GRISLY DEATH FILM PROVES BIG HIT IN BROADSTAIRS

A grisly film made by local people in Thanet about the horrors of a medieval plague has proved an unexpected hit among cinema-goers in Broadstairs.

Film-maker Norman Thomas said: “It seems that people really like watching their friends and neighbours die in agony!”

“We put the show on in Thanet mainly for the benefit of local people who’d been in the film,” said Mr Thomas, “But we’ve now had two sell-out screenings, so the cinema’s bringing it back again.”

The film started life as an educational project to recreate the impact the plague known as the Black Death which came to Britain in 1348, had on a village in Thanet.

Shot on location in Thanet, using a cast featuring many local people, the film vividly recreates the life of the period, and the total inadequacy of the medical practices of the time to cope with the disease.

Local make-up students created the buboes or swellings characteristic of the disease and a plague pit was dug on a local farm which the film-makers filled with Thanet people playing dead corpses.

“It was amazing how keen the people were on dying,” said Mr Thomas. “Several people volunteered on condition they could die on camera!”

The film has also unearthed some of the very few things which are known about the real history of the Black Death in Thanet.

Mr Thomas said: “The Black Death had a much bigger impact on the area than previously thought.

“We discovered that most of the people in the Thanet village of Acol died in the plague, that there were plague pits in the tiny hamlet of Woodchurch, and we also found that the unusual shape of a Thanet church, All Saints in Birchington, is a direct result of the shortage of labour caused by the Black Death.

“I think the whole subject cries out for more research and we hope to return to this theme in the future.”
The film “Thanet and the Black Death” will receive its final screening on Sunday March 21st at 5pm. To book to see the film ring the Palace Cinema on 01843 865726.