Black Death (2010)

Living in the middle ages would have been awful. If you didn't starve, you'd be killed by passing thugs; and if you managed to avoid getting burnt at the stake for being a heretic, you probably couldn't survive the bubonic plague, never mind the ever-present possibility of bumping into none other than the devil himself while out idly picking flowers. It's a period that's dense with cruelty, conflict and immense suffering, and thus tends to work well when used as the backdrop for horror. Which brings us to Black Death: imagine Apocalypse Now by way of Monty Python and the Holy Grail and you're pretty close. While it isn't exactly genre perfection, and the storytelling and pacing may be a bit pokey towards the end, I think Black Death is worth any fan of folk horror's time and attention.

The story has a great premise: in the midst of the bubonic plague, an envoy of soldiers is sent by the local bishop to investigate rumors of a town in a remote area of the forest that remains untouched by the plague, even thriving in a time when it's rare to find any place that isn't stacking piles of bodies in the streets and burning them in plain view. Our 'hero,' a young monk named Osmund is struggling with his faith and identity; his girlfriend has recently fled the city they live in due to the worsening spread of the plague, while Osmund stays behind because of his religious duties. He prays for God to send him a sign of what to do. The next morning, that envoy of soldiers I mentioned earlier shows up, asking the church for a guide who knows the area. As luck would have it, they're heading straight through the area his beloved escaped to, so Osmund signs up immediately, taking it as fate. To say things don't quite work out would be sugar-coating it, and Osmund's journey as a character only gets more twisted from then on out.

The structure is about what you'd expect out of something with this sort of premise. As our party of anti-heroes slowly march across the landscape, we're treated to one vignette after another, painting a clear picture of the world our story takes place in. People are desperate, confused, and violent. Morality no longer makes sense, and neither does God's love for his creation. Abandon hope all ye who tread here. That's until our heroes arrive at their destination, a cute little village populated with clean, reasonable people. At times they feel a tad anachronistic when they're espousing atheist talking points, but hey, it's worth it for all it brings to the story. These villagers are a perfect foil for our heroes: men of faith that have been twisted into grotesque shadows of human beings by the cruel world they inhabit, and when the two meet and the initial uneasy truce between them dissolves, there will be hell to pay.

Indeed, I liked the story and many of its characters a lot. Where I began to have issues was towards the end, which is, strangely enough, where the director-penned rewrites of the screenplay began. The pacing feels odd here, and the invented epilogue is both a blessing and a curse, leaving me with mixed feelings despite the incredible first half. Some elements of ambiguity in a story, like for example the exact beliefs of the villagers, and whether or not they can really resurrect the dead, are great, but whole plot threads feel as though they never get resolved.

Its spottiness is present in the technical department as well. Violence is shot with lots of ugly shaky-cam, effects aren't always practical, and pretty much all slow-motion is achieved entirely in editing, which is a pet-peeve of mine (If you don't shoot it in a high framerate, don't slow down the footage. It looks like crap.) And while it may be considered appropriate to the subject matter and tone, the grey, washed-out look of the film doesn't exactly do it any favors. It was likely made on a thin budget and so I can excuse some things, even the cheap and uninspired costuming, but this film isn't a looker, and you will have to look past some things visually to enjoy the film. 

So it has its fair share of issues, even besides its questionable second half, though that damns it in any significant way. The overall film and its lingering effect, is enough to diminish any particular complaint I might could come up with. Black Death brings together a lot of things I love: Apocalypse Now's wonderful structure, religious horror, cast members from Game of Thrones, a medieval, plague-ridden setting and brilliantly thematic world-building to match. While it isn't perfect by any means, what is? If you, like Osmund in the film, require some kind of guidance in your life, let me insinuate myself and tell you, with conviction: you ought to give this film a whirl. It's pretty damn good.