With 4 options in his filmography, we now have sure expectations for a Robert Eggers movie. We would like moody visuals, we would like glorious performances (particularly from Willem Dafoe), and we would like folks utilizing phrases that nobody has utilized in 1000 years. What we don’t anticipate, nevertheless, is a sequel. Regardless of their stylistic similarities, every of Eggers’s 4 films happen somewhere else and time durations, minimizing the potential for connections between them.
One would anticipate the identical to be true of Eggers’s newest movie, Werwulf, which stars Aaron Taylor-Johnson as a farmer in thirteenth century England. However in a latest dialog with Esquire, Eggers revealed that he toyed with the origins of the werewolf fantasy in a earlier movie, The Northman. When discussing the origins of legends about people turning into wolfs, Eggers noticed, “If we actually wish to get into it, we will speak in regards to the Berserkirs [an ancient Norse term for especially ferocious warriors who wore bearskins] and the Úlfhéðnar [another Old Norse word, for “wolf-coats”] that you just see in The Northman that come from Viking tradition.”
Launched in 2022, The Northman starred Alexander Skarsgård as Amleth, a ninth century Viking who sought revenge towards his uncle for the homicide of his father. A retelling of one of many myths that influenced Shakespeare‘s Hamlet, The Northman featured Eggers’s typical eye for historic element, particularly in his depiction of Viking tradition.
An early scene finds younger Amleth (Oscar Novak) and his father King Aurvandill (Ethan Hawke) appearing like canine as a part of a ceremony held by Heimir the Idiot (Dafoe, in an excellent efficiency, as anticipated). After a seven-year time soar, we see Amleth among the many ulfhéðinn, performing one other ritual to (metaphorically) rework from people to beast earlier than going into battle.