Jesus Wept

The Blackcoat’s Daughter (2015)

Praised as a “Horror masterpiece” by bloodydisgusting.com, The Blackcoat’s Daughter, originally titled Feburary, is an atmospheric horror film directed by Oz Perkins, starring Emma Roberts and Kiernan Shipka. Honestly I don’t even want to get into the themes of the film, or place it into a particular horror genre because I want to avoid even the slightest spoilers. I’ll just say this is the best of a certain horror genre that almost always uses catholic priests.  

Taking place at an all female boarding school during the girls’ winter break, we meet Rose and Kat, whose parents are no shows for picking them up to go home for the week.  They have no other option but to stay at the catholic boarding school until their parents are able to pick them up. The events that follow, well, let’s just say I hope these girls packed their rosary.

What works in this film is it’s ability to keep you interested by withholding and compartmentalizing information. You’re constantly, slowly piecing together what took place that winter at Bramford boarding school. It’s very much a slow atmospheric film, but it works because of the interesting sub-plot, and amazing cinematography. This film takes what we have all seen a million times as horror fans and does it so different, and tasteful. It’s such a breath of fresh air in a completely stale, drawn out sub-genre. It’s extremely well acted.  The relationship between Kat (Shipka) and Rose (Boynton) is very believable.  Shipka does an amazing job with her different facial expressions and overall demeanor. You will catch yourself wondering, what in the fuck is going on with this girl? In my own opinion this movie is very well paced. I feel like what puts this apart from other like films, is the atmosphere of this film, and you can’t obtain that with a break-neck pace of stupid shit happening every 3 minutes. This is a slow movie.  Maybe too slow for many, but I promise, if you just invest yourself for the 93 minute run time you will be well rewarded.  The closing scene of this film is very powerful, and well worth your time. 

In conclusion, if you want a fresh, unique take on a classic horror sub-genre, and have the 90 minutes to really invest yourself into a film you will be well rewarded and might have a new appreciation for slower paced horror. If you already appreciate slow paced, atmospheric horror films, then I cannot suggest this film enough. I’d have to say that bloodydisgusting.com was pretty spot on with the “Horror masterpiece” stuff.