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The movie The Blackcoat's Daughter was released earlier in UK with its original title Febuary pertaining to the month when the event takes place at the boarding school.

The movie also has an OST written for the movie itself by Elvis Perkins - Incantation ~ Outcantation - The Blackcoat's Daughter OST (2017) Audio.(Youtube video title)

My question: Why was the name "The Blackcoat's Daughter" given?

  • Was it only to draw a connection with the OST track (which I believe in turn is actually based on the title itself)
  • Is there any myth or legend regarding any "Blackcoat's Daughter" from which the movie got inspired?
  • Does the "Blackcoat" here simply represent the character Father Brian who exorcises the spirit out of Kat towards the end?

I have gone through the IMDB Trivia section, the Wiki and one of Oz Perkin's interview but couldn't find any reference to this title.

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As explained by the director Osgood "Oz" Perkins, son of Psycho star Anthony Perkins, in an interview with AV Club:

AVC: There’s been a lot of interest in the title being changed from February to The Blackcoat’s Daughter. Can you explain how all that went down, and the thought process behind the new title?

OP: For me, with the [original] title of February, I was going for the idea that a time can also be a location. In other words, you can re-visit a time of year, in the same way you can go back to a house that you used to live in. A certain month or a certain season can elicit a certain emotional response. That’s certainly true for anyone who has a negative anniversary on their calendar—the approach of that month brings the feeling of being very much back in another room. It’s a time that stands outside the rest of the year. So that’s where the title of February came from.

When the movie was bought by A24 to be distributed, I think they wanted a title that indicated the genre a little more strongly. I didn’t accept the alternate titles they were putting forth, so I went through [the film]. And I had a lot of suggestions, but I sort of landed on The Blackcoat’s Daughter. It’s a verse from this rhyme [for which] my brother Elvis wrote the music, and we used it as an incantation at the beginning and at the end of the movie: “Beetle beetle, blackcoat’s daughter, what was in the holy water?” I really liked the word “daughter,” and Elvis and I decided that maybe the backcoat’s daughter was a priest’s daughter. In any case, it worked for a priest, it worked for the devil, it worked for a father, it had the quality of a child raised by this strange black coat. It felt sexy enough.

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  • Nice find. Well played.
    – Paulie_D
    Commented Mar 2, 2018 at 15:29
  • wow!! thanks a ton BCdotWEB!!.so it seems like a mixture of my first and last speculations. I missed this interview though. My bad.:) Commented Mar 2, 2018 at 15:34

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