Director Oz Perkins has pretty good horror pedigree. If you’re old enough, you may remember his dad – Anthony Perkins. Yes, the same Anthony Perkins who played Norman Bates in Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho. After playing small roles in a handful of movies, Oz Perkins wrote up the screenplay for The Blackcoat’s Daughter in 2012. But it took three years before he got the funding to turn the story into an actual movie. Ultimately, The Blackcoat’s Daughter debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival before seeing a small theatrical window in the United States. Though critics liked this one, even the current TomatoMeter underestimates just what a debut
Synopsis
At a small town bus station, a mysterious woman – escaped from a mental institution – introduces herself only as ‘Joan’ to a grieving couple. The couple agree to drive Joan to a nearby town where she’s looking for a remote Catholic boarding school. Meanwhile, at this very same boarding school, two young students are left behind for the holidays. Senior student Rose worries that she’s pregnant and doesn’t know what to tell her boyfriend. And freshman Kat’s behaviour becomes increasingly strange as a dark entity delivers cryptic messages to her.
The Blackcoat’s Daughter Slow Burns to a Quietly Shocking Finale
In spite of its setting and story setup, The Blackcoat’s Daughter avoids the tropes you’d generally expect to find. Writer and director Oz Perkins (Hansel & Gretel) crafts the kind of slow burn that has since characterized A24 movies. His story only offers vague hints about its intersecting stories around the three young women and where it’s ultimately headed. Nightmare visions and an entity’s voice hint at something most audiences can figure out – something has happened to Kat’s parents. While there’s elements of Satanic thriller present in The Blackcoat’s Daughter, Perkins doesn’t lean heavily on the familiar. Similarly, we know Joan is lying about her identity. And we quickly learn her story is set ahead of the other narratives, but we’re left to connect the dots in what’s an extremely effective shock in the final act.
Writer and director Oz Perkins (Hansel & Gretel) crafts the kind of slow burn that has since characterized A24 movies.
Above all these elements, what sets The Blackcoat’s Daughter apart from lesser fare is Perkins’ commitment to his atmosphere. From its opening scene, this winter thriller embraces the hopeless, bleak feeling of the season and the imposing Catholic boarding school in which it’s set. Don’t expect any jump scares; Perkins relies on a vibe that’s truly unnerving. Moreover, the sporadic violence feels brutal and chills. Even those few scenes that more closely conform to genre conventions – like one late-night boiler scene – feel disturbing. For a novice filmmaker, Perkins showed off a natural inclination for horror elements and visuals.
The Blackcoat’s Daughter Has Good Performances, Underdeveloped Characters
Though the ambiguity works for the thriller’s atmosphere and the surprise inherent to its narrative, Perkins fails to develop his characters. This partly stems from the need to keep secrets – about identity, motive, and past. Ultimately, however, we know nothing about either Emma Roberts’ ‘Joan’ or Kiernan Shipka’s ‘Kat’ to fully invest in their stories. That is, The Blackcoat’s Daughter keeps you feeling unsettled and intrigued about where its story may turn. And the surprise shocks. Yet perhaps the shock could have reverberated more deeply had more time been put into telling us something about its characters. As it stands, Perkins’ cast functions more like moving parts than real people.
Ultimately, however, we know nothing about either Emma Roberts’ ‘Joan’ or Kiernan Shipka’s ‘Kat’ to fully invest in their stories.
If the characters are underdeveloped, the performances from both lead actresses are pitch perfect. No stranger to the genre, Emma Roberts (Scream IV, The Hunt, American Horror Story: 1984) gives a haunted turn as the mysterious ‘Joan’. There are a lot of subtleties to Roberts’ performance – body quirks, facial expressions, and a stray giggle tease Joan’s instability, but not much else in regards to where she fits in the story. After she broke out in a supporting role in AMC’s Mad Men, Kiernan Shipka has carved out a place in the genre for herself with roles in The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, The Silence, and last year’s Totally Killer. Like Roberts, Shipka proves to be subtle at conveying the horrors her character suffers.
The Blackcoat’s Daughter is a Small Horror Movie That Deserves a Bigger Audience
Here’s a small horror movie that earns the title, hidden gem. Almost immediately The Blackcoat’s Daughter gets under your skin as early writer and director Oz Perkins earns his horror credentials. Both Emma Roberts and Kiernan Shipka also show off the acting chops that propelled them to bigger horror projects. This is a subtle, moody horror movie that patiently allows its story to unfold. While its characters feel underdeveloped, the finale feels truly shocking and leaves you with an uncomfortable feeling. Critics liked The Blackcoat’s Daughter when it was initially released, but not nearly enough.