It's rather clear what our fears revolve around now: terrorism, technological disasters (man made viruses, nuclear disasters...), illnesses... all of them are based on our undertanding (or lack of) of the current world, but, what were the main fears in medieval Europe?.
In the XIV century Europe seemed to be leaving behind The Dark Ages (a concept that is now discussed by many scholars), but suddenly, in 1348, hell descended on Earth as a terrible infectious disease that took the lives of nearly 50% of the European population. This is "a work of the Devil" and "this is God's punishment for our sins" were the main explanations that the illiterate population and their fundamentalist leaders could find (a rather convenien one for the latter).
Life was focused on religion, which makes sense if we think how horrible life was for most of the population, if your life on Earth is just misery and suffering, your only hope is trying to believe in the life after death promised by Religion. This made Religious leaders incredibly powerful, cause population would be willing to accept any crazy ideas thrown at them provided that would lead them to salvation. Don't think, just obey.
So, it's a pretty good decision that if you want to set a horror film on those times, you take Black Death and Religion as main characters.
Same as when we talk today of Islam in Saudi Arabia we're mainly talking about Fundamentalist Islam, talking about Christianism in Medieval Europe (well or in The Bible Belt today) means Fundamentalist Christianism.
And that's what makes of this such an outstanding film to me, it's one of the most fierce attacks on Religious Fundamentalism that I've ever enjoyed. Moreover, it makes a clear association between Paganism and Freedom and social progress.
Spoiler Warning starts
I absolutely love the moral of the story, the "crusaders" took the plague with them to that prosperous village, and it destroyed the whole population, but that plague was not just the physical illness, but also (and especially) that moral illnes called Religious Fundamentalism.
Spoiler Warning ends
The film is brutal, but not gratuitously brutal, it's just as that time was: hard, raw, dirty, cruel and senseless.
This film is so excellent that I'm not going to tell anything else about the story, just watch it and say thanks to the director :-) (that by the way, has also directed some other really good horror films like Triangle and Creep)
No comments:
Post a Comment