The Blackcoats Daughter Review

The Blackcoats Daughter is a 2015 Canadian American psychological horror film written and directed by Osgood Perkins. The film stars Emma Roberts, Kiernan Shipka, Lucy Boynton, James Remar, Lauren Holly, and Greg Ellwand. The film tells two stories, firstly that of a duo of young women stuck at Bramford Academy, Christian boarding school over spring break and how the freshman Kat (Shipka) becomes influenced by the Devil and turns on the senior Rose (Boynton). The secondary story occurs years later recounting how Kat, now called Joan (Roberts) escapes a mental institution and attempts to return to the haunting Bramford Academy. The film centers on many themes, primarily those of femininity, loneliness, Christianity, and familiar deaths.

The Blackcoats Daughter is one of the most genuinely disturbing and tense horror films I’ve ever seen, and I would not be shy to call it one of the best horror films of the last 20 years. The film has so many clever ideas and purposeful storytelling throughout its runtime that watching it is like a masterclass in competent horror alongside a trip through an abandoned house, filled with creaks and cackles. The film has many attributes that make it so delightfully wicked, and the main ones would be the superb acting, the flawless cinematography, the unsettling score and sound, the masterful direction by Oz Perkins, and the perplexing script. All of these aspects come together to make The Blackcoats Daughter a powerhouse in raw horror and terror.

To begin, there are three main actresses in this film that bring with them such a raw statement of femininity and creepiness to their respective roles that the movie simply wouldn’t work without their performances. In their roles are Kiernan Shipka as Kat, Emma Roberts as Joan, and Lucy Boynton as Rose. The three characters are introduced throughout various points in the movie, and while giving off the same sense of unease, the way they portray the nightmarish scenarios occurring around them heightens the film to an unseen level. My personal favorite character is Kat, who later becomes Joan, and I think Kiernan Shipka gave the best performance among the three, portraying her twisted character in a way that reminded me much of the character Thomasin, played by Anya Taylor-Joy, from the 2015 horror film The Witch, directed by Robert Eggers, which oddly enough was produced by the same company, A24. This is not the last time I will mention the works of Robert Eggers or A24, as the films of Oz Perkins are very similar tonally and visually, and the company A24 is the only reason a movie like this exists. To go back to the actresses, their performances are very “A24”, which is to say that there seems to be a trend in A24 films, especially the horror films, in which the acting is very minimal and quiet. Some could see it as underacting, but I see it more as controlled acting, a performance laced with restraint and purpose, as every outburst and extent of energy and ferocity, of humor and horror is meticulously crafted to terrify the audience to the fullest degree. The performance of Kat reminds me of a quote by Gene Wilder, in which he says “If the line you’re saying is funny, you don’t have to act funny while saying it”, which is to say that acting is a balance between emotions carried out through the actors and the script, so the writer must ask themselves, in this scene, does the writing carry the weight or the acting, and the actor must ask the same question. Of course, many actors can act funny while saying something funny and it works, or with any emotion for that matter, but its all about picking your moments. I believe effective comedy and horror share more similarities in terms of plot, tone, and writing. One of the main facets I find them to be identical in is that both rely on unpredictability. An unpredictable joke will bring as much of a reaction as an unpredictable scare, so the quote by Wilder could easily apply to horror; if your character is saying something spooky, you don’t have to act spooky while saying it. of all the performances, I think Shipka does this the best, as she is quiet and apprehensive, but only breaks from this mold when her acting demands it. she gives off a sense of unease, as much of the acting does, between Rose’s (Lucy Boynton) empty eyes when she smiles for the pictures and Joan’s (Emma Roberts) laughter when she realizes she met Rose’s parents is impeccably terrifying and subtle, which as I mentioned in The Witch, gives of a sense of anxiety more than horror, which if you think about it, is what all effective horror does, the only difference is that contemporary horror doesn’t do it with violins and creeping slashers, but with quiet girls staring a bit too long at the camera ala The Shining.

