Trailer Tuesday: Black Death

Medieval holy warriors facing off against witches and black magic... No, I'm not referring to Nicolas Cage starrer Season of the Witch. I'm talking about British historical horror film, Black Death.


The year is 1348. Europe has fallen under the shadow of the Black Death. As the plague decimates all in its path, fear and superstition are rife. In this apocalyptic environment, the church is losing its grip on the people. There are rumors of a village, hidden in marshland that the plague cannot reach. There is even talk of a necromancer who leads the village and is able to bring the dead back to life. Ulric (Sean Bean), a fearsome knight, is charged by the church to investigate these rumors. He enlists the guidance of a novice monk, Osmund (Eddie Redmayne) to lead him and his band of mercenary soldiers to the marshland, but Osmund has other motives for leaving his monastery. Their journey to the village and events that unfold take them into the heart of darkness and to horrors that will put Osmund's faith in himself and his love for God to the ultimate test.

Now that sounds pretty damn cool - and looks pretty damn cool - if I say so myself. Very few films have tackled the Middle Ages at their darkest, most disturbing and death-tainted. Black Death director Christopher Smith by contrast has promised a more realistic take on the period, and as the trailer above (and the other, exposition-heavy first trailer) suggests, Smith's film is filled with pestilence, religious hysteria, torture and unrelenting despair.

Black Death will probably be too gritty, gory and generally heavy for a lot of casual viewers unfamiliar with the genre, but I personally revel in somber toned, period-set supernatural tales. Solomon Kane had many flaws but I forgave that film a lot due to its appropriate sustained grimness... which Hollywood rarely embraces these days. Black Death seems to have taken the creepiness of Brothers Grimm and pushed it to its max.


Black Death opened in the UK back in June 2010, and has screened at various festivals, or gone straight to DVD, across most of Europe before the end of October last year. As a result, there are plenty of Black Death reviews floating around the Net, and the film has a very impressive Rotten Tomatoes rating of 75% Fresh. Apparently the movie is a return to old school filmmaking - with CGI and other contemporary gimmicks eschewed - and emerges as a genuinely chilling, clever and engaging tale. It has most frequently been compared to controversial horror classics Witchfinder General and The Wickerman.

Black Death is releasing in video-on-demand format in the United States on 4 February. It is unknown when the film will release in South Africa, if it ever will (we're still waiting for Solomon Kane just to go straight to DVD). If Black Death piques your interest then, it's probably worth your while importing a copy, or just downloading the film.