Amazing how Eggers recreated the norms of the North, presented Nordic (bodily) horror that is far superior to that other Nordic horror film, and balanced ambiguity on whether the mythological elements are imagined or not to justify revenge.

It felt too theatrical, but at least the cinematography proved theatrics can work. It's a shame the film underperformed and the director's vision was not entirely fulfilled because of cuts, but since he managed to do so well under studio interference, I'm impressed!

Another tale of revenge to add to the endless list of revenge tales, however, it adapts one of the earlier tales and tries to be accurate -- ignoring truly archaic English while respecting Old Norse and Old East Slavic -- so it's valid.