Black Death: Billed as a “horror actioner”, this film is marginal on both counts. While there are flashes of both genres, you’d be hard-pressed to call it one or the other successfully. Set in England during the first outbreak of bubonic plague, a young monk, Osmund (Eddie Redmayne) volunteers to accompany a bishop’s envoy (Sean Bean) and group of swordsmen to find a town that is rumored to be untouched by the plague. It is said that a necromancer lives there who can raise the dead and his powers keep the village disease-free. Once there, they are to find the necromancer and bring him back in chains (specifically a torture device they are bringing along for that purpose) for judgment. However, the journey to the village, located in a marsh, isn’t a simple one and they have various encounters along the way. Once they arrive, the village is more than a little “Wicker Man”-ish. A local woman, Langiva (Carice van Houten), tends to their wounds, but is more than she appears. Then things go all pear-shaped and the emoting kicks into high gear. David Warner and Tim McInnerny are here in support. The problem with the film is that it expects you to understand the historical context of what is happening without providing any explanations. For example, the swordsmen encounter a group of flagellants but no one even mentions who they are. So they were important to include visually, but not worth one word of explanation? This is a lesser effort from director Christopher Smith, who also gave us the better films “Triangle” and “Severance”. Woodchuck sez, “Skip it.”
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