( image courtesy > Straneillusioni”>Indie-eye cinema >> Straneillusioni )
Well not technically a “horror” movie Valhalla Rising does fit in with our sense of the weird.
Its one of those movies people are either going to like or hate. I don’t know if one could ever “love”
a movie like this one.
****SPOILER ALERT***************
The gist of it is about a guy back about 1100 AD has been a pit fighter chained to a pole for some viking tribe to place bets on the fights. The guys he fights of course are not chained but get their asses handed to them in pretty gruesome fashion.
The guy escapes and kills his captors but gets a tag along kid who speaks for him. He meets up with a bunch of christian vikings going to the “holy land” on crusade, they get lost wind up in North America and just about everybody dies. Lots of blood n’ violence and not allot of dialogue. HOWEVER- turns out the psychotic pit fighter is clairvoyant and can see the future through strange violent visions. He is called One Eye in an Odinic sort of way.
Its in his visions and the weird mushroom trip they all go on that have some odd messages in it. Best description I could give the film in summary is visceral. After watching it it still makes my head hurt a bit but appealed to me on a deeper level.
There is some discussion amongst Odinist followers that perhaps One Eye is an incarnation of the All Father or the like, could be I’d like to see some feedback on that as to reasons why, etc. Myself I didn’t get that impression, maybe he was touched or gifted in that respect possibly. In the end he told the boy to stand fast and gave himself as a sacrifice for the boy’s life. Interesting in that he would slaughter the so called civilized Christian vikings without a thought but gave himself over to the “savages” to be killed. For me that was a very interesting and poignant scene. I invite anyone to leave comments below as to their own interpretations of the film and what it meant to them.
Overall I think it was a very powerful film for reasons of symbolism, the historic background it was set in and some very powerful messages even if on the subconscious level. -EvS
Did I tell you we both saw this movie twice? I’ve dreamt on it, thought on it. It has haunted me ever since watching it.
As Odin said “I sacrificed myself to myself”. He lived on through the boy and his spirit became a part of the the objective and subjective natures in North America. There was several layers to this movie, one of action to Viking heathen thought/religion and all points in between. That’s part of my take on it. He was touched by Odin, if not possessed by him.
At this point I say “Hail Wotan”. I burned a copy of the film so will be watching it over and over again, with different thoughts each time.
I’ve been having some very horrific and militaristic dreams relating to the movie. It’s certainly in my personal top ten films.