Pilgrimage (2017)

Pilgrimage is the kind of medieval adventure that feels scraped out of wet stone and candle smoke—gorgeously shot, tactile, and bracingly serious about the world it inhabits. Brendan Muldowney turns a simple escort mission into a tense, mud-and-blood road movie where faith, fear, and survival travel side by side, and every stretch of landscape seems to hide a new test. Tom Holland brings a nervy, human vulnerability to the young novice at the story’s heart, while Jon Bernthal’s wordless intensity practically becomes a weather system, and Richard Armitage adds a chilling edge of authority whenever he steps in. It’s not for the squeamish—this is grim, hard violence, not swashbuckling romance—but if you want an old-fashioned historical thriller with real atmosphere and stakes you can feel in your bones, it hits with fierce conviction.

Pilgrimage is clearly aiming for a muddy, morally thorny medieval road thriller where faith, politics, and survival collide, and it does nail a bleak atmosphere with committed performances (especially from Bernthal and a quietly solid Tom Holland). The problem is the pacing: it can drift into long, samey stretches of trudging and murmured tension, only to jolt you awake with sudden, nasty violence that feels more punishing than purposeful. Character and spiritual themes are presented in fairly blunt strokes, so if you’re hoping for a nuanced meditation on belief, you may find it frustratingly shallow. Watch it if you want grim scenery, brutal skirmishes, and a dour mood; skip it if you need tight storytelling, richer character work, or violence that feels meaningfully earned.