It’s a big day for high profile genre releases landing their R ratings. Evil Dead Rise landed an R rating for “strong bloody horror violence and gore, and some language“, Men was rated R for “disturbing and violent content, graphic nudity, grisly images and language“. And also listed among the latest FilmRatings.com announcements is director Robert Eggers’ Viking revenge film The Northman, which has earned its R rating with “strong bloody violence, some sexual content and nudity”.

The film is scheduled to receive a theatrical release on April 22nd.

Scripted by Eggers and Icelandic poetic / novelist Sjón, The Northman has only been described as

“a Viking revenge saga set in Iceland at the turn of the 10th century” that will show “how far a Viking prince will go to seek justice for his murdered father.”

The film reunites Eggers with his The Witch (watch it HERE) stars Ralph Ineson and Anya Taylor-Joy. Also in the cast are Alexander Skarsgård (Big Little Lies), Nicole Kidman (Being the Ricardos), Björk (Dancer in the Dark), Ethan Hawke (Sinister), Claes Bang (The Girl in the Spider’s Web), Olwen Fouéré (Texas Chainsaw Massacre), and Willem Dafoe, who Eggers previously worked with on The Lighthouse (watch that one HERE).

The film was being produced by Lars Knudsen, with New Regency providing the financing.

Saying he was blown away by the footage he has seen from the movie, Ineson described the following moment:

Alexander Skarsgård looks like an absolute beast. [There’s] a scene where he beats this guy in a battle; bends down and rips his throat out with his teeth, screams to the gods and he’s got his shirt off – and you think: ‘My god that’s not a bodybuilder doing a scene, that’s like a proper serious actor!’ He’s made himself look like some kind of monster for the part, the dedication’s incredible.”

Sounds like a good time to us! Are you looking forward to The Northman? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

You can read an interview we conducted with Eggers at THIS LINK.