@Phasmophobia said:

This movie is great! I don't understand why user ratings have been so harsh (critics seem to like it). The Blackcoat's Daughter was one of my favorite horror films from last year. A beautifully shot and haunting piece of cinema.

Much like The Eyes of My Mother (another favorite of mine) it explores the dark side of loneliness.

Have to agree. It may be a tad slowly paced, but I quite liked it. Her balling at the end because she couldn't get her demon back punctuates how lonely she was as a child before the events of the film even. A well done, and well acted, film with haunting undertones that stuck with me after the credits rolled. I don't get the low score either.

The only bit that I found to be a stretch was that Rose' parents didn't recognize Joan/Kat. Certainly there would have been sensationalized media coverage about the insane girl who decapitated three people. It's hard to buy that she changed so much that she quite literally looked like a different girl (that's a sly reference to the two different actresses playing the part of the same character), but apparently that is what happened see it's what we observe.

Also, I have one question that remains for me, that the film didn't answer. When Rose mentions hearing the story about the nuns having no hair and Kat asks "Who told you?", Rose ignores the question and tells her to get out of her room. I've wondered if anyone had any opinions/suggestions about how she heard that story about them worshiping Satan, and why both of them just completely drop the fact she told that story.

And great reference to The Eyes of My Mother. The past few years have given us some of the best horror in a while, and they're almost all small, independent, low-budget yet infinitely more creative films. Interestingly, for some reason The Blackcoat's Daughter/February reminded me in tone and pace of Session 9, a long-time favorite of mine (and something David Caruso actually acted well in before CSI: Miami derailed him).

I could be wrong, because I was a bit tired when I saw this in the theater tonight, Rose says something about someone's cousin who saw it 3 years prior.

To answer that question, yes, it was a girl who graduated three years earlier, or her cousin, or something. I didn't understand if that story was even true or not. Two other things I didn't understand:

What DID happen to Kat's parents?

And (this could be related to the answer to the previous question): When the headmaster showed up with a state trooper, why were they there? My best guess is that Kat's parents had died and it was to tell her that, but the movie never seemed to tell us this.

The only bit that I found to be a stretch was that Rose' parents didn't recognize Joan/Kat.

The actress who played Kat was around 16 at the time I think, but I would estimate that the character of Kat at school was only supposed to be about 13 or 14 (Rose calls her a freshman.) "Joan" is probably around 20 at least, so it's conceivable that Rose's parents wouldn't have recognized her as an adult. Especially if they only knew her through face through photos.

I was surprised that it took me so long to figure out that Joan was Kat! I seriously didn't have that figured out until we actually see Kat killing Rose; then everything suddenly made sense.

One of the most obvious clues that they were the same person that I can now see in retrospect was the fact the both of them had that annoying habit of not talking when directly asked questions. That plus the almost exactly identical hair color was there all along.

@warrior-poet said:

@Phasmophobia said:

The only bit that I found to be a stretch was that Rose' parents didn't recognize Joan/Kat. Certainly there would have been sensationalized media coverage about the insane girl who decapitated three people. It's hard to buy that she changed so much that she quite literally looked like a different girl (that's a sly reference to the two different actresses playing the part of the same character), but apparently that is what happened see it's what we observe.

I assumed since she was a minor that her name and face was kept out of the press.

@Phasmophobia said:

I don't understand why user ratings have been so harsh.

It's not a bad movie but there's also not much to it.

Just watched it. I thought it was good. Ending surprised me, good twist!