Mythology and religion interweave in surreal and dangerous ways in director Nicolas Winding Refn’s mystical adventure film. Taking place in 1000 A.D., “Valhalla Rising” follows a mute Norse warrior known only as One-Eye (Mads Mikkelsen, a long way from his villainous turn in the James Bond outing, “Casino Royale”) who, along with the young Boy (Maarten Stevenson), escapes from a life of slavery and joins up with a group of Christians in search of a Crusade. Led by The General (Ewan Stewart), the crew embarks on a voyage en route to Jerusalem but ends up on an unidentified island, a lush, mist-covered forest with no animals to hunt and no food to eat … and, after a single arrow comes out of nowhere and kills one of the party, a place they come to believe could quite possibly be Hell itself. Refn reportedly conceived the film as a sort of acid trip, turning what was originally pitched as a Viking version of his own contemporary crime thriller, “Pusher,” into quite the different animal; the director cites Mario Bava’s sci-fi/horror hybrid, “Planet of the Vampires,” as a primary influence. A journey as mysterious as its silent protagonist, “Valhalla Rising” is, to date, Refn’s personal favorite of all his films; it also bears no relation to the Clive Cussler techno-thriller novel of the same name. – IFC Staff
Valhalla Rising
