Starring: Alexander Skarsgard, Nicole Kidman, Claes Bang, Ethan Hawke, Bjork, Anya Taylor-Joy, and Willem Dafoe
Distributor: Universal Pictures International
Runtime: 137 mins. Reviewed in Apr 2022
Reviewer: Peter W Sheehan
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This ancient-historical thriller film is set near to the turn of the first century in Iceland, and tells of a warrior Viking Prince, who embarks on a mission of revenge after his uncle slaughters his father.
This English-speaking, multi-national, Viking-revenge saga tells the story of warrior Prince Amleth (Swedish actor Skarsgard), who seeks revenge on his uncle Fjolnir (Bang), for murdering his father, King Aurvandil (Hawke). Amleth’s mother, and wife of King Aurvandil, is Queen Gudrun (Kidman). As a young child, Amleth watched in horror as his uncle brutally murdered his father before his eyes, and he grows up with vengeance in his heart. The murder means that Fjolnir has usurped a throne that is rightfully Amleth’s by birth, and as Amleth grows to adulthood, the wrongs done to him through the years by Fjolnir fester within him.
Director Eggers has developed a reputation for directing quality arthouse horror which he demonstrated more subtly in The Lighthouse (2020). Dafoe took a lead role in The Lighthouse, and appears again in this film in a minor role as Heimir the Fool, which offers viewers rare moments of comic relief. The filming took place in Ireland, a country that provides excellent atmospheric, misty scenery, highly suited to an epic set in 895CE. The Irish vistas are wondrous.
The movie lives up to Eggers’ reputation as a dark director. It blends history with myth and Eggers develops a sense of foreboding, by combining dread with paranoia and madness. In the film, Eggers mixes the real and the unreal to foster a cinematic experience that is unsettling and menacing, as he did in The Lighthouse. The film brings Amleth to the edge of madness, and Amleth’s mental state allows Eggers to execute the cinematic requirements of bloodthirsty, punishing revenge. The film is full of violent, brutal action that fills the screen.
Since witnessing his father’s vicious murder, Amleth has harboured feelings of revenge. He not only wanted to avenge his father’s killing, but he became increasingly aware as an adult of the fact that his mother was forced to marry the man who killed his father and her husband, and this fans his vengeance. As a grown man, Amleth knows he must defend what is rightfully his, but he sees himself having to also avenge the suffering and anguish he believes has been endured by his beloved mother.
Eggers’ direction includes imagery that reflects the fantasy elements of Norse mythology. He freely photographs the severed heads of warriors as prizes in combat, and plays with superstition and magic in startling ways. Amleth’s love interest as a young man is Olga (Taylor-Joy), who is shown to be in touch with the supernatural, as are other characters in the film such as Seeress (Bjork). The acting of Skarsgard and Kidman is impressive – they played well together as an abusive husband and wife in the much-awarded television series, Little Big Lies (2017-2019). Here, they play dutiful son and loving mother, though Kidman makes an effective, dramatic turn-about from a loving mother to something more calculatingly unpleasant as the film plays on. The strength of vengeance in this film is demonstrated indirectly as well as directly, and allows Eggers to come to a final violent conclusion in the film’s semi-animated depiction of ‘The Gates of Hell’.
This is a violent movie, with strong, graphic displays of cruelty. It is remarkable that a film that is so cruel, vicious and gory as this one failed to gain an Adults Only classification. Explicit brutality, frequent decapitations, rape, decomposed heads, blood sacrifices, and body-gore are evident throughout. The film captures majestic Irish scenery, but in being directed in the way it is, it is an action-thriller that fits the horror genre. For Eggers, it is recognisably his movie, and horrific male vengeance is the name of his game.
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