If ‘The Last Viking’ Left You Wanting More, These Films Are Your Next Essential Watch

Mads Mikkelsen and Nikolaj Lie Kaas reunite on screen in ‘The Last Viking’, a Danish dark comedy arriving in US theaters on May 29, following the story of two brothers forced back together after Anker’s release from prison following a bank robbery conviction. The film has become one of the most talked-about limited releases of the year, and if it grabbed you by the collar and refused to let go, you are far from alone.

Critics have praised ‘The Last Viking’ for blending spiky emotions with deadpan laughs, earning it a 91% Tomatometer score on Rotten Tomatoes. The film belongs to a very specific and very rewarding cinematic universe, one that writer-director Anders Thomas Jensen has been quietly building for over two decades. Here are the films that share its DNA and deserve your immediate attention.

The Mads Mikkelsen and Anders Thomas Jensen Partnership

‘The Last Viking’ marks Jensen’s sixth feature film and yet another reunion with Mikkelsen and Lie Kaas, who have appeared in all five of his previous directorial efforts. Their creative relationship is one of the most distinctive in contemporary European cinema, rooted in a shared appetite for characters who are broken, bizarre, and somehow deeply human all at once.

Jensen’s past premises have ranged from what critics described as “Sweeney Todd in a Danish suburb” to “the Three Stooges on the Island of Doctor Moreau,” yet Jensen consistently injects his zany concepts and detestable characters with frank, relatable humanity. That tonal tightrope is exactly what makes his films so hard to shake long after the credits roll.

Jensen himself has spoken about the thematic core of ‘The Last Viking’, saying that the heart of the film is the idea that every human being is more than one thing, and that it is easier to forgive and harder to get offended when you remember that. That same philosophy quietly runs through every film in his catalog, even when the comedy is at its most vicious.

‘Riders of Justice’ Is the Perfect Gateway Into This World

‘Riders of Justice’ begins with a stolen bicycle, a seemingly random occurrence that escalates into an outlandish conspiracy theory and gangland bloodshed, with Jensen regular Mads Mikkelsen playing Markus, a military veteran called home after his wife is killed in a horrific railway accident. The film is arguably the most emotionally accessible entry point in the Jensen filmography, balancing genuine grief with the director’s signature absurdist chaos.

Jensen himself described ‘Riders of Justice’ as “an existential drama, action comedy,” explaining that he wanted to blend the emotional weight of a Susanne Bier film with the dark comedy style he had developed across his earlier work, comparing the genre fusion to Italian and Japanese cooking being mixed together. The result is a film that constantly surprises you by how much it makes you feel even as it makes you laugh.

Lie Kaas plays Otto, an awkward computer programmer and mathematician who was on the train during the accident and serves as a connective figure between the story’s social realism and its comedic elements. The ensemble is rounded out by a gallery of lovable misfits that fans of ‘The Last Viking’ will find immediately familiar.

Both films share what critics have called the quintessentially Danish approach to cinema, filled with deadpan humor and a cast of eccentric characters placed in increasingly bizarre situations, with the transition between dark comedy and violent crime thriller occasionally feeling jarring but always keeping its tension high.

‘Men and Chicken’ Is the Most Unhinged Entry in Jensen’s Absurdist Dark Comedy Canon

‘Men and Chicken’ is a black comedy about two outcast brothers who, by getting to know their unknown family, discover a horrible truth about themselves and their relatives. If ‘The Last Viking’ pushed your tolerance for gleeful strangeness, this earlier film will test it further, and reward every second of discomfort with moments of genuine brilliance.

The film follows two wildly different brothers, with Gabriel presented as nervous, downtrodden, and slightly depressed, while Elias, played by Mikkelsen, is deluded, short-tempered, and defined by compulsive habits that the film treats with completely deadpan sincerity. Mikkelsen disappears into this role entirely, making it nearly impossible to reconcile with the suave villain he played in the Bond franchise.

Director Jensen balances the dark comedy of his setup, the strange nature of the characters he created, and the grotesque visuals inside their family home in a way that is both absurd and increasingly poignant as the film continues, creating a wildly unpredictable experience where you truly never know what you are about to see next. That unpredictability is the secret ingredient shared across Jensen’s entire body of work.

‘Men and Chicken’ was on Denmark’s shortlist for the Best Foreign Language Film category at the Oscars and received its North American premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival. The fact that it remains underseen by mainstream audiences is genuinely baffling, because it is unlike anything else in existence.

‘Adam’s Apples’ Remains the Crown Jewel of Jensen’s Filmography

In ‘Adam’s Apples’, a good-natured priest takes in a handful of social misfits to show them the right path, resulting in an extremely entertaining mix of comedic satire and bitter realism, repeatedly offering absurd and pointed situations where the laughter gets stuck in your throat. The film is considered by many to be Jensen’s most fully realized work, and it is not a difficult argument to win.

‘Adam’s Apples’ reunites Mikkelsen, Lie Kaas, and Ulrich Thomsen, and has remained one of Jensen’s most celebrated films since its release. The performances are matched perfectly to Jensen’s writing, which swings between tenderness and savagery with an ease that feels almost deceptively casual.

The film shares with ‘The Last Viking’ a deep and sincere interest in trauma, brotherhood, and the absurd coping mechanisms people build around their pain. Jensen keeps returning to these themes across his career because he clearly believes, and the films prove, that there is no more honest way to examine them than through the warped lens of black comedy.

‘The Green Butchers’ Is the Darker, Stranger Sibling You Need to See

In ‘The Green Butchers’, what one critic called arguably Jensen’s most wicked film, a butcher’s assistant wants to open his own shop, with the story laced with jet-black humor and a bizarre cast of characters that captivates through its dense atmosphere and dark, oppressive settings that impressively symbolize the social cage surrounding the protagonists.

Jensen is recognized by film festivals and critics alike as one of Denmark’s most renowned screenwriters and directors, known for his unique cinematic universe and dark humor, with ‘The Green Butchers’ frequently cited alongside ‘Adam’s Apples’ and ‘Men and Chicken’ as a cornerstone of that universe. Watching these films in sequence reveals just how consistent and how singular this vision has always been.

The Palm Springs International Film Festival described ‘The Last Viking’ itself as a gleeful, albeit violent, absurdist black comedy that ultimately shows the unshakeable bond between two brothers, from the director of ‘Men and Chicken’. That description applies just as beautifully to ‘The Green Butchers’, ‘Riders of Justice’, and the rest of the catalog connecting back to Jensen’s very first film.

The audience discovering Anders Thomas Jensen through ‘The Last Viking’ is arguably the luckiest audience there is, because they have an entire universe of films waiting for them with no prior warning of just how odd, funny, and heartbreaking they are. Which of these films are you planning to watch first, and do you think any of them can top what Jensen and Mikkelsen have pulled off together in ‘The Last Viking’?