The Blackcoat’s Daughter

Studio: A24
Directed by Osgood Perkins

Mar 29, 2017 By Stephen Danay Web Exclusive

It seems doubtful that a single review of The Blackcoat’s Daughter will be published without referencing the idea that horror cinema is in writer/director Osgood Perkins’ blood. Son of actor Anthony Perkins, who played Norman Bates in Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho and its sequels, Osgood seems to have taken much inspiration from his father’s most famous film: the isolated rural setting, the soft-spoken maniac, the all-enveloping sense of doom. For all that, Psycho is not the greatest influence on The Blackcoat’s Daughter, but mentioning the film that is would likely constitute a spoiler.

The Blackcoat’s Daughter (formerly titled February) is Perkins’ debut as writer/director, but it is the second film of his that some horror aficionados will have seen. His sophomore effort, I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House, debuted on Netflix in October while The Blackcoat’s Daughter was held back for over a year following its premiere at Toronto in 2015. With that in mind, the idiosyncrasies of Pretty Thing – specifically its metronomic devotion to tone at the expense of plot or character – can be contextualized as an evolution in Perkins’ sense of style. Although The Blackcoat’s Daughter is bloodier and (comparatively) more plot driven than Pretty Thing, it still shares a fascination with young woman coming face to face with an oblique, unknowable evil.

Set during winter break at Bramford prep, an all-girls Catholic high school in upstate New York, the film begins with Rose (Lucy Boynton), a rebellious senior, and Kat (Kiernan Shipka), a prim freshman, remaining behind with the staff when both their parents are delayed in picking them up due to a snowstorm. While Rose takes advantage of her relative freedom to sneak out with her boyfriend, Kat becomes gripped by the fear that her parents will never arrive. Meanwhile, a young hitchhiker named Joan (Emma Roberts) catches a ride with Bill and Linda, a kindly couple on their way to pick up their daughter from Bramford.

The film’s only significant problem is structural. The nature of the relationship between Joan’s subplot and the events at the school is made explicit far too early and robs the film of what could have been a jarring third act revelation. In some ways, the early reveal serves to pile on even more inexorable dread, but the film already has that in spades. Perkins excels at using music and sound design to unnerve the audience in a way that goes beyond stings timed to jump scares. If anything, the film excels at what one could call ‘anti-jump scares”; slow panning reveals that confirm the audiences’ worst suspicions rather than having a killer pop out of a closet. Perkin’s high-wire balance of tone falters slightly at times – veteran character actor James Remar isn’t particularly believable as friendly dad Bill after a career specializing in sleazy villains – but his eye for beautifully composed images of grotesquerie and sense of methodic pacing make for a unique and compelling take on a pulpy, well-worn subgenre of horror.

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