Prince Amleth (Alexander Skarsgård) watches his father, King Aurvandill (Ethan Hawke), get butchered by his uncle, Fjölnir (Claes Bang). He flees, vowing to avenge his father, save his mother (Nicole Kidman), and kill his uncle. Standard stuff, right?
If you hated the slow-burn ambiguity of The Lighthouse , run away. If you thought Braveheart was too polite, buy a ticket. The Northman
The Northman is none of those things.
Eggers shoots this thing like a horror film. The long, unbroken takes make you feel every single mud-soaked, blood-spattered step. The Viking rituals—the chanting, the body contortions, the barking like dogs—aren't just weird for the sake of being weird. They feel real . You genuinely believe these people lived in a world where spirits lived in trees and a man could turn into a bear. If you hated the slow-burn ambiguity of The
Let’s be honest: When you hear “Viking movie,” your brain probably goes straight to horned helmets, cheesy accents, and Kirk Douglas singing in a 1958 Technicolor epic. Or, more recently, the hyper-stylized, political drama of Vikings on the History Channel. Eggers shoots this thing like a horror film
In a world of sanitized Marvel quips and CGI armies, The Northman feels like a slap in the face from a frozen corpse. It reminds us that cinema can be dangerous, spiritual, and utterly insane.