Movies
Black Death (On Demand)
“BLACK DEATH is one helluva enthralling, disturbing and simply breathtaking film which is so intensive at times that you almost think you’re lying on a torture rack instead of sitting in a theater seat!”
I can hardly think of another horror director out there at the moment, whose body of work is as diversified as that of England’s Christopher Smith. While his debut CREEP is a claustrophobic underworld shocker in the style of THE DESCENT and THE MIDNIGHT MEAT TRAIN (though it’s gotta be mentioned that CREEP pre-dated both of these films), his second work SEVERANCE is one of the finest and most hilarious horror comedies of the new millennium and his third flick TRIANGLE is a supernatural thriller that might as well be the most mean-spirited and macabre take on the old GROUNDHOG DAY-formula I’ve ever seen. With his new movie BLACK DEATH, which is playing the festival circuit in Europe at the moment, he stayed true to the afore-mentioned tradition of never repeating himself and delivered a film that couldn’t be any more different from his older works.
Set in medieval England during the time of the pestilence, the film tells the story of a young monk named Osmond (Eddie Redmayne), who leads a group of mercenaries under the command of the religious zealot Ulric (Sean Bean) through the dark woods and damp swamps of the English midlands to find a mysterious village of whom rumor says that it has not been struck by the black death yet. In the eyes of the church, who believe the pestilence to be God’s punishment for man’s sinfulness and disobedience, these people’s wondrous immunity to the devastating disease can only be the work of a dark and godless sorcerer—a so called necromancer. Hence, they’ve send their most faithful knight, Ulric, and a party of courageous swordsmen and torturers out to catch the evil wizard and bring him back to the bishop who’s gonna make him pay for his ungodly deeds. But once their arduous journey has come to an end and—after many dangerous encounters with highwaymen, witchburners and savages—they’ve finally crossed the ghastly marsh that surrounds the fabled village, everything at their destination seems to be almost too peaceful and harmonious to be true… have they really gone there in vein or is this perfidious quietude rather the work of the necromancer who tries to beguile his enemies?
In his realisation of this epic tale of bravery, faith and violence, Christopher Smith has combined the best elements of the fantasy film and the horror movie in equal shares and created a modern masterpiece which is not only very well directed, acted and scripted, but which also hints more than once at the magnificence of vintage classics such as THE WICKERMAN (1973) or BLOOD ON SATAN’S CLAW (1971). Shot entirely in Eastern Germany, BLACK DEATH features some truly jaw-dropping locations in the form of age-old abbeys, dense forests, thunderous hills and eerie swamps which look as if no human being has set foot there in ages. Beautiful and haunting in equal measure, these awe-inspiring settings convey a very ominous atmosphere because you never know what danger might lurk inside the dark caves or behind the huge trees which the fearless mercenaries have to pass in order to reach their target.
The acting, in turn, is very good and convincing throughout most parts of the movie too and I especially enjoyed Eddie Redmayne’s stirring performance as a young monk, who is torn between the promise he made to God on the one hand and his affection for the woman he loves on the other, as well as Sean Bean’s tough depiction of a rough-edged but not unmerciful swordsman of the Lord. If I’m not mistaken, this has been the first time the latter has put on a medieval harness again after his alter ego Boromir died in a cloud of orcish arrows in THE LORD OF THE RINGS, but yet you never have the impression that Bean is merely repeating his classic role from the popular Peter Jackson movie. Though there are of course certain parallels between the two characters, the deeply religious Ulric is very much a personality of his own and has some truly memorable and affecting scenes in BLACK DEATH.
The other mercenaries are almost equally as well cast and hence the dynamic, perfectly balanced group contains a lot of top-notch actors like Andy Nyman (SEVERANCE), John Lynch (THE TOURNAMENT), and Johnny Harris (ROCKNROLLA), whom I hadn’t even recognized at first with their dirty faces, long beards and wild hairdos. What makes their performances particularly great, in my opinion, is the fact that they are totally into their roles and embody the deep faith of these men with such an eagerness that even as a rather nonreligious person like me, you can’t help but feel a certain awe and amazement when you see how they would rather die a horrible death than abandon the God they believe in.
Furthermore, the killings deserve a special mention as well, because their execution is quite uncommon but all the more effective. Though we also get to see a good dose of gore throughout the movie, most death and torture scenes take place outside of the camera but are still presented very vividly through horrible sound effects which inevitably lead to gruesome images of sliced flesh and broken bones in the audience’s minds. After the movie my girlfriend told me she’s been covering her ears way more often than her eyes during the brutal battle scenes and harsh torture sequences, which appear all the more real due to the fact that they are not overdone in any kind of way but realized in a very rough, dirty, intensive and believable way. Sometimes, during the fight scenes, the shaky hand camera and fast cuts were a bit too hectic for my taste, but apart from that minor flaw, there’s nothing for me to complain about at all and there were quite a few occasions when BLACK DEATH got me by the throat to the point that I almost forgot to breathe!
One last point, that I would like to bring up, is the ending. If Christopher Smith had rolled on the credits five or six minutes earlier, BLACK DEATH would still have been a very clever, atmospheric, enthralling and unique medieval horror movie. The film’s actual epilogue, however, is so powerful and comes so unexpected that it single-handedly lifts the whole flick to an even higher level. I don’t wanna spoil anything, of course, so all I’m gonna say is that the last few minutes of BLACK DEATH were like a hammer blow straight to my face and even today, two days after I’ve seen the film’s German premiere at Fantasy Film Fest in Hamburg, I still feel confused, agitated and even devastated whenever I think of the unforeseeable turn that the events of this uncompromising tale of terror took at the very last second…
Before the movie, Christopher Smith said that this is the best film he’s done so far and even though I liked CREEP, loved SEVERANCE and was deeply impressed by TRIANGLE, I think I have to agree with him! BLACK DEATH is one helluva enthralling, disturbing and simply breathtaking film which is so intensive at times that you almost think you’re lying on a torture rack instead of sitting in a theater seat!
