- Directed by Robert Eggers
- Written by Sjon, Robert Eggers
- Stars Alexander Skardsgard, Nicole Kidman, Claes Bang
- Run Time: 2 Hour, 16 Minutes
- Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oMSdFM12hOw
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
It’s beautiful to look at and amazingly filmed. It seems very authentic. It has a good story, and it’s surprisingly not action after action. There are many lulls. It’s not really horror, but there is enough creepy imagery, witchery, and visions to make it a close neighbor.
Synopsis
We start out with Viking ships in the year 895. The king has returned home, and Amleth and his mother the queen await. King Aurvandil arrives and says his brother Fjolnir will be joining them soon. He seems less than fun, but Heimer the Fool makes jokes. The king was wounded in battle, but he thinks Amleth is still too innocent to be named a successor.
The King and Amleth go into the temple of Odin and crawl around like howling animals. The king makes Amleth swear to avenge him if he should be slain by the enemy. Amleth has a psychedelic experience in the ritual. Not long after, the king is killed in an ambush by his own brother, Fjolnir. The king curses Fjonir with his dying breath as Amleth watches from a hiding place. “Bring me the boy’s head!” Shouts Fjolnir. Ameth gets away in a small boat, swearing to avenge his parents.
In the land of the Rus, we see that years have passed and Amleth has grown up. Doing lots of big boy exercises along the way. He’s pretty fit. The warriors do a ritual for Odin similar to what we’ve already seen just with more people. The next day, they attack a walled town and we see that Amleth is very good at killing people. They lock all the people they haven’t killed or enslaved in a house and set it on fire. They are not gracious victors.
Amleth sees a strange fortune-telling priestess in the village. She talks to him about his last teardrop and reminds him of his oath. She encourages him to fulfill his destiny. She details the fate that the Gods have spun for him and vanishes. Amleth gets news of Fjolnir, who soon lost the kingdom. He cuts his hair and boards a boat full of slaves, blending in as one of them, destined to his uncle’s estate. He meets Olga on the boat, and she knows who he is.
The boat sinks, but Amleth and Olga make it to shore, in Iceland. Elsewhere Fjolnir teaches his own son about leadership. His order of slaves has arrived, and he doesn’t recognize Amleth. Fjolnir especially likes Olga’s white hair. Almeth sees that his mother is actually still alive.
Amleth goes to see the he-witch, and we see what became of Heimir the Fool, and it isn’t pretty. The ghost of Heimir tells Amleth about his fated sword that he must use to kill Fjolnir. Amleth goes to a crypt and has to fight the undead guardian of the sword.
The next day, Amleth is drafted with other slaves to fight in a kind of mock battle, it’s basically soccer with big clubs. Fjolnir’s son, Gunnar, runs out into the field and is rescued by Amleth, so he’s a bit of a hero now and is given new privileges, including Olga.
Several of Fjolnir’s men are killed one night and their body parts shaped into the form of a horse. We know Amleth did it, but to everyone else, it’s a mystery. An old woman says the wounds on the death are not of this world. Fjonil says it’s Trollish sorcery and starts arming the slaves for additional defense.
Olga does some Earth magic, and many of the soldiers kill themselves and each other – drugged out of their minds. Amleth reveals himself to his mother, but she raves that she never liked Amleth’s father anyway. She always like Fjolnir better, cause he’s a real man. She was in on the coup and actively encouraged it. This is not what Amleth was expecting to hear. Oh, and she likes Gunnar better than she ever liked Amleth. Still, she thinks he’s hot, and if he kills Fjolnir and his son, she’ll do anything he wants, wink, wink. Ew. He lets her live but kills the eldest son on the way out.
The Queen tells Fjolnir all about Amleth and that he killed Thorir, his son. Fjolnir kills some of the slaves until Amleth intervenes. Amleth kills ten men without even taking his sword out of the sheath (it only works at night). Still, they wear him down and capture him.
After Thorir’s funeral, Fjolnir finds that Amleth has escaped with the help of a valkyrie. The valkyrie turns out to be Olga, and the two recuperate together and make it to a boat heading away. Turns out, she’s pregnant with his child, which makes her Fjolnir’s target too. He jumps overboard, choosing to go back to finish with the revenge quest.
Amleth gets to Fjolnir’s camp and gets to work. He ends up killing his mother, which she thanks him for. Gunnar hops on Amleth’s back and goes at him with a dagger, and he dies quickly too. Finally, it’s just Amleth, who is pretty beat-up at this point and Fjolnir, who is fresh and ready for a fight. Instead, he just picks up the bodies and leaves. They’ll meet at the gates of Hel for their final battle. The slaves burn the estate to the ground.
Later, at the Gates of Hel, the two men fight next to an erupting volcano, which had been prophesied. Eric Northman, of course, has the “high ground” and throws the ring into— no, wait— Fjolnir runs Amleth through as he is beheaded. It’s a tie! Amleth has a vision of Olga and their two children before he goes to Valhalla.
Commentary
It’s not strictly a horror film, but there’s a lot of creepy imagery, witchcraft, oddball characters, and at least one battle with an undead zombie. There’s plenty of gore and violence, and the witchcraft aspect alone makes it horror-adjacent. Don’t be looking for lots of monsters though, they aren’t here.
It’s loosely based on an actual old legend about Amleth, and it’s said that the Amleth legend may have been one of Shakespeare’s influences for Hamlet.
As always with a Robert Eggers film, the scenery and sets are outstanding. The attention to detail overall is really impressive; this all feels quite authentic. Story-wise, it’s an epic telling of a mythological character, and it’s all pretty predictable if you know how those tales always go.
It’s a bit long, but it’s not boring. There’s not as much action as you might expect, but it’s a good story that looks great. Just don’t expect any surprises.