The camera work in this film is to one to marvel at. Every shot has a wonderful sense of contrast and it does such an effective job of visual storytelling that this honestly could’ve been a silent film and most of the plot would’ve come along just as wonderfully. There are many interesting ways the growing influence of the devil is shown, my favorite being how the school itself is shot, which feels much like the Bates Motel from Psycho (from which Oz Perkins’ father, Anthony Perkins, starred in), as most of the interior shots are sliced through with shadow and a bleak sense of character. The way the three women are shown visually is to always imply that there is something sinister about them, and it constantly keeps you guessing as to whom is under the influence of the devil. Speaking of which, the film has a surprisingly mature portrayal of the devil, simply a shadow that has less than a minute of screen time total. He is portrayed as more of a dark force than a physical presence, and he’s evident in every scene, as though he was lurking in the shadows. The color palette of this film is surprisingly poppy, as there’s plenty of blues and light purples that give the films modernity a sense of revolution rather than embrace of tradition, even though this film does seem to truly respect its predecessors through its homages and subtle references to the aforementioned films. I believe the visual language of blackcoats daughter directly inspired the film of Robert Eggers, as they seem to follow the same stark locked down aesthetic of the shots in The Blackcoats Daughter. It’s such a vivid and inventive storytelling tool that I hope will continue to inspire horror and even dramas in the future. The style also resembles that of Trey Edward Shults, director of It Comes at Night, Krisha, and Waves, which has a sense of energy and purpose in its darkness and use of shadow. Many of the shots frame the characters in a box or a doorway, and occasionally only framing half or part of the characters face in the shot, demonstrating their hidden nature and emphasizing their detachment from our world. The way flashbacks and deaths are shown in this film unfold in a way that shows the minimum amount possible to understand what’s being conveyed, and the respect the film has for the audience and their ability to understand the plot through visuals is inspiring.

The accompanying audio tools and technical aspects that support the film elevate the entire experience to an unheard-of level. The movies Foley and accompanying sound effects flow together with the images in a remarkable way. The way background audio is used to lure the audience into the tense and surreal world of the film gives the movie a level of professionalism that is shown through in all of Oz Perkins’ work. One example is in the final scene, in which Joan has returned to the academy to find that the Devil has gone for good. in her despair, we see her wander silently outside with a sound of undertones echoing throughout, showing her emotional turmoil. It’s done so beautifully and elegantly that it imprints the scene in the audience members minds permanently. There are so many scenes and sequences in this film that work so well because of its use of either silence or intentional tones and quiet music. The echoing sounds of the furnace and the various monotonous notes that ring throughout the building make the films atmosphere feel so lived in and real, similar to how in a previous review I discussed how the music in The Ballad of Buster Scruggs makes the characters feel like they truly spent their whole lives in the west. The constant drip of water or sounds of people walking about make the building feel like a real place, and the difference in the “sounds of silence” between the two plot lines helps give each a sense of individuality. To elaborate on this, when there is a moment of quiet in each of the two plot lines, the actual silence itself has a different feeling to it. In the plot line with Rose and Kat, the silence has the sounds of the academy around it, which makes them seem isolated and watched, while in the second plot line, the one with Joan, she spends much of the film with other people, so her silence feels more of her hiding from others, as if the outside people were interrogating her, and it adds to the sense of mysticism and deviance that Oz Perkins so graciously infuses these characters with.

