saw both valhalla rising and black death last evening. valhalla rising is nothing the trailer promises. the action scenes in the trailer? oh, that's about all the action scenes we get. then there's a lot of wandering around, beautiful landscapes, vikings getting to north america instead of jerusalem because the navigation system was not very reliable back then. also mads mikkelsen is silent, strong and killative and totally an odin figure because, you know, ONE-EYE!! has premonitions! gets killed in a sacrificial way, although somehow i expected him to be hanged and stabbed by a spear, not smushed to death by natives! however, the chapter names were somewhat annoying.
black death, on the other hand features a strong, killative and definitely less silent sean bean who hunts witches during the black death. the plot borrows from the wicker man heavily buuuuuuuut critics seem to think is more of an aguirre tribute, just like valhalla rising which means i must see aguirre now. which features a strong killative and crazy klaus kinski. i see a pattern emerging here.