Overall I was entertained by Black Death and would watch it again (at some stage). I'm a harsh critic - so there were quite a few aspects that annoyed me about the storyline and character portrayals. Here are my reasons.
The good and bad in production: The production details and casting of many of main characters were visually good and helped to immerse me in the story. The sets were great. But... tweezed eyebrows always look wrong on the pretty young things in medieval flicks. The level of violence I suppose was realistic and as far as that goes "creative" although the a little too graphic for my liking as I'm not overly fond of hiding behind my fingers while trying to watch a movie.
The good and bad in the provocative storyline: As an atheist studying theology I certainly didn't find this movie to be about Christianity triumphing over paganism. It was heading that way towards the climax but then suddenly that tacked on ending with narrative that was hell-bent on making a statement about trauma causing people to view the world with hideous distortion in the name of Christianity - as though it were an excuse. Equally trite was van Houten's explanation for actions and events - her portrayal (or the director's) was terribly flat for such a character. Witch, necromancer, whatever... woman! She surely would have an abyss of attitude for facial expression.
I had to ask at the end of this movie, "what on earth is the point?" I hope the writer/director were just wanting to do a period piece with gratuitous violence and a bit of moral ambiguity for titillation and sensationalism. That so many reviews commented on the theological reference is too disturbing.
The good and bad in production: The production details and casting of many of main characters were visually good and helped to immerse me in the story. The sets were great. But... tweezed eyebrows always look wrong on the pretty young things in medieval flicks. The level of violence I suppose was realistic and as far as that goes "creative" although the a little too graphic for my liking as I'm not overly fond of hiding behind my fingers while trying to watch a movie.
The good and bad in the provocative storyline: As an atheist studying theology I certainly didn't find this movie to be about Christianity triumphing over paganism. It was heading that way towards the climax but then suddenly that tacked on ending with narrative that was hell-bent on making a statement about trauma causing people to view the world with hideous distortion in the name of Christianity - as though it were an excuse. Equally trite was van Houten's explanation for actions and events - her portrayal (or the director's) was terribly flat for such a character. Witch, necromancer, whatever... woman! She surely would have an abyss of attitude for facial expression.
I had to ask at the end of this movie, "what on earth is the point?" I hope the writer/director were just wanting to do a period piece with gratuitous violence and a bit of moral ambiguity for titillation and sensationalism. That so many reviews commented on the theological reference is too disturbing.