The Blackcoat’s Daughter was a surprisingly effective horror-thriller, and one I felt was actually better than the much praised The Witch, from Oz Perkins and features some solid performances led way by Kiernan Shipka with honorable mention for Emma Roberts.
The Blackcoat’s Daughter
(2017)
Genre(s): Supernatural Horror
Lionsgate | R – 95 min. – $24.99 | May 30, 2017
Date Published: 05/30/2017 | Author: The Movieman
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THE MOVIE — 4.0/5 |
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Osgood, or Oz, Perkins’ The Blackcoat’s Daughter is a bit of a gem, a film apparently released elsewhere under the title February. Perkins does a great job cutting from different timeframes and points of view rather fluidly and in the end, makes for both a satisfying supernatural horror film. Note: From here on, this review contains plot SPOILERS so readers please beware.
The movie is set along two different paths. The first, and primary one, involves schoolgirls Kat (KIERNAN SHIPKA), a freshman, and Rose (LUCY BOYNTON), a senior, both stuck at their all-girl private school over break after their parents failed to pick them up, though Rose intentially told her parents another day as she deals with her boyfriend. Stuck together, with Rose put in charge of, more or less, babysitting Kat, the strange begins to happen. The other storyline involves Joan (EMMA ROBERTS), a young woman on the road who is befriended by Bill (JAMES REMAR) who offers a ride to Joan, much to the displeasure of his wife Linda (LAUREN HOLLY). Bill and Joan lost their daughter years earlier and this is apparently a frequent occurrence of Bill helping waywards who remind him of her.
These two plots intercut with one another as the puzzle pieces begin to come together as to how these characters are related and interspersed with some truly creepy scenes that I actually found more effective than a movie that garnered much critical praise last year, The Witch. The performance from Kiernan Shipka is fantastic, not unlike Anya Taylor-Joy, being able to balance sensitivity/vulnerability, sadness and utter creepiness in the span of not just the entire movie, but within a scene. Lucy Boynton also has some good scenes opposite Shipka and seems to have the opposite character change to Kat; and Emma Roberts at first was fairly generic before turning up the emotions once the two storylines come together. And not to be outdone, James Remar and Lauren Holly were decent enough in rather thin, yet quite important, roles.
The Blackcoat’s Daughter marks Oz Perkins, son of legendary actor Anthony Perkins, feature film debut and what an introduction it is. Although some might find the cuts jarring, revisiting some scenes from different perspectives, I found them mostly efficient in outlaying what, at its core, is probably a simple story. Pair the unique story structure with some beautiful shots, under lens of cinematographer Julie Kirkwood and some interesting choices in lighting (as Perkins discusses in his commentary), and you have a really effective little supernatural horror-thriller. |
SPECIAL FEATURES – 2.0/5 |
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This release comes with a matted slip cover. Inside is a DVD Copy and redemption code for the Digital HD copy. Features are a bit on the light side with an engaging Audio Commentary with Oz Perkins and The Dead of Winter: Making The Blackcoat’s Daughter (10:47; HD) featurette. Previews – The Witch, The Monster, Trespass Against Us, Sea of Trees, Green Room |
VIDEO – 4.5/5 |
| Lionsgate releases The Blackcoat’s Daughter onto Blu-ray presented in its original 1.85 widescreen aspect ratio and a 1080p high-definition transfer. Although this is obviously a dark movie, both in tone and appearance, this looks quite good in HD with sharp detail throughout and blacks seem stark without looking crushed. I observed no obvious signs of artifacts, aliasing or other flaws so it is a pleasant looking picture. |
AUDIO – 4.25/5 |
| The disc has been given a basic but effective DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track. The majority of the film is either dialogue or atmosphere building scenes so you’ll get some low level sounds with the LFE channel kicking in to the next gear while dialogue comes through the center channel with excellent clarity. |
OVERALL – 3.5/5 |
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Overall, The Blackcoat’s Daughter was a surprisingly effective horror-thriller, and one I felt was actually better than the much praised The Witch, from Oz Perkins and features some solid performances led way by Kiernan Shipka with honorable mention for Emma Roberts. The Blu-ray released through Lionsgate offers up great video/audio transfers while the features are limited, though the commentary is well worth a listen. |
Check out some more screen caps by going to page 2. Please note, these do contain spoilers.