The Blackcoat’s Daughter (2015)
“You smell pretty”
The directorial debut of Oz Perkins, February is a film set in a girls boarding school where two of the pupils parents fail to pick them up when midterm.
The younger of the girls, Kat, is a bit off shall we say. Constantly asking questions, making odd comments and convinced the headmaster will allow her to live at the school with him.
The other girl Rose is a bit of a naughty girl and her rebellious ways might have landed her in trouble. So until the girls parents arrive to pick them up the headmaster tells Rose to look after Kat.
Rose starts to notice a few odd behaviours in Kat but what doesn’t help is that maybe there is some person or thing at the school ready to torment the girls.
Now the the film doesn’t take the normal path every single other film does in this scenario.
Thankfully.
I don’t like modern horror films, specifically English speaking horror films (I might have mentioned once or a hundred times).
Samey and tired, unoriginal so when one does something different I take notice.
This should be a slow film. It doesn’t have enough going on to remain interesting just like a lot of modern horror. It should have a lot of pointless filler and subplots with unnecessary drama to pad it out or use jump scares like I use toilet paper but yet it manages to avoid all this.
The script doesn’t try to be too clever and the direction is restrained enough to not rely on cheap tricks. The story when you think about it is very simplistic and predictable but everything is just done nicely.
The performances and casting are spot on and all this is probably what stops the film from falling into familiar territory.
Not the most exciting nor fast paced but it isn’t supposed to be and it is nicely filmed plus did hold my attention like a film should. Be aware this is a more sedate affair but for me never dragged. Also seeing James Remar and Lauren Holly is always nice.
