Black Death

PLOT (spoiler alert!!!):

The story takes place in 1348 in plague-ridden medieval England. Osmund (Eddie Redmayne), a young monk, has unbeknownst to his brothers fallen in love with Averill (Kimberley Nixon), a young girl who took sanctuary in the monastery. After the plague befalls his monastery, he believes it is no longer safe and sends her home to the forest. She asks him to join her, but he declines on account of his vows, after which she tells him she will wait for him at the edge of the forest by a marker for one week. Soon after, Osmund prays that God will give him a sign, as he wishes to leave to join her. As he is doing so, a group of soldiers enters the Church looking for a guide to a village not far from where Osmund’s love Averill was to wait for him. Osmund takes this as a sign and volunteers to lead the knight Ulric (Sean Bean) and a group of soldiers to a remote marshland village which has remained untouched by the Black Death. Their quest is to hunt down a necromancer, who is rumoured to be able to bring the dead back to life. Ulric’s group consists of the experienced leader Wolfstan (John Lynch), Wolfstan’s longtime friend Griff (Jamie Ballard), torturer Dalywag (Andy Nyman), the fearless Mold (Johnny Harris), the mute Ivo (Tygo Gernandt), and the charismatic Swire (Emun Elliott).

The journey is beset with harrowing pitfalls, as Griff is killed by Wolfstan after revealing he has been stricken with the plague and Ivo is slain in a battle with bandits. Upon reaching the marshes, Osmund only finds bloodied clothing and believes Averill to be dead. Ulric’s envoy finds the village, an eerie utopia led by Hob (Tim McInnerny) and Langiva (Carice van Houten). Not knowing who is the necromancer, Ulric tells the townsfolk he and his soldiers are simply seeking a place to rest. Seeing the church falling into disrepair from lack of use, Ulric is suspicious, but nonetheless accepts an invitation for him and his soldiers to come to dinner. Before dinner, Langiva shows Osmund Averill’s body and tells him the villagers found it in the forest. Averill is pale with a wound to her head and appears to have died several days ago. During the dinner, Osmund is lured away by Langiva into the marshes, where he sees her perform a pagan ritual and Averill is brought back to life. Back at the dinner, Ulric and his men begin fading into sleep as they realize their drinks have been drugged.

Ulric’s band and Osmund awake bound and caged in a water-filled pit. Langiva and Hob offer freedom for those who renounce God. None do so and all boldly vie for who will be executed first. Dalywag is led out to an X-shaped cross and crucified, then disemboweled by Hob. Upon seeing this, Swire offers to renounce God and verbally does so at Hob’s prompting, after which he is taken away, hooded with a bag and hanged. Langiva then frees Osmund and directs him to the hut where the resurrected Averill resides. Inside, Osmund sees his beloved Averill incoherent and stumbling, apparently mentally traumatized. Seeing what has become of her as an abomination, Osmund tearfully apologises to her and tells her he will see her again in Purgatory. He then stabs her and watches her die. Osmund then returns to the cage and lays down the body of Averill. He attacks Langiva by slicing her across her cheek but is struck down and subdued.

Reinvigorated, Ulric goads and jeers her that not one of his men will turn from God. In anger, Langiva has Ulric tied between two horses to be dismembered unless he renounces God. As the horses strain his limbs, Ulric reveals that he is sick with the disease, and thus will deliver the plague to these villagers. In the commotion, Langiva does not notice that the knife Osmund slashed her with had landed near the cage when he was struck down. Riveted by the spectacle of Ulric finally being torn into pieces, the villagers are caught unaware as Wolfstan and Mold cut their ropes, escape the cage, and mercilessly cut down all the villagers in revenge for the brutal murder of Ulric and their comrades. During the fight, Mold is killed by Hob, who is subsequently incapacitated by Wolfstan and placed in the device intended for transporting the necromancer.

Osmund notices Langiva retreating to the swamp, so he grabs a short sword and follows her into the fog of the marsh. There, she claims to Osmund in an omnipresent voice that Averill had not been dead, but that the villagers had found her and Langiva had drugged her to appear dead, then put on the pagan ritual to “raise” her from the dead to convince Osmund of her power. She reveals that she uses this illusion to retain leadership of the village. Osmund returns to the village and Langiva skulks away into the marshes, leaving the viewer unsure whether Langiva was a witch and if her last speech to Osmund was another attempt to make him forsake God. Osmund is then brought home to the monastery by Wolfstan, with Hob to be delivered to the Bishop.

In the aftermath, what was left of the villagers are ravaged by the plague; the “witch” had not protected the village, rather, the plague had not yet reached the village due to its remoteness. Wolfstan notes there have been rumors that Osmund became a soldier for God and set about hunting down, torturing, and burning women accused of being witches, in a quest to bring Langiva to justice and assuage his guilt. It is not known whether he ever found the true Langiva again or whether he simply sees Langiva in the faces of the women he executes.

REVIEW:

So, Black Knight wasn’t the medieval tour de force I had hoped it would be, and I’ve been hearing about it nonstop since the film ended. This brings us to Black Death, an upgrade, for certain.

What is this about?

Sean Bean stars in this historically rooted horror-thriller as Ulric, a church-appointed knight in the age of the Bubonic Plague’s first wave who’s tasked with investigating rumors of a woman (Carice van Houten) who can bring the dead back to life. A young monk (Eddie Redmayne) named Osmund is aiding Ulric on his quest to root out the necromancer — and to determine whether or not she has ties to Satan.

What did I like?

Medieval times. Something that I’ve noticed about most of the films set in the Middle Ages is that they don’t really capture the dark times of this era. This film manages to pull that off with fantastic results.  You can really feel that the people are living in uncertain times where they fear for their lives daily.

Love story. A nice subplot of this film is the subplot that involves the young monk who is the star and his beloved. As well are mostly all aware, monks aren’t exactly supposed to love. I believe it breaks some kind of vow they have to take, but somehow he managed to love this girl. He loves her so much, that he pretty endangers the lives to go see her. It really is heartbreaking what he must do to her, even more so when something else is revealed about her status.

Bean. No, there is no Rowan Atkinson here. Sean Bean really impressed me in this role. His ability to deliver confidence and leadership on the screen makes for some good times. I wish he didn’t look like WWE wrestler HHH in some scenes, but what can you do, right?

What didn’t I like?

Horror. For some reason, they call this a horror, yet the directors decided to take out all that which would have made it a great horror film. I applaud them for not going the CG route but, at the same time, I think they could have put some kind of demon, witch, or other entity that is behind this all.

Gore. The gore isn’t really my problem, so much as it is that they don’t really use it effectively. Near the end of the film, someone gets ripped apart and then a couple of guys lay waste to the entire village, yet we see no blood from this, but a simple sword fight gives us more buckets of the red stuff than a Mortal Kombat fight!

Lost. Somewhere along the line, I got lost in the shuffle, and I’m sure that there are some viewers who felt the same way. The film begins with a the premise of scouring out the bubonic plague, then somehow twists into a film that tackled a theological discussion about God, death, and the plague.

Black Death ended up being much better than some of the films I watched earlier this week, but it didn’t quite blow me away. I guess I was expecting something more supernatural to happen, rather than this gritty, realistic film, and that skewered my view. Those that enjoy this kind of film will surely do so, and those that aren’t too keen on this type of stuff, won’t really be into it. I recommend it to those that fit in the former category. Not a bad film, but not something to go bragging to all of your friends about, either.

3 out of 5 stars