38
In spite of some compelling performances and a consistent mood, the film fails to ground any of these aesthetic flourishes in story or emotion.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
83
The Blackcoat’s Daughter is a clammy hand on the back of the neck, a chill running down the spine, a shot of ice water straight to the veins. Every moment, almost every shot, has been carefully calibrated to stand hairs on end.
80
Village Voice by Alan Scherstuhl
Few horror debuts unnerve and fascinate as much as this one.
63
Oz Perkins exhibits a committed understanding of the cinematic value of silence and of vastly underpopulated compositions.
67
The root of evil in The Blackcoat’s Daughter isn’t particularly original or deep, but the movie’s twisty plot and eerie atmosphere makes it deeply unsettling anyway.
80
In addition to everything else he does right in February, Perkins plays fair: When you replay the movie in your mind after the final fadeout, you realize that every twist was dutifully presaged, and the final reveal was hidden in plain sight all along.
90
The Hollywood Reporter by Leslie Felperin
As with so many of the best mystery-horror films, the optimum way to enjoy a first viewing of this is try to remain as ignorant as possible about what happens. That said, it also brims with tiny, blink-and-you'll-miss-them details that will repay repeat viewings.
75
The Film Stage by Michael Snydel
A stylish exercise in dread, teasing out its slow-drip horrors with precision, and building a deliriously evil presence that hovers along the fringes.
75
Consequence of Sound by Randall Colburn
This is the kind of film that follows you home, that makes you scared to enter a dark alley or go in the basement.
50
The Blackcoat’s Daughter — an illusion to a priest’s cassock? — never amounts to much more than its tone, the dread Perkins summons up with morose faces, shadows and music.