Hamlet Plays Conan

Prince Amleth, ‘The Northman’, losing his royal inheritance with the murder of his father the king, vows vengeance against his uncle, killer of his father, and kidnapper of his mother.

The Northman’ is loosely based on the Norse legend of Amleth, son of King Horwendil and his wife Gerutha. Horwendil was murdered by the king’s brother Feng, who then married Gerutha. Amleth feigned madness to retain his head and to plot his vengeance upon his uncle for murdering his father.

Amleth was Shakespeare’s inspiration for Hamlet in his most famous tragedy ‘Hamlet, Prince of Denmark’. Hamlet is the son of the late king of Denmark and the king’s wife Gertrude. He is also the nephew of the present king, Claudius who killed his father and took Hamlet’s mother as his wife. Hamlet is told by his father’s ghost that Claudius murdered him and that he must exact revenge for his death. The play climaxes where Hamlet, Gertrude, and Claudius all meet a tragic end.

Genre:  Action—Adventure—Fantasy—Historical—Mythological–Tragedy

Directed by: Robert Eggers

Screenplay by: Sjon, Robert Eggers

Music by:  Robin Carolan, Sebastian Gainsborough

Cast: Alexander Skarsgard, Nicole Kidman, Anya Taylor-Joy

Film Locations:  Ireland and Iceland

Els: 7.5/10

IMDb:  7.0/10

Rotten Tomatoes Critics:  90

Rotten Tomatoes Audience:  64

Metacritic Metascore: 82

Metacritic User Score:  7.2/10

Theaters: 22 April 2022

Runtime: 136 minutes

Budget:  $70-90 million

Worldwide Box Office:  $69.6 million

Source: IMDb. Rotten Tomatoes. Metacritic. Viking.Style. Shakespear’s Tragedies, 1980. Graphic: Movie Poster, Focus Features.

Fear the Night

Arcadians.

Theaters: 12 March 2024

Streaming: 1 May 2018

Runtime:  92 minutes

Genre:  Action – Horror

Els:  6.0/10

IMDB:  5.6/10

Rotten Tomatoes Critics:  83/100

Rotten Tomatoes Audience:  55/100

Metacritic Metascore:  60/100

Metacritic User Score:  5.6/10

Awards: —

Directed by: Ben Brewer

Music by:  Kristin Kontrol and Josh Martin

Cast: Nicholas Cage

Film Locations:  Ireland

Budget:  – $–

Worldwide Box Office:  $0.9 Million

In an apocalyptic world Paul (Cage) and his two sons live a normal farm life during daylight hours and lock themselves into their fortress home during the night, when fuzzy anorexic creatures with extreme dental abnormalities roam in the darkness to kill and feed on humans.

The acting is very good with excellent visuals, but the story is weak on details and inspiration. An OK movie dreaming of a sequel which will never happen.

The name of this movie intrigued me since it was never actually referenced unless I missed it. Arcadia is a district in the central Peloponnesian plane of ancient Greece, which meant refuge or an idyllic place. A place of refuge seems applicable for this movie but not a safe refuge. Or it could just be the city of Arcadia NE of Los Angeles.

Source: IMDb. Rotten Tomatoes. Metacritic. Wikipedia. Graphic: Movie poster for Arcadian.