This morbid, but hearty little slow-grinding Gothic period action horror is something like the "Witchfinder General" meets "The Wicker Man". Those two are favourites of mine and while it might not reach the heights of those mentioned films, it still doesn't put much of a foot wrong. This medieval piece is set during the times when the black plague ravaged England and a group of mercenary knights along with a young monk (who's torn between his faith and the affection of a women) head out to hunt down a Necromancer, where it's believed they're using their witchery to keep away the plague from their small remote rural community.
Christopher Smith is an up and coming British director (with likes of "Creep", "Severance" and "Triangle" behind him) and his next diverse effort "Black Death" didn't disappoint. While the direction is descriptively slick and steady (and well photographed), he really captures the dark, turbulent atmosphere of the period, as the stench of death and the bleak colouring covers the screen. While conventional in some story arches (the camaraderie between a ragtag group), it remains smartly written and jarringly effective by never centralising on one viewpoint but actually opening up with more stinging questions. The harrowing back-end is rather despairing and chilling, therefore quite enthralling due to a central character's delusional mindset. The violence can be furious, brutal and gusty, but still underneath it all is a creepy and cruel menace. Sean Bean's ruggedly virtuous performance sticks out, but there's good support from Eddie Redmayne and an eerily succulent turn by Carice van Houton whose manipulative presence was always hypnotic when on screen.
Christopher Smith is an up and coming British director (with likes of "Creep", "Severance" and "Triangle" behind him) and his next diverse effort "Black Death" didn't disappoint. While the direction is descriptively slick and steady (and well photographed), he really captures the dark, turbulent atmosphere of the period, as the stench of death and the bleak colouring covers the screen. While conventional in some story arches (the camaraderie between a ragtag group), it remains smartly written and jarringly effective by never centralising on one viewpoint but actually opening up with more stinging questions. The harrowing back-end is rather despairing and chilling, therefore quite enthralling due to a central character's delusional mindset. The violence can be furious, brutal and gusty, but still underneath it all is a creepy and cruel menace. Sean Bean's ruggedly virtuous performance sticks out, but there's good support from Eddie Redmayne and an eerily succulent turn by Carice van Houton whose manipulative presence was always hypnotic when on screen.