For director Robert Eggers, it’s all in the detail. And that keen eye for accuracy and period has become his trademark over the course of just four films, along with a taste for violent horror and the darkest of atmospheres. His third film, The Northman (2022) has it all, plus the spectacle of an epic and a very familiar storyline. And it charges onto Netflix today, Thursday, August 28.
Based on the Norse legend of the Viking prince, Amleth, the film follows the young nobleman on his quest for bloody vengeance against the uncle who murdered his father and married his widowed mother. Sounds familiar? It should do. It’s the tale that inspired Shakespeare’s Hamlet, although his version was inevitably more wordy than Eggers’. Alexander Skarsgard plays Amleth who, as a boy, witnessed the slaughter of his father, King Aurvandil (Ethan Hawke), at the hands of his uncle Fjolnir’s (Claes Bang) henchmen. Unable to tolerate the marriage of his uncle and his mother (Nicole Kidman), the prince escapes and grows into manhood in exile, obsessed with the thought of avenging his father’s death but, when he returns home, his plans turn out to have broader ramifications, kick-starting a bigger, and more terrifying, retribution.
