The Blackcoat's Daughter (2015) - How To Terrify An Audience With Methodical Pacing

There is an oppressive sense of dread that permeates throughout the entirety of The Blackcoat's Daughter, a chilling psychological thriller hiding within the recesses of Netflix's congested catalog. Every frame is seeped in unnerving anticipation of some horrible atrocity lying in wait just around the corner at any given moment. We're not always sure of what that atrocity is. But its presence is undeniable.

Director Oz Perkins successfully makes the deliberate pacing that he employs a character in and of itself. The subtle, measured cinematography always divulging to the viewer exactly what it wants to, never giving a comprehensive perspective of the proceedings, always hinting at something pernicious living just beyond the borders of the frame. Some unseen evil directing the characters, guiding their actions, influencing their behavior.

It can occasionally feel like the film is moving at a snail's pace, but the unhurried clip at which it progresses is ultimately its greatest strength. While the actual plot of The Blackcoat's Daughter is bare-bones, you consistently get the sense that something vitally important and consequential is occurring, and this is largely thanks to the foreboding dread and unsettling tension that colors every second of the movie's exquisite buildup.

This buildup is ultimately so effective because it is predominantly character-driven. The film takes place within the eerily vacant halls of a Catholic boarding school that has just let out for a week-long vacation. Two students, Kat and Rose (Kiernan Shipka and Lucy Boynton), are forced to stick around at the school because their parents, for one reason or another, neglected to pick them up on time. The two girls are subjected to a series of thoroughly creepy occurrences and circumstances seemingly born of genuine evil.

Everything we see and experience as the audience is relayed through the eyes of the characters. While we are not privy to the actual nature of the situation or everyone's authentic motivations until later on in the story, the movie still takes a personal approach to its principal characters, making their scary state of affairs all the more disturbing. 

Due to its relative lack of plot-oriented activity and its doggedly methodical pace, I could understand if someone found The Blackcoat's Daughter to be boring. If you get on its wavelength, however, the film is a real nerve-rattler, undergirded by a consistent air of suspense and uncertainty, and punctuated periodically by shocking ferocity.

In the film's latter stages, once the mystique has largely evaporated and the veil is lifted on all of the movie's secrets, The Blackcoat's Daughter becomes decidedly less engaging. I suppose it's a case of the devil you don't know being more frightening than the devil you do. I understand the narrative had to conclude in some coherent fashion and the mystery couldn't go one forever (or could it...?), but I personally found the film's payoff rather disappointing.

Still, the movie overall is strong, and it's worth watching for those who like their thrillers dark with a side of diabolical.

B+

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