Director Christopher Smith has made some of the most effective, clever, chilling and witty low-budget horror flicks in recent times so what on earth has gone wrong here? Whereas Severance, Triangle and Creep were huge fun, pitching perfectly the balance between horror and black humour, this gets it wrong in just about every way imaginable.
It has no tension, zilch humour, little narrative drive and substitutes buckets of blood for horror. In fact, if the Razzies werent so American-biased this would be right up there for all categories.
The black death is spreading around England in the Middle Ages and a band of soldiers is dispatched to find a village that seems to be immune from it. Boy monk Osmund (Redmayne) knows the area and needs to escape from his monastery to try and forget his true love Averills recent departure. The soldiers, led by Sean Beans Ulric, believe the plague is Gods punishment for the barbaric war with France, but Osmund is not convinced.
Before you can say hey nonnie nonnie they find the village, run by the mysterious Hob (McInnerny) and Langiva (van Houten), and believe that she is a practicing necromancer who can raise Osmunds now dead love back to life. Is she a witch, and what are Hobs secrets?
| Black Death Trailer |
Its difficult to know exactly who to blame here Smith for apparently taking the thing so seriously, or the actors who look as lost as a Knight in a Monty Python film. McInnerny is bonkers when he should be sinister, van Houten is shrill and irritating a long way from Black Book and David Warner chews scenery half-heartedly. Bean meanwhile dials his performance in more than usual.
Some of the scenery is pretty, and Redmayne at least takes his role seriously along with Glorious 39 he is building a portfolio which may lead to big things. But any film that includes the credit Fitch The Torturer really has run out of ideas. Really not good enough.
Overall Verdict: Poor misfire of a medieval horror film, in which the tone is all wrong with performances to match.
Reviewer: Mike Martin