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.

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...

As we get to summer with a lot of polished blockbusters, this is something a bit grittier, and a bit more interesting.

Robert Eggers’s rousing new film has all the ingredients you’d anticipate in any self-respecting Nordic epic.

Epic, brutally violent, nuanced, and dreamlike, The Northman is a showcase for a unique directorial voice worth celebrating.

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.