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Now Streaming: ‘The Blackcoat’s Daughter’ is Atmospheric and Haunting

Published

7 years ago

June 18, 2017

By now, many horror aficionados have witnessed and basked in the quiet, eerie glory of Oz Perkin’s I am the Pretty Thing that Lives in the House. The film, released straight-to-Netflix last year, took just about everybody by surprise; there was seemingly no promotion for the film whatsoever. One day, it was just there. It was a true Halloween treat if I’ve ever seen one, and I became an immediate fan of Perkins.

What many don’t know, however, is that Pretty Thing is actually the director’s second film. His first, The Blackcoat’s Daughter, wrapped up filming in 2015. It took over a year until it got US distribution, and was finally shown in the States this February. Two years after the film’s completion, I’ve finally seen The Blackcoat’s Daughter – and what I’ve seen is nothing short of amazing.

IMDb.com

The film, starring Emma Roberts, follows two girls left alone in a private school. At the same time, a mysterious girl (Roberts) is on a mission to get to the school for reasons unknown. To say any more of the plot would be spoiling it, as it is a film that holds many surprises. What I can say, however, is it deals with numerous cliches of the horror genre and turns them on their heads. This is mainly a movie about possession. Make no mistake, however; another clone of The Exorcist this is not.

Much like Pretty Thing, The Blackcoat’s Daughter is drenched in atmosphere. Yet there is a heavy amount of contrast between the two films. Whereas Pretty Thing is ethereal and hauntingly beautiful, The Blackcoat’s Daughter is drowning in blackness and dread. Roberts’ performance here is stellar. Her character is enigmatic and intriguing, and though many may be turned off by her presence due to a dislike of her previous work in Scream Queens and American Horror Story, to think the actress’ inclusion of the film would hamper the effect is nothing short of foolish. Her performance in Perkins’ film proves that she has the chops to take on much more than fun and campy television.

Kiernan Shipka and Lucy Boynton both give great performances as well as the two girls left in their desolate Catholic school, but their story becomes all the more compelling given the factor of Roberts’ parallel story. Why does she want to get to the school so bad? What connection, if any, does she have with these girls? And will she ever even make it to the school, or will something happen to her beforehand?

IMDb.com

Rest assured, these questions will be answered by the end of the film. I can tell you this much, however; it’s most definitely not what you’d expect. I was certainly taken off-guard by the conclusion. It ends on a powerful and thought-provoking note – The Blackcoat’s Daughter is in no rush to spell things out for you. What this movie means and what actually occurred will take a small amount of analyzation. It’s nothing as vague as something from the mind of David Lynch, but it is incredibly smart in its effort to “show, don’t tell” nonetheless.

The Blackcoat’s Daughter is now streaming on Amazon Prime. It is highly recommended. Ambient, dark, and spooky, this isn’t a film for everyone. Yet if you give it a chance, you might walk away satisfied.

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Movies

‘Evil Dead’ Film Franchise Getting TWO New Installments

Published

5 hours ago

April 26, 2024

Timothy Rawles

It was a risk for Fede Alvarez to reboot Sam Raimi’s horror classic The Evil Dead in 2013, but that risk paid off and so did its spiritual sequel Evil Dead Rise in 2023. Now Deadline is reporting that the series is getting, not one, but two fresh entries.

We already knew about the Sébastien Vaniček upcoming film that delves into the Deadite universe and should be a proper sequel to the latest film, but we are broadsided that Francis Galluppi and Ghost House Pictures are doing a one-off project set in Raimi’s universe based off of an idea that Galluppi pitched to Raimi himself. That concept is being kept under wraps.

“Francis Galluppi is a storyteller who knows when to keep us waiting in simmering tension and when to hit us with explosive violence,” Raimi told Deadline. “He is a director that shows uncommon control in his feature debut.”

That feature is titled The Last Stop In Yuma County which will release theatrically in the United States on May 4. It follows a traveling salesman, “stranded at a rural Arizona rest stop,” and “is thrust into a dire hostage situation by the arrival of two bank robbers with no qualms about using cruelty-or cold, hard steel-to protect their bloodstained fortune.”

Galluppi is an award-winning sci-fi/horror shorts director whose acclaimed works include High Desert Hell and The Gemini Project. You can view the full edit of High Desert Hell and the teaser for Gemini below:

^{High Desert Hell}

^{The Gemini Project}

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Movies

‘Invisible Man 2’ Is “Closer Than Its Ever Been” to Happening

Published

7 hours ago

April 26, 2024

Timothy Rawles

Elisabeth Moss in a very well-thought-out statement said in an interview for Happy Sad Confused that even though there have been some logistical issues for doing Invisible Man 2 there is hope on the horizon.

Podcast host Josh Horowitz asked about the follow-up and if Moss and director Leigh Whannell were any closer to cracking a solution to getting it made. “We are closer than we have ever been to cracking it,” said Moss with a huge grin. You can see her reaction at the 35:52 mark in the below video.

^{Happy Sad Confused}

Whannell is currently in New Zealand filming another monster movie for Universal, Wolf Man, which might be the spark that ignites Universal’s troubled Dark Universe concept which hasn’t gained any momentum since Tom Cruise’s failed attempt at resurrecting The Mummy.

Also, in the podcast video, Moss says she is not in the Wolf Man film so any speculation that it’s a crossover project is left in the air.

Meanwhile, Universal Studios is in the middle of constructing a year-round haunt house in Las Vegas which will showcase some of their classic cinematic monsters. Depending on attendance, this could be the boost the studio needs to get audiences interested in their creature IPs once more and to get more films made based on them.

The Las Vegas project is set to open in 2025, coinciding with their new proper theme park in Orlando called Epic Universe.

'Civil War' Review: Is It Worth Watching?

News

Jake Gyllenhaal’s Thriller ‘Presumed Innocent’ Series Gets Early Release Date

Published

9 hours ago

April 26, 2024

Timothy Rawles

Jake Gyllenhaal’s limited series Presumed Innocent is dropping on AppleTV+ on June 12 instead of June 14 as originally planned. The star, whose Road House reboot has brought mixed reviews on Amazon Prime, is embracing the small screen for the first time since his appearance on Homicide: Life on the Street in 1994.

Jake Gyllenhaal’s in ‘Presumed Innocent’

Presumed Innocent is being produced by David E. Kelley, J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot, and Warner Bros. It is an adaptation of Scott Turow’s 1990 film in which Harrison Ford plays a lawyer doing double duty as an investigator looking for the murderer of his colleague.

These types of sexy thrillers were popular in the ’90s and usually contained twist endings. Here’s the trailer for the original:

According to Deadline, Presumed Innocent doesn’t stray far from the source material: “…the Presumed Innocent series will explore obsession, sex, politics and the power and limits of love as the accused fights to hold his family and marriage together.”

Up next for Gyllenhaal is the Guy Ritchie action movie titled In the Grey scheduled for release in January 2025.

Presumed Innocent is an eight-episode limited series set to stream on AppleTV+ starting June 12.