BLACK DEATH 
Starring:
Sean Bean, Eddie Redmayne, Carice van Houten, Johnny Harris, Andy Nyman, Emun Elliott, Kimberley Nixon, Tim McInnerny, John Lynch and David Warner
Director:
Christopher Smith
Running Time:
101 mins
Out to buy on Blu-Ray/DVD 18/11/10
"Renounce him and you will live"
1348, England has fallen under the shadow of the Black Death. As the plague sweeps the country, killing thousands, the Church looks for answers. With some believing it is a punishment sent by God and others believing it is the work of the old religions and witches, demons and necromancers are bringing the cold finger of death to everyone. When the knight Ulric (Bean) enters a monastery looking for a monk to guide him to the marshes in the north, Father Osmund (Redmayne) volunteers to lead the men to a fabled village that has escaped the plague. With rumours of a necromancer using magic to keep the plague away and raising the dead, Ulric is charged by the bishop to investigate and stop them by any means possible.
Setting movie in medieval times has produced many a mixed result but can a film about the most devastating plague in human history grab your attention?
A plague of biblical proportions has become a stalwart of Hollywood storylines over the decades and even more so of late. These plagues are usually human made and have the effect of bringing the dead back to life but while zombie-plagues may have become a firm story favourite of late, there are real plagues from history that are far worse and much more real. The Black Death or bubonic plague killed millions of people in Europe and terrified people for generations. The lack of science and the power of the Church made superstition run rife, with everything from the devil, demons, witchcraft and a punishment from God himself all been blamed for this terrible disease. With everyone powerless to defend against it, the church had to enforce control and for this story that was achieved by the knights.
British director Christopher Smith has made a name for himself in the horror genre. While he got off with a shaky start with ‘Creep’ in 2004, his follow-ups of ‘Severance’ and ‘Triangle’ made him a director to watch. This is a departure from his more contempory set features but the medieval setting gives him the chance to show there are more diverse strings to his bow. For ‘Black Death’ he tries to tell a story that mixes religion, fear, death and action, with a group of mercenary knights heading to an idyllic village in the middle of a marsh that has escaped the plague. Ran by a woman named Langiva and with the support of the men led by Hob, the nights see this place as too good to be true and it emerges that it is the old Wiccan ways that could be saving them from the ravages of the plague. Smith and his creative team create this world with great care and devotion but it is the story that loses the film’s way.
What Christopher Smith has got right is the cast. Sean Bean, while looking a little bit too much like Bormir from The Lord of the Rings, laps characters like this up. After a stella performance in the brilliant ‘This is England ‘86’ Johnny Harris continues to impress. Dutch actress Carice van Houten is well as necromancer Langiva. Eddie Redmayne proves he is a young actor to watch and the supporting cast of Andy Nyman, Emun Elliott, Kimberley Nixon, Tim McInnerny, John Lynch and always-excellent David Warner make the film more watchable than it should have been.
With a nod towards ‘The Wicker Man’, ‘Black Death’ is a good premise let down by the execution. The film just ends after introducing a plot twist and a complete change of character for one of the leading roles. This just leads to frustration and disappointment after some decent good work that had built a story you wanted to see.
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