“Stockholm Bloodbath”, directed by Mikael Håfström, is a medieval thriller that traces the history of the Stockholm Bloodbath massacre. It is an overly ambitious film, which cannot seem to decide what it is, half the time including a slew of characters that are working for opposing factions. Channeling all the characters into a few coherent death scenes is virtually impossible as there is so much context and multiple narratives to be explored to push the film forward.
The Swedish tale, which took place in 1520, gets underway in a gentler fashion in the very beginning but soon becomes rather brutal with the introduction of the Danish soldier. The story initially starts with captivating elements such as the beautiful deer huntress named Freja Eriksson (played by Alba August). With her cinematic complexities and vast array of cultivated personality traits, she is shown to kill a Danish soldier in the snowy woods which then sets flight to the wider events within the movie. After getting a kill under her belt, she rushes home to warn her father of an army which is shown to cause a breach in her father’s marriage with her sister, Anne. This in turn causes Freja to be dispatched as the messenger all over again. All in all, the movie has a lot to offer and is an absolute must-watch as it doesn’t shy away from exposing its roots.
Moving on, the movie has an underlying theme of brutal military forces along with grotesque visuals that are portrayed through characters like ‘evil man Didrik Slagheck’ (played by Mikkel Boe Følsgaard), ‘guy with a scar, Sylvestre (played by Thomas Chaanhing), and ‘German brother’ and ‘another German brother’ who go by the names of Hans and Adolf Gablein. The presence of Holger aka The Big Danish Guy is also noted without missing a beat, and the movie further explains the reasoning behind giving these characters nicknames to begin with. While there are many fascinating and non-standard aspects to this horror romance genre, the introduction of characters along with their violent titles elevates the audience’s imagination of the movie and sets the stage for Freja to go through even more struggles.
Within the end, there is utter chaos as the Danish move on to the family of Anne and Johan and ravage them while holding Johan hostage.
Kristina Gyllenstierna (Emily Beecham), the King of Sweden’s recently widowed spouse, joins Anne and Freja in pursuing vengeance against all men responsible for their families’ murder. Similarly, they wish to unite with Kristian II’s (Claes Bang) Archbishop Gustave Trolle (Jakob Oftebro) to stop Kristina from taking over Sweden.
While discussing the sundry characters and subplots further these do seem to lengthen the film dramatically given the film’s nearly two-hour duration. During the interludes, Erland Loe and Nora Landsrød do humorise blank-faced phrases during beheadings and betrayals. The overly used comment of feminism making Kristina a woman’s role is the edifying structure when Kristian mocks Kristina to which he was asked to respond in a more apologetic manner.
As previously stated, the sense of humor is a distinct aspect of exploitation rather than a defect, however, it does annoy in light of the ponderous subject matter at hand (this is not Monty Python and the Holy Grail).
Aside from the humor, the costumes are fantastic, with the help of Kristian’s red sheer blouse that has this amazing edge. The camera also captures the brutal fighting scenes with great artistry on large canvases. In the movie, which is not at all shy about blood, the camera moves fast across the fire-devastated landscape. This is where, as Slagheck says, they really enjoy the point, ‘when heads start rolling, I actually feel like dancing amid the moonlight splendor of crimson.’ That savage brute force is most certainly the driving force of the film, which keeps the audience in a constant state of fear that will one day move them to protest and further bolster Anne’s and Freja’s noble causes.
Sadly, when it comes to the narrative, “Stockholm Bloodbath” has a scatterbrained approach and the plot of Miss Anne and Freja is lost. Their pain and heartbreak have to be shoehorned alongside the rest of the romances in the story so that the more emotionally charged elements of the film are mostly lost in this dark epic saga. In that sense then, “Stockholm Bloodbath” is one half of the promise. Yes, there is a lot of blood but there is not enough blood to ensure it is governed by strict logic.
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