unrelentingly brutal and savage in form and story. the raging score intensifies the unyielding cinematography that works carefully to capture the swift violence of action sequences.

skarsgard is perfect in the role. hulking and massive, drenched in sweat and slick blood. his presence is menacing and terrible. i only wish we had gotten a bit more internal with him. there were moments in the film that could lend themselves to a quieter, more refectory beat, but those concluded quickly.

i'm interested in understanding the allegorical elements of the story. i'm very unfamiliar with norse mythology and the stories that inspired eggers’ script, but there's some really interesting imagery and character work that alludes to christian ideology through which amleth is, more or less, compared to jesus.