Valhalla Rising is habitually stylized in true Winding Refn fashion. The film is established in a slightly distorted Norway. The Scottish Highlands lend themselves brilliantly to this odd idea of a landscape that continues through the film to the end. The stunning cinematography is accompanied by some of the most alluring and intriguing use of slow motion I've seen in a long time. Emotive and sometimes painfully exaggerated, it pushes the element of psychological anguish experienced by various characters. Extreme or unusual framing; dead centre or hard right or left of frame for the majority of shot compositions builds an abstract view of a cruel and unforgiving world, expertly created by Morten Søborg.

               In some cases, the downright odd picture grading creates eye wateringly stark or shocking and striking tableaux. Piercing reds followed by sky light blues or saturation starved greys. Lush purples contrasted against dark browns and agressive yellows. Gorgeous. The enigmatic concept behind the sound design is either minimal or, on occasion, entirely absent. Speech is clear, distinct and sometimes scarily normal over a landscape that should be howling with mountainous wind storms. Near silent environments are peppered by clarified voices and sound effects. The musical accompaniment is also few and far between. Rising to a crescendo on occasion only to disappear to leave another void in it's wake.

The entire cast, flawlessly portray a grotesque world in which animalistic urges, fanatical religious ideology and (on occasion) financial greed, all shepherd brutal violence and psychological disorder. 90% of all the acting comes directly from silent and sometimes motionless faces as 98% of the film is entirely reflective and melancholic, without a dialogue driven script. The moments that are scripted, however, are expertly written. Thankfully, no crow barred lines or unnecessary dialogue contaminate the writing. Unfortunately, the script also contains as many answers as a badly written fortune cookie.

Our Danish director seems to have played his usual, well perfected trick of using incredibly beautiful technicalities in his pictures to lure you into a world where his onslaught of visual synonyms and metaphors, sprinkled with an excruciatingly minimal amount of tangible moments, leaves you confused and cheated (much like current cinema prices; my first cine-joke). You leave the film knowing little more than you did when you first arrived. Valhalla Rising is ruthlessly open to interpretation. Loosely based on the doctrines of the Norse God; Odin and some abstract and elusive links to some stones found on the Delaware shore, this is about historically accurate as it is coherent. What it does perfectly is create a terrifying sense of exhaustion, looming darkness, fear and death. Without trying to spoil it, a handful of characters are lead to the same end as if they had been locked in a 4' by 4' box with no windows or doors for a few weeks. Either dead or left totally insane...

As much love as I have for the cinematography, script and other technical aspects of this film, I feel that Valhalla Rising may send some of the more casual moviegoers into the same hole as the characters they follow on screen. This film is a hard one to watch. It's not easily accessible to say the least. The first time I watched it, I found myself trawling my Twitter or Facebook feed on my phone by accident halfway through. Such is the difficulty with watching a Winding Refn film. I had to watch it twice to properly give it a chance.

 

Upon my second viewing however, knowing exactly what I was in for, I thoroughly enjoyed it. This is a film that leaves you to read into it entirely as you please. The subtle mythology behind it is dosed enough in a way to get fanatics shouting at the screen but won't leave you confused as a layman. At least not confused in an intentional way.