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Rating: 3.75 out of 5
I’m going to be real with you and say this film, The Blackcoat’s Daughter is one of the sleeper hits that I have seen. Is it an all-time fantastic and excellent horror film? No, because those are few and far between. Is it a pretty good demon possession film that will make you think a little bit and go, “Oh Damn?” Yes, it will because I sure did it. I wasn’t expecting anything extraordinary, but this sure did go beyond my expectations.
Written and directed by Osgood Perkins, the film is split into three “timelines.” The first two revolve around Catholic Schoolgirls Kat (Shipka) and Rose (Boynton). Kat is a freshman, and Rose is a senior. During the school’s winter break, they are left behind at their boarding school as the other girls leave. Rumors have spread around the school that the nuns of the school are Satanists. Before the break, Kat has a strange dream where her dad’s car is smashed all up. She wakes up from her dream and looks at the calendar of the date her parents are supposed to pick her up. On the other hand, Rose has her own problems as she thinks she might be pregnant and deliberately tells her parents the wrong date so she can figure out what to do. Since their parents are not around, the nuns ask Rose to watch over Kat for the night. Rose ditches Kat and tells her a story about the nuns being devil worshippers before leaving to apparently calm her down. During the night, Kat hears a payphone ringing in the hall and picks it up.
The third timeline revolves around a girl named Joan (Roberts), who gets off a bus in upstate New York and cleans herself up in the bus station bathroom. The film slowly shows that she was in a psych ward and tears a hospital bracelet off her wrist. She attempts to make a call on a payphone, but the number she calls has been disconnected. As she waits for the bus, a middle-aged couple (Remar and Holly) helps her out by assisting her on her trip to the school that they are also going to. As the film progresses, we soon learn that the supernatural and demon possession ravaged the school.
The movie starts off at a really slow pace. There are specific images like a car crash and what looks like a priest yelling at someone from a character’s point of view. It makes you think that this will be another boring-ass horror film with absolutely ZERO plot. The introduction of Rose and Kat was okay. Kat is a freshman student that is quiet, shy, and has this strange scene where she is playing the piano. Rose is, I guess, the popular girl who majestically walks in and has her picture taken. When she dips out on Kat, you are like, okay, this will be a VERY dull movie. Things start popping off when Rose comes back and walks by the boiler room and sees Kat sitting and repeatedly prostrating herself before the boiler. Right here, you are like, “shit is about to get real.”
The whole Kat and Rose part of the film is the best parts. You don’t know what is going on with Kat because the color of her skin seems to get paler and paler with each scene. You constantly see her talking on the phone. Shit really hits the fan when the nuns, Kat and Rose, have dinner. Kat looks like death but has a creepy smirk on her face. She then starts cursing at the nuns and then pukes. It was NASTY, and someone find that holy water because we need an exorcism up in here.
The pacing is somewhat off a little because it switches back and forth between Kat/Rose’s story and Joan’s story. When you first look at Joan, you are like, why do I care about her? She isn’t anything special. She is a nobody until we find out homegirl escapes from the mental ward. Her story gets intriguing when the middle-aged couple shows her a picture of Rose and states that she has been dead for like nine years. She hurries off to the bathroom and then starts to laugh. Right there, you are like, who is this girl, and how the hell nine years pass?
The story comes full circle as we see a demon possession and how everything went crazy from people being killed and how they want and need of a demon stays in a person’s heart. It is not a perfect film but damn, it does a great job making you think about things.
The tone and atmosphere of this film are spots on. It is dark and has a little bit of a sinister tone to it. Everything around Kat and Rose is bright initially, but as the movie progresses, a dark aura soon surrounds the characters. It is very apparent that the aura is powerful around Kat. During the whole Joan scene, the tone is dark since most of her scenes are at night, and she just seems like a very creepy person.
As far as performances go, all the actresses did a great job. First, Kiernan Shipka as Katherine was spot on. She was the awkward and creepy freshman that didn’t say much. Shipka definitely showed a little range when she went from that awkward person to one that was fully possessed. I was definitely surprised by her. The second is Lucy Boynton as Rose. She seemed to be the typical high school senior that got pregnant. She wasn’t as impactful as the other two actresses in my eyes. What about Emma Roberts as Joan? Maybe homegirl called upon some of her American Horror Story roles because she was awkward and then had a significant twist to her at the end.
The Blackcoat’s Daughter is one of those sleeper films that I actually enjoyed and got into. It starts off a little slow and can be a tad bit boring initially but just stick with it, and it gets a little crazy. All the actresses did a good job making the film have that suspense feel to it. I recommend this movie. Once again, it’s not the best, but it will do its job.
