A savage, visually immense revenge epic that turns Viking myth into a fever dream of blood, fate, and ritual. It’s more about atmosphere, physicality, and primal obsession than conventional storytelling, but the craft is so commanding that the experience lands hard.
The Northman
Where to watch: Buy
Movie · Action · Adventure
Thu · 2h 17m
Director: Robert Eggers
Starring: Alexander Skarsgård, Nicole Kidman, Claes Bang
Overview
Prince Amleth is on the verge of becoming a man when his father is brutally murdered by his uncle, who kidnaps the boy's mother. Two decades later, Amleth is now a Viking who's on a mission to save his mother, kill his uncle and avenge his father.
Director
Robert Eggers
Cast
Alexander Skarsgård, Nicole Kidman, Claes Bang
Curator Review
Verdict
A savage, visually immense revenge epic that turns Viking myth into a fever dream of blood, fate, and ritual. It’s more about atmosphere, physicality, and primal obsession than conventional storytelling, but the craft is so commanding that the experience lands hard.
Best for
Viewers who want brutal historical fantasy with serious visual ambition
Fans of mythic revenge stories and operatic violence
People who appreciate immersive production design, ritual, and folklore
Audiences open to slow-burn intensity and uncompromising tone
Skip if
You want a fast, plot-heavy adventure
You dislike graphic violence, nudity, or incestuous/sexualized taboo material
You prefer emotionally warm or character-comforting historical epics
You need a cleanly heroic protagonist or straightforward catharsis
Overview
The Northman is a berserker howl of a movie: elemental, savage, and committed to making every frame feel carved from cold stone and firelight. Robert Eggers uses the revenge plot as a vessel for ritual, prophecy, and inherited violence, giving the film a mythic weight that feels older than genre itself.
Worth noting
What makes it work is not just the brutality, but the precision around it. The production design, sound, and imagery create a world that feels tactile and haunted, while the performances lean into the story’s feral seriousness without tipping into parody. It is often more trance than narrative, but the trance is the point.
Bottom line
This is not a crowd-pleasing Viking adventure so much as a punishing, beautiful descent into destiny and bloodline. If you want something lean, ferocious, and unapologetically strange, it delivers. If you want warmth, wit, or relief, it probably won’t.
Top Letterboxd reviews
freya. (4.5★) · 22861 likes
men will literally avenge their father, save their mother and kill fjölnir before going to therapy
othavio 🇵🇸 · 22232 likes
anya taylor joy 👁️⠀⠀⠀👁️⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀ ⠀⠀nicole kidman 👁️👁️ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀🐺 🐺 🐺 🐺alexander skarsgård ⠀🐺👁️⠀👁️ 🐺⠀ willem dafoe 🎊👁️ ⠀👁️🎊 bjork 🧿 🧿⠀
David Sims (5★) · 18475 likes
feel like I might not have thrived in Viking times
sophie (4.5★) · 11914 likes
i love movies where willem dafoe shows up for five minutes just to act absolutely fucking insane
Dakota Joaquin (4★) · 10673 likes
Robert Eggers watched The Lion King and said “Willem, take off your clothes. I have an idea.”
Themes
revenge, fate and prophecy, mythology, family trauma, masculinity, ritual and paganism, violence, identity