The Northman

Originally published on 18/04/22 on Letterboxd

Doesn’t quite overcome Eggers’ tendency to suffocate his subjects within the frame, but his clinical attention to symmetry and procedure functions much better within the specific context of ritualized masculinity and Norse mythology than against the backdrop of English folklore. Refreshing to see a film like this, enshrouded in darkness, that chooses to utilise its shadows as tangible elements of the environment, as opposed to the unwelcome muddiness that characterises similar efforts (namely Eggers’ The Witch). Not nearly as visceral as it could be, but this is still an impressively vicious work that, at the very least, has the temerity to ground the audience within the primal landscapes it waxes on about, instead of simply alluding to it for the sake of “subtlety”.