Black Death

Black Death

2010

Director- Christopher Smith

Cast- Sean Bean, Eddie Redmayne, Carice van Houten, John Lynch, Tim McInnerny, Kimberly Nixon, David Warner, Johnny Harris,

  

         

Genre fans should love this film as it stars Sean Bean ( Boromir in Lord of the Rings, Ned Stark in Game of Thrones and too many other great things to mention), Carice van Houten (2 years before she would become Melisandre the Red Woman in Game of Thrones) and Eddie Redmayne (star of the Harry Potter spin off Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them). But the film has more going for it than just a great cast.

         In medieval England, as the plague ravages Europe, a young monk (Redmayne) is engaged in a romance with a girl despite his vow of chastity. She asks him to run away with her but he hesitates. She vows to wait for him in the forest. Before he can join her, a team of mercenaries, led by Sean Bean, arrive at the monastery.

            Apparently a nearby village is showing no signs of being ravaged by the plague so obviously it must be because they are in league with the devil. As it just so happens, Bean and his crew aren’t novices in this area and they bring with them all sorts of nasty devices used for interrogating witches. They enlist the young monk and set out to apprehend any nefarious necromancers.

     

On the way, the young monk finds reason to believe that his girlfriend is dead. Though his dreams of love are crushed, on the bright side, at least he won’t have to worry about violating his vows now. The group reaches the village and at first it seems like the journey has been all for naught. However, they soon learn that in fact the villagers have been practicing the black arts and they just found some new sacrifices.
     The leader of this coven, played perfectly by Carice van Houten, tries to entice the young monk to renounce his faith by promising to bring back his dead girlfriend.  In the end, the witches find they got more than they bargained for when they decide to make Bean their next sacrifice.
     The film has a cleaver script, great casting, great costumes, moves along at a good pace and ,though never really scary, is suspenseful. Highly recommended.