Movie Review: The Blackcoat's Daughter

The Blackcoat’s Daughter *** ½ / *****

Directed by: Oz Perkins.

Written by: Oz Perkins.

Starring: Kiernan Shipka (Kat), Emma Roberts (Joan), Lucy Boynton (Rose), Lauren Holly (Linda), James Remar (Bill), Emma Holzer (Lizzy), Peter J. Gray (Rick).

 

The Blackcoat’s Daughter is a slow burn of a horror film – a film of simmering tension for most of its runtime, who hides its secrets in its non-linear structure for as long as it can. The director is Oz Perkins (son of horror legend Anthony), this is actually the first film he made, although through one of those quirks in distribution, it’s actually arriving months after his follow-up – I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House – was released. I wasn’t much of a fan of that film – while I found the craft of it to be wonderful, I thought the storytelling was too vague and enigmatic – and ultimately didn’t add up to very much. While The Blackcoat’s Daughter also wants to build slowly, and enigmatically – I found myself transfixed by this film, in a way I wasn’t in Perkins’ follow-up. I cannot help but wonder if he like what he did here, and decided to push harder in his follow-up – if so, he pushed too far.

 

The Blackcoat’s Daughter tells the story of two teenage girls and one young woman– the teens clearly interlock, and the young woman, not so much. At an exclusive, all-girls Catholic boarding school, winter break is arriving, and the parents of all the students have shown up and taken their kids. All except for two that is. Rose (Lucy Boynton) says to the headmaster that she accidentally told her parents the wrong day – so they’ll be late, but it really wasn’t an accident – she had to see her boyfriend and tell him some news. Then there is Kat (Kiernan Shipka) whose relationship with her parents is harder to get a hold of – and the cryptic flashbacks to wrecked cars, and her strange conversation with a priest, don’t help to clear them up. They are stuck at this snowbound boarding school with a couple of nuns waiting for their parents. The other storyline involves Joan (Emma Roberts), a troubled young woman, perhaps just escaped from some sort of hospital, and clearly traumatized by something, who is stuck at a bus station with no money – before a kindly man, Bill (James Remar) offers her a ride – much to the chagrin of his wife (Lauren Holly). “You remind me of our daughter” he tells her.

 

I won’t spoilt what happens from there – but will say that Perkins clearly knows his horror movie tropes, and certainly isn’t above trying to exploit them. Much like his follow-up – which was a haunted house film – it almost seems like Perkins is letting old horror movie tropes do some of the storytelling for him, as he’s much more interested in creating atmosphere, then telling a story. And at creating atmosphere, he is wonderful, as this simmering horror movie really does get under your skin – aided by two great performances by Boynton and Shipka. If you saw Sing Street – that audience pleaser from last year – you remember Boynton as the girl the main character falls in love with, who ends up being a real person underneath. Here, she again has an effortless cool about her  - although she’s so lost in her own, real world problems, she doesn’t sense what is going on right in front her. Shipka, best known for Mad Men, is even better – there is something off about her from the beginning, and Shipka intriguingly plays with that, without doing much. In much of her performance, she reminded me of Kristen Stewart – another actress capable of communicating a lot without doing much. In the end, the film does allow Shipka to cut loose a little, and she relishes that as well. By comparison, Emma Roberts is probably the weakest link of the three – but I think some of that is the role itself, which, even more so that Shipka, requires her to keep her cards close to her chest for a long time. James Remar, with his sensitive performance, pretty much steals that part of the film.

 

When I watched I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House last year, even though I didn’t love it, I did want to see what Perkins had up his sleeve the next time around. Watching what he did before that film, want to see that next film even more. Perhaps The Blackcoat’s Daughter is too heavily reliant on horror movie tropes, and Perkins could stand to pick up the pace just a little bit. If he does that, and adds it to his already impressive visual style, he’s going to make a truly great horror film. For now, the very good The Blackcoat’s Daughter, will do.

Movie Review: I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House

I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House

Directed by: Oz Perkins.

Written by: Oz Perkins.

Starring: Ruth Wilson (Lily), Paula Prentiss (Iris Blum), Lucy Boynton (Polly), Bob Balaban (Mr. Waxcap), Brad Milne (Groom), Erin Boyes (Young Iris). 

 

I admire the ambition of Oz Perkins I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House, as well as the atmosphere that Perkins is able to create, and sustain, for the entire 90 minute runtimes of the film. Yet, I don’t actually much like the film – it feels more like an experiment than a film – or perhaps a short film that was needlessly made into a feature without actually expanding the story. It is a horror film – a haunted house film to be specific, and that may have something to do with (haunted house movies usually are not my thing – they don’t scare me like they do some others). Yet, despite all of this, I would jump at the chance to see Perkins’ first film – The Blackcoat’s Daughter aka February (which hasn’t actually been released next) or anything else Perkins makes in the future. Why? Because the atmosphere and filmmaking on display in the film are wonderful – it’s just that it serving a pointless, dull, slow-moving story.

 

The film opens on the face of Lily (Ruth Wilson), who informs us in voiceover that she is, in fact, the pretty thing that lives in the house – that she is a hospice nurse, is 28 years old and “will never be 29 years old”. We see her get a job for Iris Blum (Paula Prentiss), a near silent older woman, once a famous author, not just waiting for death. We get two scenes of exposition – one as Lily is on the phone with a friend, where we learn some of her backstory and one as Lily sits down with Mr. Waxcap (Bob Balaban), Iris’ lawyer, more concerned about maintaining the estate than the house, who tells us about Iris’ career as a writing – including the famous novel The Lady in the Walls – which has a main character named Polly, which is what Iris insists on calling Lily. Even with that, and the strange goings on in the house (mostly involving mold), Lily only slowly reads the thin novel – so that Perkins can reveal scenes from the novel, that seem to take place in the same house, at appropriate times.

 

Perkins knows the clichés of the haunted house movie, and he is not afraid to use them at times – although, mostly, he avoids them. He doesn’t really like big “BOO” moments of any kind, preferring to slowly unsettle you in the audience with his slow reveals, the calm voiceovers, and creepy use of music and sound. The film moves slow – too slow really – and although Perkins command over tone and atmosphere is absolute, his inability to do much with the story grows frustrating. The film is like a 30 minute short, stretched into a 90 minute feature.

 

What keeps the film interesting is Wilson’s performance – he is pretty, as the title implies, and the camera is fascinated with her – her melancholic behavior and attitude makes her interesting. The filmmaking is superb as well. Ultimately, on the strength of I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House, Perkins goes onto my list of horror filmmakers to watch out for – even if I cannot quite imagine watching this film again.