Movie Review: The Blackcoat’s Daughter (2017)

Slow moving and atmospheric, The Blackcoat’s Daughter is a pretty triumphant debut for director Osgood “Oz” Perkins, the son of Psycho actor Anthony Perkins. The movie was first shown at film festivals in 2015, but didn’t get any kind of release until 2017, where the website Shudder now has it as an exclusive, though I understand it’s on DirecTV Cinema or something, so I’ll have to question the use of the word “exclusive.” I watched it on Shudder, anyway.

Since this movie was made, but before it was released, another Perkins-directed horror movie was released in 2016’s I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House, which was released straight to Netflix that year. I haven’t seen that yet, but it’s also fairly critically acclaimed, and this movie definitely makes me want to see it.

I can already anticipate the issues some viewers will have with The Blackcoat’s Daughter. It’s too slow. Not much happens. That kind of stuff. But the movie relishes in its atmosphere, and I think the acting is good enough to make these slower moments still entertaining.

The movie sort of has two different plots. In one, you have two girls staying at their boarding school over winter break. And there’s also an ex-psychiatric hospital patient who’s sort of aimlessly wandering around, getting a ride from an overly nice man and his not quite as nice wife.

The movie is very well shot, well acted, and has a really great score from the director’s brother, Elvis Perkins. It doesn’t spell out what’s happening, and you definitely have a lot of interpreting to do, even when a fairly simple possession plot becomes part of the story.

It’s all executed quite well.

Rating: 7/10