wilford Brimely)
One night, while Dr. Craig Burton (Arnold Vosloo) and his wife Sherry (Jillian McWhirter) are making love a large light flashes above them and quickly vanishes. When they glance at the clock, two hours have disappeared, Sherry is freezing cold, nervous and confused.
Disoriented by the event, Craig becomes entranced by rays of light, or any other reminders of that night. He discusses the issues with his psychologist Dr. Lamarche (Lindsey Crouse) who suggests hypnotism. Meanwhile, Mrs. Burton finds out she’s pregnant. When Craig arrives home, Sherry shares the good news which excites Craig until she tells him that the day of conception was on September 20thwhich was the same date as the strange flash.
Things get more bizarre as Craig has visions of policemen in his room and experiences night terrors. Finally, he relents and allows Lamarche to put him under. As his mind brings him back to the day in question, he sees a huge porthole in the ceiling. He is pulled off his wife as she is abducted.
Meanwhile, Sherry’s pregnancy is all but normal. She has bizarre hallucinations where she sees the eyes of children turn pitch black, and the little critter inside of her moves quickly around. Things get progressively worse and Sherry too agrees to be hypnotized. Once brought into the porthole she sees bright white aliens with large black eyes. They have long octopus like legs and the standard alien faces we’ve all grown accustomed to. She is probed, prodded and artificially inseminated before being placed back in her bed.
Craig determines that the baby inside of his wife is an alien spawn, but she is not ready to believe that just yet. He wants to call Dr. Bert Clavell (Brad Dourif) who is familiar with similar cases, but Sherry asks him to wait until an ultrasound is done before deciding to do anything drastic. The alien baby doesn’t like the machinery and causes a power outage, but not before everyone gets a glimpse at the picture. Her OBGYN Dr. Wetherly (Wilford Brimley)becomes violently ill during the examination.
Sherry enters an extreme case of denial and insists the child is fine. She refuses to undergo another exam. Craig tries to convince her to terminate the pregnancy but she refuses. She locks him out of the house and insists she needs time alone. Craig leaves and the side-effects of having an alien baby inside of her begin to take their toll.
Dr. Clavell finds Craig and lets him know that the situation he is in, is not all too uncommon. Clavell states that there have been thousands of cases that are similar which he researched thoroughly. When asked why the aliens have done this, Clavell responds with one of the best lines of the film, “what do you figure animals think when we experiment on them?”
Enjoyable, interesting and entertaining, “Progeny” really delivers a film that was put together well. The casting was impeccable. It was great to see Wilford Brimley. There was a kindness and gentleness in his character that the movie needed. Brimley was flawless in the portrayal.
Brad Dourif was a perfect match as Dr. Clavell. Even while stating that alien babies are not uncommon one is inclined to believe him. He plays the part so assured in his claims that the audience invests in every word. He could contend that every child born was an alien spawn, and because of his matter-of-fact tone of explanation the viewers would tend to agree.
Arnold Vosloo also carries the role of concerned husband well. He doesn’t overreact too often and plays the character rather low-key which works. Craig isn’t dim-witted and comes to the realization fairly quickly that the baby is not human. He then does all he can to convince his wife to do the right thing.
Jillian McWhirter also did great as the always loyal mother. Despite reason, she refused to think that her baby was anything but perfect. Even though the pain she suffered was unbearable, she couldn’t fathom hurting the child within her or believing anything ill of it. She wasn’t stupid or unaware of all the inconsistencies of the pregnancy but her emotions were too great to allow herself to think about them.
The pace was great and the plot was fun. Sure, some can nitpick about the bad special effects (and they are bad) but the overall production more than makes up for it. Great casting, great characters, and a great concept, “Progeny” is well worth the watch.
Scared Stiff Rating: 7/10 Alien Babies are awesome
