Review by CJ

Director:
Oz Perkins

Starring:
Kiernan Shipka, Lucy Boynton, Emma Roberts

Other notable appearances:
James Remar, Lauren Holly

Running time:
93 minutes

Watch this if you liked:
I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House

When two girls are not collected by their parents from boarding school for the winter break, things take a dark turn.

Often I will peruse a streaming service and pick a film purely based on the concept or who is in it. Had I recognised that this film was the directorial debut of the same person that directed I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House, I would have kept perusing.

I was honestly shocked to see that The Blackcoat’s Daughter has a 93 minute run time. It feels so much longer.

The Blackcoat’s Daughter is slightly more interesting than I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House but only because the concept is good. Unfortunately, creating a good concept is only the first step and The Blackcoat’s Daughter has stumbled, face-planted and spontaneously combusted in execution.

The twist endings could have been great but are all so obviously set up and the lead up to them is so mind-numbingly dull that, by the time they are revealed, I could not have cared less. And I usually take great pleasure in picking an ending or twist early on. Because let’s face it, who doesn’t love being right?

Quiet, Ian Malcolm, this is an entirely different thing. Dinosaurs won’t eat me for being right about a film’s ending.

Overall, The Blackcoat’s Daughter feels overlong despite having a reasonable run time, doesn’t have much in the way of suspense, lacks any real character development and alludes to plot points that are left all but unexplained. Unless you really love arthouse horror with little entertainment value and less suspense or mystery, I would recommend giving this one a miss.

Rating:

“You do know about the sisters, don’t you?”