If you happen to’ve seen Robert Eggers’ astonishing double-whammy of The Witch and The Lighthouse, you’ll have a way of his directorial voice – psychological style fare, steeped within the components, with filth underneath its fingernails and brutality round each nook. Now, with The Northman, he’s going large – preserving the identical outlook, however amping it up right into a visceral Viking epic starring Alexander Skarsgård as hulking Norse warrior Amleth. Shot out within the wilderness with epic lengthy takes and sensible results galore, it guarantees a no-holds-barred revenge story with moments of eye-popping motion.

Or, ought to that be, throat-ripping. As a result of in a single sequence, Amleth lets rip (actually) on an enemy’s neck on the finish of a none-more-ambitious prolonged take, taking some 30 makes an attempt to get proper. “It was the top of a really lengthy, advanced shot of the Viking berserkers raiding a Slav village,” Skarsgård tells Empire. “The choreography was so tough, with all these components, 50 individuals combating concurrently, the extras and the horses… making it look good was an actual enterprise.” After which, there was the second he actually needed to, er, sink his tooth into. “That climax, the place I rip a man’s throat out and howl on the moon… it was primal. I simply let all of it out,” he laughs. “I used to be exhausted, and I believe you see it within the shot. I used to be a wreck. Actually a wreck.”

Having needed to make a Viking film for years, the uncompromising course of of making The Northman had a serious impact on its main man. “It’s a troublesome act to comply with,” he admits. “Plenty of stuff that I might need mentioned sure to a few years in the past, I’m simply not that eager on doing anymore. I really feel a bit misplaced. I don’t know the place to go from right here. This expertise… it positively modified me. I believe it modified most individuals who had been on that mountaintop.” Carry on the berserker motion.

Learn Empire’s full function on The Northman – chatting with Eggers and his solid, together with Skarsgård, Anya Taylor-Pleasure, Claes Bang, Ethan Hawke, and Willem Dafoe – within the Physician Unusual In The Multiverse Of Insanity problem, on sale Thursday 17 March and obtainable to order on-line right here. The Northman involves UK cinemas from 15 April.