In this day and age, the word “troll” is often used to describe various online nuisances. Yet as abundant and irksome as the modern troll can be, they aren’t usually as fearsome as their mythological counterparts. I’m not talking about the small and gentler versions that have become more common to see in media. No, there are much bigger and scarier trolls out there—and André Øvredal’s movie Troll Hunter is one of the best places to find them.
It doesn’t take long for Troll Hunter (or Trolljegeren) to dump the Blair Witch Project-esque setup and aim for something a lot fresher. The trajectory of the story is augmented by Otto Jespersen’s character Hans, the titular Troll Hunter. The second he comes barreling out of the deep, dark woods and shouts “troll” at the camera, this movie takes a turn into what feels like uncharted territory. Not only subject-wise, but also conceptually.
For fantastical and made-up subject matter in cinema, found footage is a fast way to add a guise of believability. After all, what we accept to be the most crucial aspect of documentaries—the truth—rubs off on pseudo-documentaries, despite our understanding of the pretense involved. That is what Øvredal delivered with Troll Hunter: a movie so convincing that some viewers wondered if trolls really do exist. So, had this been straightforwardly made, it likely wouldn’t have been as effective. Conventional narratives would be more inclined to treat something like trolls as flat out unreal, and never try to convince the audience to think otherwise.
Hans petrifies the three-headed Tusseladd troll.
The viewers, like the characters trailing Hans, are quickly thrown into the deeper end of that extraordinary story. They have to process all this new information while staying on the go. So, although there is no significant amount of meandering, narratively or physically, there is still a good amount of atmosphere, not to mention tension building. It’s never anything frightful, but then again, Troll Hunter isn’t your standard offering of horror; it’s more on the low end of the dark fantasy spectrum. We aren’t ever spirited away to a faraway world—we stay in rather familiar surroundings, as well as dip into those less so. The outcome is a movie where you’re constantly more in awe than in terror.
As fantasy fiction might do, Troll Hunter prefers not to deal with incredulity. There is no time to waste on doubt, as interviewer Thomas (Glenn Erland Tosterud), soundperson Johanna (Johanna Mørck), and cameraman Kalle (Tomas Alf Larsen) all follow Hans around, recording whatever this character is willing to reveal about his bizarre job. Of course, the Troll Hunter himself is not an open book; in that respect, the diegetic documentary fails to fully capture and unpack the more interesting of its two subjects. Yes, all those giant, monstrous trolls are indeed incredible, but understandably, your mind wanders to their pursuer. What kind of person signs up for this gig and then chooses to stick with it for so long?
Reviews have called out Troll Hunter for its lack of character development. In regard to Thomas and his fellow documentarians, that criticism is valid, but bear in mind, they aren’t the focus of the story, either. Meanwhile, Hans is a well-crafted character. At least better than first realized. Before he was introduced, Hans had already grown tired of the troll grind. Fed up with that low compensation for his services, resentful of the bureaucracy, and wanting to expose his employer on a large scale, Hans’ discontent is glaring.
Then there are those finer details about the Troll Hunter, such as that indifference to both the natural splendor of his everyday surroundings and the affections of an obviously smitten colleague, that also suggest some level of despondency. So it is fair to say this movie doesn’t feature any sizable growth for its characters; however, the namesake isn’t underwritten. No doubt, putting a real-life character like Otto Jespersen in that role is partly why Hans is so fascinating—maybe even relatable.
Otto Jespersen as Hans the Troll Hunter.
There is always a small risk whenever using the term “mockumentary” to describe a found-footage movie, as the word could imply humor where there is none. In the case of Troll Hunter, the term’s usage is appropriate. Some folks have claimed the English-dubbed version has the more comedic tone, however, the Norwegian cut isn’t exactly humorless. Apart from the trolls’ absurd appearances, this is a movie where the characters nearly choke on the monsters’ farts, and Christians are like walking targets. Hans’ complete apathy towards everything is another cause of laughter. Overall, the comedy is intentionally dry and inconsistent. Unfunny, though? Absolutely not.
In a movie where endemic creatures are maltreated, as well as disavowed from living freely and peacefully, it’s hard not to notice the ecological message buried beneath the story. In addition to that is the unmistakable political satire. There is this whole business about intrusive and unsightly power lines—like trolls, they’re big blemishes on the land—that leads to what is perhaps the movie’s funniest moment. The scene in question is that one where certain electric lines, the ones secretly being used to keep the trolls at bay, go in a loop and don’t actually send power to any residents. Yet the monitors of said lines don’t find this at all weird. So it stands to reason that Øvredal was having a go at those who accept the government’s doings without question.
Looking past the fact that trolls aren’t actually real, this movie is an enlightening source of information. And not just for international audiences; Norwegians, too, get schooled about their homeland’s own mythology. It’s also evident from everything on screen that Øvredal and his crew were enthusiastic about the topic. The creature designs are the most indicative of that zeal; those imaginative yet myth-accurate manifestations are equally amusing and grotesque. One second you’re laughing at their phallic noses, the next you’re white-knuckling during a hairy sequence. Most surprisingly is how well the trolls’ visual effects hold up after fifteen years. It’s not all spotless, but on the whole, they remain impressive.
Vouching for a mockumentary about trolls isn’t easy, but those who do come around and give it a shot will more than likely be grateful for the recommendation. For Troll Hunter is a real find in that vast and varied genre we call “found footage“.
A bridge troll reaches up for food and finds Hans decked out in armor.
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