I can't even begin to think about sleep at this point so it seems like a good time to finally get around to this review!
I have a bit of an inexplicable obsession with diseases, the plague more specifically. So when I saw that there was a new film coming out about just that, I was quite expectantly intrigued. So the other night we sat down to watch
Black Death and I was quite satisfied with what I saw.
Christopher Smith (
Severance, Creep, Triangle) directs 2010's
Black Death, set in 1384 England where the plague outbreak is spreading throughout Europe, many people questioning whether it's a curse from God or caused by evil in the world. The only place untouched by the disease is a small, isolated English village nestled against a marsh, deep in the woods. It seems impossible that this village alone could be free of pestilence and rumors run rampant connecting the village to devil worship, human sacrifice and cannibalism, all led by a necromancer who can raise the dead.
We follow a band of rather un-merry mercenaries sent by the Bishop, led by pious envoy Ulric (Sean Bean) and guided by a young monk named Osmond (Eddie Redmayne), as they set out to find and capture the alleged necromancer and bring them back to the church for confession- by any means necessary.
Our young Osmond volunteers himself for the mission with the ulterior motive to reunite with his forbidden love Averill, whom he instructed to flee to the very woods outside this village to escape the plague.
They encounter some rather grisly horrors on their
way to the village- stumbling across the beginnings of a witch trial, as well as an extremist display of flagellants whipping their bodies bloody as they march through the woods and from town to town, proclaiming that the plague was a well-deserved punishment from God, and advising the men to turn back because the devil resides here. Ignoring the warning headed, the men continue on and stop to rest just outside the village. As the others sleep, Osmond sneaks out to a meeting place that Averill arranged to wait for him, only to find that she has vanished, leaving only her cape and some blood behind. He also discovers a rather feisty group of men ready to attack. A wonderfully gruesome battle ensues and Osmond's secret intentions are exposed.
The gang eventually reaches the village, having lost a couple of men along the way, and are greeted rather warmly by the seemingly non-threatening villagers, despite the fact that they have all renounced God and the church. They soon discover that the villagers are lead by Langiva, a powerful and manipulative woman with a knowledge of herbs and medicine and a tendency to feign resurrection of the dead. None of them are fully prepared for what the village has in store for them, least of all Osmond who finds himself grappling with dark forces and a test of his faith that threatens to destroy him.
It's a grisly film with harsh depictions of disease and death with no redemption. I was pleased with the general accuracy of the historical time period depicted in the film. The film also depicted buboes, the painful swelling of the lymph glands of the armpit, neck and groin, in the most realistic form of make-up I have seen in a movie regarding bubonic plague. That was an important factor that I was hoping for going into this film and paired with a lot of practical blood spurting and decapitation, I was very satisfied make-up wise. The film also presented it's torture and battle scenes through horrible sound effects that left you to imagine the bone breaking and flesh slicing that you're hearing but not always seeing on camera. This makes these sequences appear all the more real and keeps them from feeling overdone. Everything is very rough and dirty and always intense.
Sean Bean's portrayal of the religious zealot Ulric, a rough-edged but
not unmerciful swordsman, was well played and quite convincing (and he is obviously comfortably suited for armor from his role in
The Lord of the Rings). He was held up by a strong supporting cast playing the other mercenaries, a sort of motley crew of charismatic and well balanced characters that created this winning dynamic. You could tell that John Lynch, Andy Nyman and Johnny Harris were all fully into their roles and embodied the deep faith of these men with such an eagerness and intensity, proving they would rather die a horrible death than abandon the God they believe in. Even nonreligious folk such as James and I found ourselves rooting for these crusaders and feeling their pain, hoping that they would take out the God revoking villagers we more closely relate to normally. When we came to that realization I felt that must mean that the actor's have played their parts well. Oh yes, and though Eddie Redmayne plays the part of Osmond well, I found his character to be a bit boring but he redeems himself at the end. You'll see.
Shot entirely in Eastern Germany,
Black Death offers countless stunning shots of eerie swamps, dense forests filled with dark mystery and age-old abbeys. Its the strikingly beautiful yet haunting settings that evoke such an effectively ominous atmosphere in the film. You never know what horrors await in the dark caves and forests and that bodes well with the film's theme. My favourite shot is of those flagellants walking through the misty water in their disturbing procession. It's both beautiful and absolutely creepy and unsettling which sums up this film quite well and is a style that I can appreciate.
Black Death is a film that's sure to stir up some emotion in it's viewers. It's unquestionably bleak and at times pretty unsettling but it brings a good deal of raw realism to it's subject matter that makes it worthwhile. Though some might say there are some rather heavy-handed theological ideas, I was able to look past that and feel for the characters without really considering their strong religious standpoint. In the end, I ended up surprising myself by rooting for religious warriors! For a period drama bordering on horror flick I think overall it was an effectively beautiful and harsh film that gave a fair depiction of the subject I am so fond of and fascinated of- the bubonic plague.
