I am kind of getting tired of all the horror movies I have been watching lately. Everything seems so, obvious and reuses tropes that have been done one million times. I am just craving something different. So when I went looking for a movie the watch the other night, I was scrolling and scrolling through the horror section not finding anything that looked remotely interesting.
I had almost given up until I come across a film with a really unique title. Instead of having something to do with ghosts or haunted houses, this movie had a very cryptic and unique name, The Blackcoat’s Daughter. Honestly, by looking at the title and the cover of the film, I had no idea what it was about. And I didn’t even wait to read the synopsis or watch the trailer, I hit play and settled in for the movie.
Spontaneous choices in which film I watch can sometimes turn out really bad! And sometimes it turns out fantastic…
Rating: 9/10
Content Warnings: Body contortion, religious conversion, emetophobia (throwing up), gore, blood, demons
The film starts off very bleak and cold, and this tone remains throughout the rest of the movie. The atmosphere that the film creators make throughout the film is one of unease and apprehension. I knew it was a horror movie coming into it, I was just waiting for the horror to start, and that waiting made it all the more uncomfortable.
Through the progression of the film, the viewer follows two different story lines. As I was watching, I wondered where these two stories were going to eventually converge. I also found that I was preferring one story line to another. However they were both equally unsettling and anxiety inducing.
As I was watching, there wasn’t much horror happening, in the common idea of the film genre. There was just a lot of anxiety and unease, which was equally as entertaining and ominous. However, at about the midway point in the movie, the film creators throw an iconic horror image that shocked me out of the stupor I had been in. Think the Exorcist… That’s when I really got into the movie and could see the horror elements coming out.
From then on the movie really ramps up, with the character’s true intentions are revealed. It is non stop reveals of what was happening throughout the entirety of the story. You start to realize that the creators have layered in elements of the story into the film that you don’t even notice until the very end.
This is not a movie full of ghosts and jump scares. There are no creepy creatures stalking people at night, although there definitely is a creepy creature. I love all of these things, but this move fulfilled my need for something different and unique. This is the type of movie that I would like to watch again, as I know I missed things that were meant to be missed. I will definitely be doing a rewatch of this film soon.
I was surprised by how much I actually enjoyed this movie. It wasn’t a carbon copy of every other horror film that has been released in the past 10 years, and the unsettling tone and effect that it had burrowed deep within me, making me feel more spooked than any jump scare could have. There is so much more to this film than meets the eye, and the film creators and producers were genius in how they executed this story.
I am definitely looking for more movies like this, so if you have watched this movie and have recommendations for me, definitely let me know in the comments below!
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