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Movie Review: ‘Black Death’

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It won’t shock you to learn that British director Christopher Smith’s 14th century period chiller “Black Death” — named for the continent-spanning pestilence that notoriously wiped out half of Europe — isn’t exactly an upper.

Grimly imagined by screenwriter Dario Poloni and grimily, monochromatically photographed by Sebastian Edschmid, this horror-infused yarn sets a band of battle-weary English knights on a church-sanctioned quest to find a village rumored to be untouched by the plague. This being a time of apocalyptic superstition, God-fearing man-of-the-sword Ulric (Sean Bean) believes unholy forces must surely be behind such a place, and dealt with violently.

The marshy, peaceful commune they find (run by a bewitchingly hospitable Carice van Houten) holds some faith-shattering surprises, especially for young, liberal monk Osmund (Eddie Redmayne).

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Early on “Black Death” falls victim to its own sluggish sickness, its narrative drive proving no match for the aggressively rotted pallor, dour acting and tiresomely handheld you-are-there aesthetics. But once the promised dramatic tension between pious warriors and ulterior-motivated pagans kicks in — and reaches its “Wicker Man”-esque apex — the film achieves its own provocative exploration of fundamentalism, and a gruesomely appropriate deliverance from the clutches of splotch-by-numbers movie gloom and doom.


“Black Death.” MPAA rating: R for strong brutal violence and some language. Running time: 1 hour, 42 minutes. At Laemmle’s Sunset 5, West Hollywood.

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