Can I just start by saying how metal that title is? What a rockin’ black metal name for a film. I know, I know, it’s just a synonym for one of history’s most infamous plagues, one which only make our excessive paranoia over swine flu and SARS seem like meagre whining (not to mention that there are probably a half dozen bands named Black Death) but holding hands with the right font? Well that’s just rocking. I wonder if there’s a band named Swine Flu… What was I talking about… Oh yeah, this movie. It’s not about metal, sadly, but it is about Sean Bean looking like he just walked off the Lord of the Rings set and a team of rambunctious killers investigating a town unaffected by the plague to sniff out a heretic. So that, in fact, does sound kind of metal. Regardless.
Spoilers to follow.
It doesn’t have the same CNN hype to it, but the English countryfolk aren’t so chipper about having their population decimated by a virus so vicious it seems like punishment from god. This omnipotent wrath, along with other gestures of the holy is exactly what’s troubling Osmund, a young monk torn between his faith, a secret love with a fair maiden and the general depravity of existence. Seeking to escape the monastery, he takes what seems like an offer from above when a band of holy-men mercenary hybrids seek a guide to help them hunt down the likes of witchcraft for the bishop. Osmund enthusiastically offers to aid them, with his own priorities in mind, though as he’ll learn from this journey, the band of swordsmen won’t be the only ones vying for his trust and faith.
