The Northman

Not since Christopher Nolan’s Inception has a studio executive shown such balls of steel, or perhaps I should say boller av stal.

Blood runs, mud flies and bones crack — in crisp, percussive ways you’ve hopefully never heard in real life — throughout The Northman, a grand, gut-spilling Norse epic that feels at once earthily ancient and thrillingly modern.

It's brutal and violent, but there's something really beautiful about it.

A death-metal ode to honor, retribution and sacrifice that casts payback in a surprisingly, and thrillingly, positive light.

If meant to be a provocative meditation on freewill and revenge, and a bloody, visceral, painstakingly-detailed spectacle it maybe only delivers on the spectacle.

Overall, despite the lavish treatment, the film is surprisingly dreary...

Neither tragedy nor Eggers skimp on violence, screams, sweat, blood and swords, along with ambitious mise en scène, some of the best photography and one of the most epic soundtracks of the year. [Full review in Spanish]

Filled with stunning cinematography, the film is an intense, immersive, sometimes surreal, descent into an otherworldly milieu of folkloric horror and medieval barbarism.

As a bloody and most certainly trippy revenge tale, The Northman is astounding in many places. Eggers may not have created the ultimate Viking tale, but he has crafted an astonishing spectacle that combines his established style with something larger.

Eggers’ visual style is a roller coaster of primordial, oneiric imagery of an epic, wild landscape, turbulent supernatural forces and untamed nature sans any whiff of domestication.