Never have I seen pure rage more perfectly personified than in Alexander Skarsgard’s vicious portrayal of Amleth in The Northman. The latest film from Robert Eggers (The Witch, The Lighthouse) is a relentlessly violent adaptation of an old Scandinavian legend, but this is not your typical story of Viking warriors wearing horned helmets. No, our protagonist is more of an angry, mud-ridden force of nature with an undying thirst for revenge, unrelenting in his bloodlust for the stolen honor of his family. The Northman is an unforgiving saga of combat, sorcery, and the shackles of fulfilling one’s fate, led by a role Skarsgard is born to play.

Much like his previous films, Eggers does not shy away from pulling audiences into a transformative world that’s impressively unrelatable to modern audiences, but captivating nonetheless. It presents the way of life and thinking of a specific era as it is, regardless of how uncomfortably alien as it my appear to us in the present. The basic plot may sound familiar, however, since it’s the inspiration of Hamlet. It’s the tale of Prince Amleth, who as young boy sees his father King Aurvandill (Ethan Hawke) get murdered by his uncle Fjölnir (Claes Bang), who then forcefully marries Amleth’s mother Queen Gudrún (Nicole Kidman). Amleth flees in a boat to the open seas and vows revenge. “I will avenge you, father. I will save you, mother. I will kill you, Fjölnir,” he repeatedly says as a mantra.

The Northman refuses to romanticize the bloodshed and lawlessness of the Viking era, and Eggers presents it in a way that makes you think whether Amleth really is a hero, when that’s just how reality was in those times. As Amleth transforms himself into a living weapon during a berserker ritual, roaring at the top of his lungs with full commitment, his group of berserker warriors mercilessly raid a village with little care for human life, swinging his axe with great rage at everyone he sees. In the aftermath, he meanders indifferently when a group of innocent children are burned in a cottage. With cinematography by Jarin Blaschke, Eggers adapts spectacular and steady camera work in this sequence, and in subsequent action scenes. The elaborately slow tracking shot follows Amleth’s rampage, making angled turns when needed but ultimately keeps its sights on our hero, giving us a front row seat to an unnerving bloodbath.

His pillaging is interrupted by a seer (Bjork) who gives him news that Fjölnir has settled in Iceland with his mother, reminding him of his mission. There are lots of mystical scenes scattered throughout the chapters of The Northman, embracing an artistic interpretation of Norse mythology to its fullest. Later on, Amleth fights an undead warrior, a draugr, for a special sword, and communes with a shaman who’s in possession of a talking skull (Willem Dafoe), which happens to be an old friend from childhood, for advice. It’s up to you to interpret whether these supernatural interludes are real, but the way this film mixes gritty realism with the mythological are necessary in developing Amleth to be the man he’s meant to be, as much as it is an aesthetic choice.

Amleth’s quest for vengeance proves that revenge is both a worthy purpose and an obstacle. When faced with a choice to finally kill Fjölnir or live a peaceful life with Olga (Anya Taylor-Joy), a sorceress slave he forms a connection with, he still ultimately chooses to fulfill his duty of killing his uncle, because that’s all he’s ever known – even after he learns the truth about Fjölnir and Gudrún’s relationship. He’s much like a dog that doesn’t know what to do when it finally catches the ball.

Neither the violent combat (although they are really good), nor the breathtaking set pieces make The Northman thrive, but the unashamed indulgence Eggers and co-writer Sjón in Viking culture and its accompanying mythology set in 10th century Iceland, resulting in a gloriously brutal saga that breaks down the toxic masculinity of a bygone era. Eggers, like Amleth, fully commits to his vision, and all the gore would be meaningless without it. That’s metal!

Rating: ★★★★☆