The direction of Oz Perkins is as professional as it is surprising. For a bit of background on Perkins, he is, as I previously mentioned, the son of famous 60’s actor Anthony Perkins, who most notably plays Norman Bates in the Psycho films. I had first heard of Oz Perkins from a terrible film called Quigley starring Gary Busey, which is one of the most embarrassingly horrible films. Oz Perkins actually acts in the film and does a horrible job, and upon learning that he was not only Anthony Perkins son, but that he has directed a few horror movies, I knew I had to watch them. His newest film was released only a few months ago at the time of this review, which is entitled Gretel & Hansel, which I previously watched and thoroughly enjoyed. He only has three films in his catalog, and I have yet to see his sophomore effort named I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House, and I would say that it wouldn’t be too unreasonable to expect a review of that film soon, but I was shocked to learn that The Blackcoats Daughter is his directorial debut. As a debut, I would say it is one of the best I’ve ever seen, perhaps only combatted by such films has Hunger, This is Spinal Tap, The Witch, Reservoir Dogs, Eraserhead, Being John Malkovich, Synecdoche New York, Breathless, and Clerks, although I must admit clerks is not objectively a fantastic film, but I find it delightful. The way Perkins presents his story is such a mental conundrum, as he has the patience and poise of a seasoned veteran while simultaneously having the enthusiasm and optimism of an amateur. He is obviously very knowledgeable in horror and very practical and rational in his direction, and it is so clearly prominent in this film, any director would be lucky to have such a strong work of cinema as their first feature. Perkins silently grabs the audience by their throat, letting them feel each finger clench tighter and tighter over 90 minutes, and he makes you experience terror and paranoia in a way most films never can. Upon doing further research into Perkins’ films, it appears he has an average rating of 5.2 out of 10, as this film is much more polarizing than I expected, which I imagine is due to the script.

This is where I start to go a bit hard on the film, and its only real problem, which is the writing. Oz Perkins also wrote this film, and while it’s a solid script, there are small problems that I feel the help of a writer with more experience could’ve tightened up the smaller nitpicks in the story. The plot is quite simple as I said earlier, despite being told in a nonlinear fashion. the story follows as such; Rose and Kat are the last two students left at the all-girls Christian Bramford Academy after Rose lied to her parents about what day break starts to avoid confronting them about her sudden pregnancy, and unbeknownst to Kat, her parents died in a horrible car accident. On their first night, Rose leaves to talk to her boyfriend and Kat is left alone in the building when a phone rings, to which she responds to. The phone call is later shown to be the devil telling her that her parents died and that she must kill everyone there. Hours later, when Rose returns, she goes to the boiler room to find Kat prostrating herself on the ground. She brings Kat back and asks what happened, to which Kat gives confusing, cryptic, and creepy answers. That night, in Kats bed, she begins convulsing and contorting in an Exorcist-esque way. the next morning at breakfast, Kat vomits over prayer and calls the nurses a cunt. The nurses receive an abrupt phone call informing them that the headmaster is unexpectedly arriving. Rose shovels the walk and finds the door to the nuns cabin locked and silent. She returns to her dorm as the police and headmaster arrive and forcefully enter the nurses cabin to see a grisly murder scene, the two nuns stabbed to death with their heads removed. We go back to the dorm where Rose has her period, showing how she is not pregnant, and is unsuspectingly killed by Kat in the only jump scare of the entire film. Kat decapitated Rose and takes the three heads to the boiler room where the police officer finds her with the heads lined up next to her. The officer to drop a knife she is shown to have, and when she refuses and says “Hail Satan”, he shoots her in the shoulder. We see Kat detained in a mental institution where the priest performs a seemingly successful exorcism, as she looks over to see the horned shadow of the devil and begs him not to leave to no avail. Years later, we see that Joan, who is the same person as Kat, has escaped the institution and is waiting for a bus when a kind old man named Bill offers to drive her upstate with his wife Linda, as she claims to eb headed to the same town Theyre going to, Bramford. They stop at a motel where Joan showers, revealing a distinctive shoulder bullet scar. Bill asks Joan if she would like to have dinner in the nearby café and she agrees. At the café, Bill confides in Joan that the reason he picked her up is because she reminds him of his daughter, and he shows Joan a photograph of Rose. He says how they go up to Bramford every year for the anniversary of her death, and upon seeing the photo and hearing this, Joan rushes to the bathroom to suppress a fit of laughter. Later, when they arrive at Bramford, Joan murders Bill and Linda upon their arrival to Bramford. She beheads them and brings their heads to the boiler room in an effort to summon back the demon, to no avail. She wanders out of the academy, cold and alone, and begins to cry.

