Valhalla Rising Rescored

The new score improves the film a lot. It’s at times ethereal, surreal and otherworldly, alternating with songs that slowly increase the tension until the film reaches one of its violent bits. A great example of a rescoring improving the original film.

Even though the editor’s objective was fulfilled, and the entire film was expertly rescored, I left feeling that some other aspects of the film could have been changed. The original has some goofy cuts and editing choices that are baffling: the red screen between Part I and Part II (cutting from dark green landscape to bright red, yuck…); the cross dissolve between Part II and Part III; the huge amount of dissolve transitions during Part III (we get it, time is passing, enough of these dissolve transitions one after the other); the cut to the “red man” in Part IV, it brings nothing and it’s jarring; the ending (its style is great but the editing can be improved). Also, the few scenes with added VFX blood are poorly done, the blood looks fake and should be removed, if possible.

Even though I believe some things could be improved, I liked the original film. It stands out because of its style and ambiguity.

Side note: never read the director’s commentary of the film, he destroys much of the surrealism and the abstract bits with some really weird reasoning and wild theories. Each viewer’s interpretation should be miles more interesting than the director’s one.