Do you wish there was a movie genre that consistently passed the Bechdel Test? Look no further than the Renaissance that is modern, independent horror. Between The Babadook, It Follows, The Witch, and many more, the horror genre is brimming with women and girls--some of them evil, some of them good; some of them virginal, some of them sexual; some of them victims, many of them predators.
If you're a feminist who is a scaredy-cat when it comes to horror movies (hi Alex!), might I suggest exposure therapy? In the name of Sisterhood? I, too, was once too scurred to venture near scary movies, but after seeing a couple amazingly good ones, I have embraced the horror genre full stop and I actually consider it my favorite genre of film now. How the tides have turned.
The Blackcoat's Daughter (previously titled "February") is a super indie movie directed by Oz Perkins (who also directed the apparently great I Am a Pretty Thing That Lives in the House--I haven't watched it yet, but it's in my queue). Perkins is, incidentally, the son of Anthony Perkins of Psycho fame. His brother, Elvis Perkins, is a musician who composed the score for Blackcoat's Daughter, and it perfectly elicits feelings of dread in the viewer. A good score truly elevates a film of any genre.
Blackcoat's Daughter stars Kiernan Shipka, best known for growing up on TV as Sally Draper on Mad Men, as a freshmen at Bramford, a Catholic girls boarding school in upstate New York. The school is on break, but Kat's (Shipka) parents haven't shown up. The headmaster leaves Kat with an older student, Rose (Lucy Boynton), whose parents are picking her up a day late, and the school nurse and her assistant.
Almost immediately, something seems very off at this school. As Rose prepares for a secret date with her boyfriend, she tells Kat that the nurse and her assistant were apparently seen "worshipping the devil" by a previous student and that the two women have "no hair on their entire bodies". It seems like Rose is just a bitchy teen trying to scare Kat, but this scene reminds one of the movie Suspiria, about a coven of witches at a ballet school.
Meanwhile, the film cuts to another young woman, Joan (Emma Roberts), who wanders aimlessly near a train station a few towns over. She is offered a ride by a middle-aged couple, who have a Bramford bumper sticker. Perkins takes his time in revealing the connection between all the characters, but when he does, it's an unsettling doozy of a twist.
Without giving too much away, The Blackcoat's Daughter is about vulnerability, loneliness, and the connection between parents and children. Buried underneath 90 minutes of absolute dread and swift bursts of violence is a heartbreaking sensation of loss. Whatever is lurking in the shadows at Bramford, it preys on weakness and fear. Shipka gives a gut-punch of a performance as Kat, a quiet, odd girl who you just know is terrified to wonder where her parents are, but also too scared to admit that fear to the older students and adults around her. Having watched Shipka transform from a devastatingly adorable child to a sullen teen on Mad Men, seeing her in this role was very satisfying in the sense of watching a very talented individual "level up" to the next stage of her craft. I'm excited to see what Shipka does next.
Horror fans will appreciate The Blackcoat's Daughter because it's a scary movie that gets to have its cake and eat it too: it's subtle and unusual enough that you don't feel bludgeoned by tired horror tropes, but it's also ghastly enough that gorehounds won't feel left out. It's bloody and nerve-tingling, but also surprisingly emotionally affecting to the point where a scene near the end almost made me tear up. In a word, it's masterful.
Grade: A
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