Progeny
A Sterling Home Entertainment Production

Starring: Arnold Vosloo, Jillian McWhirter, Brad Dourif, Lindsay Crouse, Wilford Brimley
Category: Science Fiction / Horror
Rating: Not Rated
Released: March 30, 1999
Available for rental.

Where were you on the night of September 20? No where near the Burton house, hopefully. When, after a bright flash of blue light and a missing two hours, the good doctor's wife suddenly turns up pregnant - but is it his?

Starring Arnold Vosloo (The Mummy) as Craig Burton, and Jillian McWhirter playing his wife Sherry, Progeny delivers a mixture of indie house artsiness and sci-fi horror. Vosloo's doctor is appropriately professional, and his acceptance of alien abduction is strangely quick for a man of science. But take away the impossible and what is left? The possible, no matter how improbable it may seem.

Still, Burton's acceptance of such a bizarre situation as an alien pregnancy is too easy, despite that Vosloo once again makes the most of a surreal script. Horror queen McWhirter's character is one-dimensional. Sherry Burton is simply lost in screams, close-ups, hallucinations, and replay after replay of flashbacks. But maybe that was the point.


Lindsay Crouse (The Arrival, The Indian in the Cupboard) plays psychiatrist Susan Lamarche. Her tie to science is sturdier than Burton's, and she's the least likely to believe than any of the characters. Brad Dourif (Murder in the First, Senseless, Alien Resurrection) plays Dr. Bart Clavell, a sociologist whose speciality is UFO's and alien abduction. He's got a weak stomach for such an intense interest, and Dourif is underused in this role. Brimley plays Dr. David Weatherly, ob/gyn. He's a family friend - typical warm-fuzzy role for Brimley, and knows something's wrong.

This movie would have been a good one for cable television, for both it's filming style (you could even imagine it's edited for commercial spaces) and production quality. Filmed in 1998, it was released unrated to video in 1999. But from the subject matter, it would easily earn an R rating. If you like horror, science-fiction, and can take the goriest X-Files episode, you might give Progeny a try - it is only 95 minutes long. Otherwise, on to the next screening!

It all depends!