Watch Free Movie Trailer 78% Black Death
>> Sunday, 27 February 2011
Watch Free Movie Trailer 78% Black Death
Despite its numerous scenes of torture and mutilation, the film emerges as a more mature and thought provoking exercise than I anticipated.
Brutal, austere, and ultimately an effective educational tool, the picture is an unflinching, haunting dissection of fundamentalism, translating the rigors of faith into a grotesque poetry of pain and suffering.
Carries authentic aesthetics, a dread-drenched tone, and provocative food-for-thought ideas involving religious hysteria that prove timely even in the 21st-century.
I'd bet good money that Black Death is still finding new fans five or ten years from now.
While not as good as 'Triangle,' 'Black Death' does solidify Christopher Smith's standing as a great horror filmmaker.
A gripping piece of Gothic horror.
This medieval thriller is cleverly shot and edited to crank up quite a bit of tension, even as the over-the-top grisliness and wacky religious overtones make it nothing much more than a cheap thrill.
There are echoes of The Wicker Man in this supernatural tale but the storytelling is clunky and disjointed and Smith's fondness for tipsy, hand-held camerawork becomes extremely annoying.
Director Chris Smith delivers plenty of meaty action here and deploys twists that while not earth-shattering, are satisfyingly clever enough to make this a solid genre flick.
There are some interesting ideas at play here and some well-timed twists, but it's not remotely scary at any point.
I was agnostic about horror director Chris Smith's first film, Creep, but this has an insistent, dour darkness and narrative energy that is very watchable indeed.
Dario Poloni's script pays tribute to Werner Herzog's Aguirre, Wrath Of God, and British cult films such as The Wicker Man, but fails to bind the ingredients into anything like a plausible or satisfactory narrative.
Necessarily dark and violent, Black Death's chief failing is its struggle to actually end. But getting there sees Bean, as watchably earthy as ever, finally stretching himself on screen.
Though its title must rank as one of the most off-putting in film history, Black Death isn't as bad as you might fear.
Like the recent Valhalla Rising, this journey-allegory involving a band of warrior Christians trekking to a promised land is filmed in stripped colours and scarified textures and scored to electronic music.
Smith is clearly becoming more assured with every film. Black Death is his most intriguing yet. A pox on anyone who says otherwise.
Engaging, well directed medieval horror-slash-thriller with strong performances, a genuinely chilling atmosphere and an unusually thoughtful script.
Having set his characters adrift in a world gone-to-hell, Smith proceeds to leave them (and us) hanging. The result is a brave, serious-minded but odd film that promises more than it delivers.
Released into an era of poverty, pestilence and bad religion, Christopher Smiths historical horror-thriller Black Death fits the new Dark Ages like an bloodied iron gauntlet.
