A taste for viral plagues

Somewhere under "Preferences" in my Netflix profile is the entry: Customer enjoys watching movies about viral plagues. Given our rather dark taste in films, I can only imagine what else is on the list.

I suspect the reason for the profile update lies in my decision to view "Black Death." Contrary to the apparent suspicion of Netflix, however, I didn't choose it because of the plague theme. It was the opportunity to see a greasy-haired Sean Bean wielding a sword and wearing a chain mail. (What am I going to do next year when Game of Thrones returns without him?)

Just as the name implies, the movie is set in England during the plague years, but it is definitely not written from the same script as Monty Python used. Darker than dark, it follows the Bishop's envoy who is intent on ridding a village of its satanic protector. When Luc asked if there would really be any monsters in the movie, I assured him that terrified people were monstrous enough and I was right.

Although the movie was dark, by the end you couldn't help but feel optimistic about the fate of humankind. Sure there is plenty of violence and despair. People still commit unspeakable acts. But in the majority of countries, we certainly aren't burning healers as witches, watching half our family die and hearing "Bring out your dead."