wildsparrow16 Review of The Blackcoat's Daughter

The Blackcoat's Daughter (I) (2015)

This was genuinely creepy....BUT.....

[7/10 · 29 March 2017]

In the first five minutes of the film when a spirit (or demon) shows her that her parents have been killed on their way to pick her up, I knew this would be chilling. It sets the stage for Kat's vulnerability, for as we know from horror films, the demon strikes when we are emotionally frail. Her schoolmate who is rather cruel to her in the beginning, sets the stage for conflict and pent-up anger and makes you sympathetic to Kat (as if losing her parents didn't already do that for you). She slowly begins to change, and while this is happening, Joan comes onto the scene after escaping an asylum (yup, we've seen this). Her character is very complex, and I don't want to divulge. I was never bored during this - it is spine-chilling. But there is nothing particularly clever about it and the gratuitous violence in the last half hour really turned me off - I felt it had changed gears and become a campy slasher film. I gave it a 7 because it was quite scary, however, I don't like how it changed gears from being a psychological horror film to a bloody severed head count. The demon-bunny looked ridiculous. But with that being said, it was a scary movie. Unlike other viewers, I failed to see echoes of The Shining. It did however, remind me of Scandi-Noir films, with it's bleak setting, quiet, but unsettling characters and ominous tone. If you like "Let Me In" and "Keeper of Lost Secrets", you will probably enjoy this one. It did edit my review to more stars because this movie stayed with me and got under my skin - despite the demon bunny.