Movie Reviews: The Blackcoat’s Daughter aka February + Strictly Ballroom

Abandoned as a child. Raised by the dark. From the makers of the over-rated ‘The Witch’ comes this dull film. Emma Roberts of ‘Scream Queens’ and ‘American Horror Story: Coven’ and Kiernan Shipka of ‘Feud’ and ‘Flowers In The Attic’ star.

In a remote chilly exclusionary school, people fail to take corrective action in a timely fashion. Others are morally culpable twits and I felt clear displeasure at this film. School is an intentional community but nobody in it has considerable fortitude. A young girl is delusional but nobody notices or cares.

I’m not sure what is going on in this underlit movie which seems low-budget. There is silence and disapproval. Shipka seems strange and disquieting. Nobody seems to have trust or confidence or overarching contentment. Kat (Shipka) and Rose are left at the school during a holiday. Nobody watches over them.

Things get unremittingly bleak. The Bramford school seems increasingly uneasy and menacing. Rose thinks she is pregnant. Meanwhile in another storyline, Lauren Holly and James Remar pick up a desperate young woman (Roberts). She’s contemplative. One wonders WTF is going on. Things make no sense. Joan the weird drifter is weird.

This has no credibility or gravitas. Bill (Remar) is charming, unthreatening, worldly and manly. His wife (Holly) is pretty irritating. Joan seems to have deep-set misery. This was tranquilised brontosaurs slow. Kat is contained anguish and throwing contortions. Things slowly become clear as the and-then-this-happened plot drags on.

This was an utter mess, Holly spits venom and someone is always alone. This was a rather unpleasant film. It was not dark, bold or devastating. It was not done with complete conviction. The timeline and plot soon begin to make messed up sense. There is death at the near-deserted school. The ending is not slowly intensifying dread. This film is little known for a reason.

Best Lines:

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Silly.