Horror Movie Review: The Blackcoat’s Daughter (2015)

The Blackcoat’s Daughter (also known as February) is a horror film written and directed by Osgood Perkins, releasing in 2015. During the winter, two students are stranded in a prestigious Catholic boarding school. However, they soon realise that in order to survive they will have to fight a sinister unseen evil force.

The Blackcoat’s Daughter centers on Kat (Kiernan Shipka) and Rose (Lucy Boynton), two girls who are left alone at their prep school over winter break when their parents mysteriously fail to pick them up. While the girls experience increasingly strange and creepy occurrences at the isolated school, we cross to another story—that of Joan (Emma Roberts), a troubled young woman on the road, who, for unknown reasons, is determined to get to Bramford as fast as she can. As Joan gets closer to the school, Kat becomes plagued by progressively intense and horrifying visions, with Rose doing her best to help her new friend as she slips further and further into the grasp of an unseen evil force.

The Blackcoat’s Daughter is a slow burn type of horror, be warned if that’s not your thing. For me, I found that it presented a compelling mystery that as it unravelled, managed to subvert my assumptions on a few occasions. One aspect that I really enjoyed was the performances from the actors. Everyone acts sort of, “off” for lack of a better word. There’s a heavy emphasis placed on the emotions within their eyes which adds to the mystery and the overall feeling of unease.

At one point, there is an exorcism scene that I loved for its simplicity. Possession movies don’t often explore how a host goes on to function after the fact. We get to see that a bit here which I found really interesting. This is the type of film that doesn’t slap you in the face with answers and explanations. Instead, it’s handled in a much more ambiguous manner. There is some gore but it has an enjoyable realism about it that adds to the brutality of it all.

I touched on the feeling of an unease that the film generates but I must give a mention to the soundtrack which does a great job of adding to the melancholic atmosphere. Additionally, the thought the film was really well cast as we do see certain characters at different stages in their lives.

Overall, The Blackcoat’s Daughter is a solid, dark and dreary take on the classic exorcism story.