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whether the director has a secret sauce.
I think it's this. The thing about Valhalla Rising is that the whole thing has this atmosphere like the whole shoot was just a relentless fucking slog for all involved, just grim and dirty and cold and stinky and horrible and exhausting. And that'd be horrible for like, a Wes Anderson film, but on this it feels like they just go with it, and it works with the story, and it feels right with the characters. It has such a unique texture to it.
ReekBlefs-
I think Mads' character has something else. The way he moves is doom for his opponent. He is one of many film characters better at fighting than others, but somehow he's in a different class. I can't work out how he has been created. Maybe it's the ruthlessness of nature, predators vs prey. Maybe he is presented to the audience as a different species. Living in a cage and never speaking...these things add to the perception that he's not human.
nick_h.
Perhaps it's a future cult classic. I often replay the fighty bits. There's something horribly real about them. I don't know whether it's just Mads, or whether the director has a secret sauce.