Available on DVD: “Black Death”

Sean Bean (third from left) and his not-so-merry men

Set in the 14th century, when life was cheap, Christopher Smith’s Black Death is a moderately creepy, often garishly violent action horror film frontloaded with heretics, Christians, mercenaries, witches, witch-burners, and necromancers. There’s something here for just about everyone, or at least for everyone who looks back fondly on the similarly themed Wicker Man from 1973.

Sean Bean heads up a band of cutthroats hired by the Church to infiltrate a village rumored to be plague-free. If the rumor is true, it could look bad for Christianity, since the villagers are apparently pagans. As a young friar torn between his religious vows and his ardor for a hometown lass (Kimberley Nixon), Eddie Redmayne is far more evocative than the role requires. If anyone ever decides to remake Shakespeare’s Henry V again, Redmayne’s your man.