The Blackcoat's Daughter -- a review

The description for The Blackcoat’s Daughter on Amazon states that it’s a mystery thriller about two young students who must deal with the supernatural while staying over at their empty boarding school during the winter break. It sort of makes it sound like Nancy Drew meets Scooby Doo, and I wasn't too sure about seeing this. Imagine my pleasant surprise when, instead of a family-friendly mystery that Disney would have aired on its Sunday night show way back in the day, I receive a truly scary horror film about demonic possession that’s directed by the son of Norman Bates himself.

The Blackcoat’s Daughter--which was originally called February, because that was when the story takes place--is the directorial debut of Oz Perkins (credited in the film as Osgood Perkins), one of the sons of the late Anthony Perkins, who was best known for his role in Hitchcock’s dark masterpiece Psycho. Oz Perkins has fashioned a genuinely creepy tale here about two students at an all-girls boarding school who get left behind when their parents seemingly blow off parents’ day--after which they should have been taken home for the winter break.

Set in Upstate New York against a chillingly snowy landscape, the bleak wintry atmosphere--even during the bright daytime--only adds to the film’s creepy factor. It starts out as a slow-burn thriller as it builds up its story through the eyes of three characters, Kat (Kiernan Shipka), Rose (Lucy Boynton) and Joan (Emma Roberts). It may feel like it’s taking its sweet time in getting set up at first, but stick with it. Perkins is building up the back story, as well as the characters, so that when the weird stuff begins, you care about what happens because he makes you care about these characters. And all of the actors in this (including the always great James Remar) are marvelous.

So many horror film makers go for the gut--often times literally, thinking the best way to scare the viewer is with blood and guts. It’s the rare horror movie--and The Blackcoat’s Daughter is one of them--that scares you through a well-earned build up of dread. The horror elements in this film are subdued, which make them all the more frightening--there are some chilling visual imagery here that really scared me. The gore is suggested with a blood splatter here and there, and having the carnage take place largely off screen is what makes The Blackcoat’s Daughter so effective, and unnerving. If you’re looking for a genuinely scary horror movie this Halloween that’s not stomach-churning, give The Blackcoat’s Daughter a try. Just keep the lights on while you watch it. --SF

Comments

Jack Reacher Never Go Back -- a Review

I was first introduced to Jack Reacher through the Tom Cruise movie of the same name that was released back in 2012. I liked the movie well enough, despite a few nitpicks here and there--but I really enjoyed reading the novels by Lee Child. Jack Reacher was a former US Army officer who retires and becomes a drifter, roaming from state to state in the country that he fought so hard to protect. And Reacher is still protecting us, taking on a variety of villains, from backwoods mobsters to big-city terrorists from book to book. The stories in the books are well-told, with great attention paid to the smallest of details. I think of them as 1980s action films, only without being insulting to your intelligence. What a perfect series to adapt to movies, right? Well, Tom Cruise looks nothing like how Jack Reacher is described in the books. And while I thought the first Jack Reacher film was good, the second, Jack Reacher: Never Go Back , is very badly flawed. Based on the JR novel of the sa...

3 Body Problem

3 Body Problem , Netflix’s latest TV series, is loosely based on the first novel in the Remembrance of Earth's Past trilogy, by Chinese author Liu Cixin (who also wrote the book The Wandering Earth ). Simply put, it’s an alien invasion story, but one that’s a lot more sophisticated than your average ‘pew-pew-pew’ cliché-fest. For one thing, this series begins in the 1960s, in the middle of the Cultural Revolution, which was the nationwide purge instigated within China by then-Chairman Mao to keep himself in power. A young woman named Ye Wenjie arises from the chaos to become a central figure in the overall story. The 3 Body Problem of this series’ name refers to a far-flung solar system that has three suns. Any planet within this tri-sun system would have a hard time of it, taking turns orbiting one belligerent sun after another, and it just so happens that the aliens who set their eyes on invading Earth--known as the San-Ti--come from this embattled world. ...

The Holdovers -- a review

It’s always a joy to watch someone who’s a master at their work, whether it’s a musician, an artist, or an actor. Most great actors make it look easy--which is not to say that I think acting is an easy job. I know from personal experience that acting is very hard. It’s a skill that the talented make look very easy, and one of the most talented actors working today is Paul Giamatti. If you’ve watched some movies over the past few years, chances are very good that you’ve already seen Paul Giamatti. He was the jittery earthquake expert in San Andreas , the sympathetic police chief in The Illusionist , and as the titular John Adams (a part that got him the Emmy and a Golden Globe) in the 2008 HBO series of the same name. Recently, I saw Paul Giamatti in the superb The Holdovers , a movie that I wasn’t planning on writing up, but I kept thinking about it--and all of its characters--long after I saw it. In The Holdovers , Giamatti plays Paul H...

The View From The Mountain

Search This Blog