Review: Moody horror film ‘The Blackcoat’s Daughter’ has more style than story – Omaha World-Herald

Horror movies have such a long and loving history with 1. Satan, and 2. isolated prep schools for young women, its a wonder more films havent combined the two. They pair well together.

In The Blackcoats Daughter the long-delayed debut of director Oz (son of Psycho star Anthony) Perkins the devil comes to a prestigious Catholic boarding school in upstate New York.

Its shortly before winter break, and two students are waiting for their parents to pick them up. One is Rose (Lucy Boynton), a popular upperclassman whos worried she might be pregnant. The other is Kat (Kiernan Shipka, Mad Men character Sally Draper all grown up). And, uh, theres something wrong with Kat. What exactly is wrong doesnt become apparent for quite some time.

Meanwhile, another young woman, Joan (Emma Roberts), is hitchhiking toward the boarding school. She has a hospital bracelet and might have just escaped from the psych ward of a hospital. How Joans story intersects with Rose and Kats also doesnt become apparent for quite some time.

This is a slow movie in which very little happens and then very little happens and then everything happens. For some viewers, it will feel about as engaging as watching your former roommates blood dry on a dormitory wall. Even at 93 minutes, its a long sit.

Much of this is due to the fact that The Blackcoats Daughter is about 20 percent story and 80 percent mood. The movie trafficks in atmosphere over tension, dread over scares. A little more meat on the bone narratively would have been nice, and yet more often than not the films peculiar ambiance is striking enough to make up for its overall lack of activity, paranormal and otherwise.

It helps that Perkins is a good filmmaker. He doesnt go for the more flamboyant tone of recent retro horror pastiches like It Follows or The House of the Devil. This is a quieter kind of homage. It wears its influences lightly.

Perkins gets a great deal of help from the carefully composed cinematography of Julie Kirkwood and the unnerving ambient score by Elvis Perkins, the directors brother. The cast is terrific also, and, more important, theyre all on the same page. Theres something intentionally off about the calibration of Shipka and Roberts performances, and the film draws much of its meager energy from the mystery of whos the killer here and whos the victim. There are other mysteries, too. Such as: What is happening right now? And: Why is nothing happening right now? These questions wont be answered for quite some time.

If you can tough it out to the films bloody finale, youll be treated to several decapitations and at least one Hail Satan! Youll also get to see a final scene that packs an unexpectedly poignant punch, particularly for such a sluggish, moody little devil movie.

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Review: Moody horror film 'The Blackcoat's Daughter' has more style than story - Omaha World-Herald