‘The Northman’ Review: A Blood Soaked Viking Epic that’s Beautiful in its Brutality

The Northman is now playing in theaters, reader beware possible spoilers ahead!

Filmmaker Robert Eggers has already taken us to the dark woods of 1630’s New England and a remote island Lighthouse during the 1890s. In his latest feature, The Northman, written by Eggers and Icelandic author Sjón, we are transported to 895 AD for an epic Viking tale of betrayal, fate, and vengeance.

The cast of The Northman includes Alexander Skarsgård (True Blood), Nicole Kidman (Eyes Wide Shut), Claes Bang (“Dracula”), Anya Taylor-Joy (Last Night in Soho), Ethan Hawke (Sinister), Björk, and Willem Dafoe (The Lighthouse). King Aurvandil War-Raven (Hawke) returns to his kingdom after a season of battle to the arms of his queen Gudrún (Kidman).

Suffering a mortal wound, he feels he must ready his son Prince Amleth to take his place as king. After a spiritual ceremony performed by his trusted friend and court jester Heimir (Dafoe), the father and son are ambushed by the king’s brother Fjölnir (Bang). When Aurvandil is murdered, his son is set upon next, but he manages to escape his would-be killer. He flees to the sea, repeating his new mantra, set on exacting his revenge.

Years later, Amleth (Skarsgård) now fully grown, has been taken in by a Viking berserker clan and raised as their own. Fully immersed in the savagery of battle, he feels nothing but hate and knows only death. After a particularly savage invasion, where a town is laid to waste, he is confronted by a blind seer (Björk) who speaks of fate and his destiny. After overhearing a conversation about the whereabouts of Fjölnir, he disguises himself as an enslaved person and stows away on a vessel headed for his uncle’s camp. Here, he meets Olga (Taylor-Joy), who claims she is a sorceress.

As he contends with the daily abuse and hardship as a slave, he and Olga devise a plan to enact their vengeance upon the soldiers and the Lord of the island, rescue his mother, and take back the crown he was denied. After learning of a mystic sword called Draugr from a warlock, he now has the weapon to dole out his blood lust, and his sword is thirsty.

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As romance blooms between the two and dark secrets are brought to light, fate will deliver him to a crossroads. Amleth must choose between running or venturing into the Gates of Hel itself to fulfill his quest of revenge to protect the one he loves.

Visually The Northman is Eggers’s most impressive film yet. Filmed in Ireland, the picturesque landscape feels otherworldly. Where his previous works are more contained to a single location, The Northman is a journey of a film. Taking viewers to battlefields lined with entrails, the unforgiving sea, breathtaking vistas, mountainsides, and into the bowels of an active volcano. Sweeping camera movement, along with impressive tracking shots are a welcome addition to the filmmaker’s arsenal, and give the scenes much more scope as they develop. 

Visions and dreams play a significant role. The royal family tree is portrayed as a heart emanating arteries as branches from which dead kings hang in varying degrees of decomposition under a corpse hue. Valkyrie gallops through the sky into the cosmos toward the gates of Valhalla. Viking corpses awake, hallucination-inducing mushrooms are ingested, and chatty severed heads serve up a VFX feast that leaves you stuffed but satisfied. 

The cast is phenomenal, led by Alexander Skarsgård who does all the heavy lifting, literally and figuratively. He’s a man torn between the ideals of masculinity, birthright, and rage. Where no honor could be more tremendous than dying by a blade in glorious battle and knowing a life with love and serenity. His performance is a pure primal instinct, and I think it’s his best yet. Anya Taylor-Joy is magnificent and delivers another hypnotic performance that blends her fearlessness and ethereal abilities. Nicole Kidman is a scene thief; she isn’t on screen much, but when she is, you pay attention. Absolute power emanates from every syllable she delivers. 

The Northman, much like Eggers‘s previous films, has supernatural elements that only add to the mythology of this world. The magic feels born of nature and pagan ideology, with witches, warlocks, swords of legend, anthropomorphic wildlife, and zombie Viking guardians galore. Still, it never feels out of place or shoehorned in despite the harsh realism of the surrounding story. The most recent comparison I can make is The Green Knight, but it feels more grounded in this lore version.

Beautiful in its brutality, The Northman delivers a fable of a stolen childhood, destiny, redemption, and a son’s path to vengeance that no blood can quench. A modern-day Hamlet told from the halls of Valhalla with majestic landscapes, a haunting Celtic score to elevate the visuals, and memorable performances. Unforgiving in its viciousness, it’s a hero’s journey whose destination may be unsatisfying to some, but you’ll be glad you took the trip. 4/5

★★★★

You can check out the Red Band trailer for The Northman and the poster below, the film is now playing only in theaters. Be sure to stay tuned to ScaryNerd for more of all things horror, sci-fi, fantasy and everything in between.

The Northman is now playing in theaters

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