STOCKHOLM BLOODBATH - Mark Reviews Movies

Stockholm Bloodbath, Brainstorm Media

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Review by Mark Dujsik | November 7, 2024

The title Stockholm Bloodbath refers to a 1520 event in which more than 80 people were systematically executed over the course of three days. It was part of a power struggle between local Swedish officials, assuming the sovereignty of their country after a series of uprisings and battles, and a Danish monarch, who was at the head of a union of the other Scandinavian nations. There's more history, really, than screenwriters Eriend Loe and Nora Landsrød provide, since their story is more about turning this horrific history into a revenge tale with a strangely jokey attitude.

Humor can be found anywhere and pulled from anything, of course, given the right intentions and understanding. Why, then, does this approach to the story, a 500-year-old event that probably doesn't have much—if any—impact or influence on our modern world, feel as if it's in bad taste?

Maybe, it's because director Mikael Håfström's movie doesn't seem to care about its characters, in any way that extends beyond their roles in a tale of vengeance and palace intrigue, or its ideas, except that they make for a violent story filled with larger-than-life figures. Perhaps, it's simply because watching innocent people be tormented, tortured, and finally beheaded isn't fun, no matter how hard the filmmakers try to make it so.

Whatever the case may be, there is something off about the tone and narrative simplicity of this historical dramatization. We want to understand the context of this political battle, which leads to several literal battles and the climactic mass execution of nobles and commoners alike, but the filmmakers resist such comprehension at every turn. We want to side with those fighting against a wannabe tyrant, who employs assorted henchmen to raid Swedish villages and negotiates in bad faith with those in power, but the characters here are thinly drawn and, because of the cheekiness of the material, sometimes don't seem to take any of this too seriously.

One wants to feel something—anything—about the political weight and historical significance of these events, but how is that possible when the movie itself either doesn't seem to care about those things or actively undermines them by forcing so much dismissive humor into the proceedings? This is a strange approach to history, to a revenge story, and to trying to bring some awareness to a specific instance of power politics and religious certainty leading to bloody tragedy. Such things happened before and after the Stockholm Bloodbath, and considering how some in modern times view politics or religion or both, it's not as if humanity has escaped the potential for it again.

That might be getting more at the core of the problem with the movie. Its jokiness and frivolous sense of storytelling comes across as something anachronistic for its era—as if the filmmakers are trying to make this history seem more relevant than a simple, straight, and to-the-point depiction of events.

Take the villain King Kristian (Claes Bang), who speaks of alternative facts and embraces the notion that he can define the narrative of his treachery as something good and even holy. Even though the movie is set near the end of the Medieval Sweden, the actors speak in English. That decision suggests the filmmakers perceive this story as more than one of local history—one that a broader section of the world should note. In Kristian, there are notes of older and more modern propagandists, who can lie with impunity and convince enough people that it's the truth.

If the movie is meant to be a warning for contemporary audiences, it's not particularly convincing. Most of the story follows Anne (Sophie Cookson), the cousin of Swedish "First Lady" and soon-to-be leader Kristina (Emily Beecham) and Freja (Alba August), a woman left mute after witnessing the grisly murder of her father. Anne's entire family is killed, while her new husband Johan (Wilf Scolding) is abducted, by Kristian's thugs, and Freja, who has been fighting Danish soldiers for years, trains the noblewoman to hunt down the men responsible.

All of this is pretty routine, albeit with some satisfying action, but interspersed throughout the revenge story are scenes of Kristian scheming and Kirstina debating how to handle the invading ruler. Those politics become the key to the third act, when Kristian and a petty, treasonous bishop named Gustave (Jakob Oftebro) concoct a way to rid themselves of their shared enemies.

The resulting violence is brutal, indiscriminate, and protracted—to the point that Håfström incorporates a montage of swinging blades and severed heads, as the perpetrators dance and attempt to rile up the crowd like an event promoter. In its own way, Stockholm Bloodbath feels merciless, too—as in it shows little care or consideration for these horrors or the machinations that led to them.

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