It's quite good. Unlike a similarly-themed Nicolas Cage schlock fest, it actually deals in nuance and subtlety and several shades of grey. Even as the protagonist, Sean Bean still doesn't get to play a good guy.

I would've preferred it without the Darth Vader epilogue, though.

British horror director Christopher Smith (Severance) ventures into the past--bubonic plague-ravaged 1348, to be exact--in Black Death, a grim, very cynical indictment of religion and its sinister influence on human nature.

The film stars talented up-and-comer Eddie Redmayne as Osmund, a monk torn between God and his love for a woman, Averill (Kimberley Nixon). As the film begins, he urges her to flee the diseased city for the countryside, and she begs him to follow. Conflicted and in search of a sign, a way forward, he prays, and God's response seems to be the arrival at his monastery of Ulric (Sean Bean, an expert at playing righteous, but weary men) and his band of sullen, battle-hardened Christian warriors. There is word of a remote village unspoiled by, perhaps even immune to, plague, and witchcraft is suspected. The bishop has ordered Ulric to investigate and collar those in charge to stand trial, and a guide familiar with the forest is required. Osmund is enlisted, and his fate becomes intertwined with those of Ulric, his men, and the citizens of the mysterious, Wicker Man-esque village, including their strong-willed female leader, Langiva (Carice van Houten, quite creepy).

Though it could have perhaps dug deeper into its characters' pasts and inner lives, this is a top-notch horror and adventure film with depth and legitimate grit. From the first frame to the last, the old-school atmosphere is strong and sustained. This is a film of grey skies, dense wilderness, and ample cobwebs. There are fields crowded with burning, purulent corpses, and there are bone-crunching, blood-drenched fights. And not once does Smith shy away from the carnage, nor does he shy away from the ambiguous and uneasy nature of the characters populating Dario Poloni's screenplay. They operate in an emotional and intellectual territory as grey and foreboding as those aforementioned skies. There are no clean-cut heroes and villains here, just desperate, wounded individuals compromised and threatened at every turn by not only the literal plague, but also the more abstract plague of religion. The film's unflinching, near hopeless final moments remind us one of those ills is now a dark part of history, while the other is still very much alive and, alas, as insidious and destructive as ever.

B+

lol! You just ruined the epilogue for me.

Netflixed this yesterday. I liked the look and setting of the film. They appeared to present that time period very well. The story though was slow going for me. The "evil" village wasn't what I was expecting. I was thinking it would be something more fantastical. I could have done without the last 5 minutes as well.

Grade - C