It is clear that there is a lot to unpack here, so I will begin with my praise first. Everything in the script feels purposeful, which is so clever and interesting to watch, as reincorporation is done in varying degrees of subtlety and importance, it is thoroughly enjoying watching various elements of the plot return with such confidence and forethought. The motivations of the characters almost always make complete and total sense, and rarely feels forced for the sake of the plot to continue. The only time I can think of that happening is when Kat gets found for the first time in the boiler and Rose is suddenly extremely concerned with not getting into trouble despite her being shown earlier to not care too much about that. Everything else that happens in the movie in terms of motivation is clear and distinctive, fitting with each character like a perfect puzzle. the plot doesn’t rely much on coincidence expect of course the big one that Joan just so happens to be picked up by Rose’s parents, but that’s not particularly unreasonable as far as coincidences go. As is established, the institution is close to Bramford, and her escape being so close to the anniversary of Rose’s murder could’ve easily been intentional on her part, but again it’s the only part of the script I could really say I have a big flaw with. It’s a huge coincidence that I think is partly forgivable due to its likelihood of happening and how it doesn’t much matter to the grand scheme of the plot as a whole. The film would’ve worked just as well in terms of plot if it was a random couple headed to Bramford, but the inclusion of them being Rose’s parents elevated the movie in my eyes although making me roll my eyes a little when I think about how much a coincidence it is. the dialogue in this film is also hit or miss to me, as there are a lot of lines that feel purposeful and important, such as the recurring line of Kat saying “You smell good” to Rose, which could be interpreted as foreshadowing to the murder, as Kat rubs the blood on her face and inhales deeply when the killing is done, or simply a line make to irk out the character and the audience. In terms of character, I find Kat as fascinating as she is twisted, and watching her on screen is disturbing, twisted and delightfully wicked. I find Rose to have some strange actions, mainly due to a lack of her being very properly set up, as well as her relationship with her parents being as well established. I would’ve added a scene of a phone call between the two, as phones already are such a prominent motif of the films sense of disconnection from one person and another. Speaking of motifs and themes, the constant message of Kats loneliness and its horrific manifestation is both heartbreaking and nausea inducing in the most incredible way. the way she is shot almost always singularly and never with another, how she is portrayed as broken and incomplete is so professional and respectful in its presentation it’s hard not to understand her isolation. I find almost every scene containing a sense of timing that although is quite slow to the average audience member, and with a weaker cast and director I too would find it tedious, but the way it brings out the environment and the characters inner conflicts is so rich and powerful that every second that this film is being enjoyed it’s difficult to take one’s eyes off the screen. As I mentioned, the film is slow, and the plot is complex but not that long in terms of runtime, so this film could probably cut about 10 minutes from its runtime, but the added minutes to each scene gives the patient style and cautious attitude of the film shine, and this film does burst at the seams with style. Very few times in this film would I say that the style overtakes the plot, but it does happen every now and then, but this is another fault that I believe enhances the experience. To quote Jay Bauman of RedLetterMedia, “some people call it style over substance, I call it filmmaking”. While I don’t always agree with this sentiment, as I find a few directors truly being obnoxious with their style, this films sense of personality is so controlled and quiet that scenes of indulgence in the camera work and sound design adds to the overall sense of dread the movie presents. The only other fault I could possibly give this movie would be some flashback scenes, which I will always find annoying. These flashbacks were more similar to those like Detachment, as they were not so much scenes but mere shots that pushed the story along. While I believe there are more creative ways to approach these story beats, what seperates these flashbacks from those in a film similar to Detachment would be how its not one flashback 10 times, its 5 different flashbacks, each lasting a single second, and each conveying new information that we have not yet gathered ourselves, so while I find it a little uncreative, I do believe it serves its storytelling function efficiently.

So to summarize, this film is brilliant, despite not being a perfect 10 due to some script problems, but it definetly marks its place as a tremendous feat in horror and a modern classic in my eyes. The Blackcoats Daughter is beautifully twisted and sickeningly delightful, a masterclass in filmmaking and acting, and a terrifying experience for any who have the opportunity to watch it. It will haunt you to your core and leave the fabulous director’s name stuck riffling through your brain as the second brilliant horror icon who bears the name Perkins.

The Blackcoats Daughter gets a 9/10