Robert Eggers' acclaimed Viking epic 'The Northman' is streaming now on Peacock

If you've been looking for something to watch this weekend, get ready for a Viking tale of epic proportions. The Northman, the latest film from director Robert Eggers, has arrived on Peacock. 

Eggers third film after the critical hits of The Witch and The Lighthouse, The Northman leans away from the filmmaker's horror origins and into something more like dark fantasy. It's the story of Amleth (Alexander Skarsgard), a Viking prince whose beloved father (Ethan Hawke) is killed by his jealous, power-hungry brother Fjolnir (Claes Bang). With his father dead and his mother (Nicole Kidman) abducted by his uncle, Amleth flees his homeland and grows up to become a powerful berserker warrior who's nevertheless still running from his past. When he receives word of Fjolnir's whereabouts, Amleth sets out to take his vengeance at last, but he's about to learn the quest he's held close to his heart for decades will not be as simple as he perhaps once thought. 

There are a lot of things about The Northman that make it an especially memorable film. For one thing, it's the biggest project of Eggers' career so far, a historical epic with serious scope and production values that takes his handmade, tactile approach to a new level. For another, the performances, particularly Skarsgard and Anya Taylor-Joy as his witchy ally Olga of the Birch Forest, are both mythic and deeply human. Then, of course, there's Eggers' approach to fantasy, which leaps off the screen as something dazzling but also something so rooted in classical ideas of Scandinavian tales that it feels like something you'd read in Beowulf.

If you're still not convinced, take another look at the trailer. 

When it stalked onto the big screen in April, The Northman scored Eggers some of the best reviews of his career, with critics praising the epic scope, performances, production design, and the merging of fantasy elements and realistic violence. It's a return to a more mainstream style of storytelling for Eggers after the more abstract, psychological horror of The Lighthouse, and its use of epic battle sequences might just mean it's his most broadly appealing film so far.

So, if you've been on the fence about seeing it, or you've just been eager for the chance to see it again, head over to Peacock this weekend and check it out.