The first reaction that comes to mind after watching The Blackcoats Daughter (2015), also known by its original title February, is torturous, and not in a good way when it comes to the horror genre. Online, some diehards swear you need a second viewing to fully appreciate or “get it,” but let’s be real: getting through it once is hard enough, and any movie that requires a second viewing to be good missed the mark.
It’s winter break at the Bramford Boarding School, and most students have already left to spend it with their families, until only two stragglers remain Kat (Kiernan Shipka), a quiet freshman who seems lost in her own world and Rose (Lucy Boynton), a senior itching to get out of there. They’re both stuck waiting for their parents, who are nowhere in sight, and have about as much in common as a shadow and a spotlight. In the meantime, Rose is tasked by the principal to look out for Kat, and she agrees with all the enthusiasm of someone stuck with extra homework.
From here, the movie gets lost in its own fog. The movie drops vague hints that Kat’s got something dark going on, but it never quite lands. She’s stuck in this one-note mode: sad, lonely, and not much else. The only indication that something evil is happening comes from the tone of the music, which starts blaring throughout.
While the score is intended to convey emotion, it’s so loud and in your face that you’re tempted to grab the remote and mute it just to get some peace. This keeps happening, with the score trying to force tension while the actual scenes drag on and feel sluggish.
While Kat’s left alone for the night, Rose bails on her “babysitting” gig to sneak off with her boyfriend, leaving the school to swallow Kat whole. When she returns, she finds Kat in the boiler room, doing some weird ritual that should’ve sent chills down anyone’s spine. But Rose? She just gives a half-hearted shrug, like she caught Kat rearranging furniture instead of channeling something straight out of a horror flick. Any normal person would’ve bolted for the door, but her “whatever” attitude basically sums up the energy of the movie.
Meanwhile, we’re thrown into a subplot where we meet Joan (Emma Roberts), a mysterious woman hitching a ride with a couple along a lonely, snow-covered road. Right away, this side story feels like a breath of fresh air compared to the snooze-fest of Kat and Rose’s boarding school drama, where even a supposed possession can’t make Kat's character interesting. The Joan story is stronger, mostly thanks to the change of scenery, but like the main story, it drags its feet, wandering through scenes that feel like they’re going nowhere.
The real horror of the movie is not what's happening between Kat and Rose; it’s the pacing. Despite a runtime of 93 minutes, it somehow feels like a lifetime, like a drive through a never-ending tunnel with no exit in sight.
Then there’s the jumping, non-linear storytelling, which doesn’t help matters either. It demands you stay glued to the screen to piece everything together, but the movie is so boring, it’s almost impossible not to zone out. By the time it finally tosses in those “big” moments, supposedly the payoff, you’re already scrolling through your phone, too checked out to care.
The only time The Blackcoat’s Daughter feels remotely alive is in its final 10 minutes, and yeah, part of that’s because you’re almost free from the suffering, but it also finally starts tying together the mess you’ve sat through. The stories of Kat, Rose, and Joan all come together, which sounds cool, but that’s not to say it all makes sense, as much of it remains unclear or was lost due to boredom. Either way, you’re too drained to really care, left cursing the time wasted on a movie that gave you nightmares for all the wrong reasons.