Honestly, the Middle Ages movies are just the typical fantasy version of one of your favorite dishes. Provide us with knights, castles, swords, or maybe a small magical aspect, and that’s it; we are already enjoying it. These films show us what those times were like, depending on whether we liked to see wars rage, love stories tragically end, or simply watch somebody lifting a sword as if it were a masterpiece. So you have to get yourself a nice bottle of mead and make yourself comfortable. Here are 10 medieval movies that are still totally slay, counting down from number 10.
10. The Last Kingdom: Seven Kings Must Die (2023)
The fans of the Last Kingdom series received this long-awaited and epic conclusion with this full-length finale. This is a continuation of events from the end of the show with the same violent, combative scenes, wicked political games, and dramatic camera work as the series, thus keeping the fans and the director happy. Anlaf by Pekka Strang is excellent, and the film finishes grandly with feeling and showmanship. Without watching the show, one can still be captivated by the stylish and action-packed movie alone.
9. Alexander Nevsky (1938)
The film Alexander Nevsky by Sergei Eisenstein set a new standard for global cinema, featuring and lyrical depiction of the Russian people’s struggle against their oppressors in the Middle Ages. For the time, the scale and grandeur of the battle scenes were impressive, and the teaming of this film and composer Sergei Prokofiev gave birth to one of the most renowned and popular film scores ever. It is not only a war movie, it is an artistically achieved film still respected long after its production.
8. The Virgin Spring (1960)
Ingmar Bergman’s The Virgin Spring is a beautiful work that is both excruciating to watch and very personal. The plot revolves around the father in a 13th-century Sweden setting, whose vengeful pursuit after the killing of his daughter has turned into a terrifying journey. It is a bleak and violent film about conscience, religion, and violence that does not leave the viewer even long after the credits roll. Bergman got the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar for that movie, and Wes Craven’s The Last House on the Left was among its loudest admirers, but none of them could match Bergman’s initial masterpiece.
7. Outlaw King (2018)
However, in Outlaw King, that is a tough and harsh telling of the Scottish struggle for independence, Chris Pine takes an unexpected turn and plays Robert the Bruce with vigour as well as grace. Basically, it’s like the sequel to Braveheart in matters of spirit, and the fight scenes that are some of Netflix’s most impressive might be the only thing that historical purists would actually concur. First of all, with Florence Pugh and Aaron Taylor-Johnson being the cast, the movie is a crazy mixture of love, revolt, and endurance, which, in turn, becomes an explosive combination.
6. Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991)
You can’t just come up with a list of medieval films and not include one of the Robin Hood stories, and this is the most iconic from the ’90s. Kevin Costner might not be able to convincingly do the accent, but still, nobody complains. On the other hand, Sheriff Alan Rickman’s comically evil acts of mischief make him the scene-stealing character in every scene. Add dashing adventure, love, and Bryan Adams’ Grammy-winning hit song “Everything I Do (I Do It for You)” and voila – you get pure nostalgic joy.
5. Brave (2012)
Pixar’s Brave retells the medieval mythos through a fiery redhead with a bow and a rebellious spirit. Merida’s story is a mixture of Scottish folklore, beautiful animation, and an emotional mother-daughter bond that goes deeper than expected. It’s partially a dream, partially a coming-of-age tale, and definitely a cheerful change from the usual medieval-based stories that mostly depict battles, but here the heroine finds herself through self-understanding.
4. The Tragedy of Macbeth (2021)
Joel Coen’s stripped-down version of Shakespeare’s Macbeth pares the story down to its core: the thirst of ambition, the lure of power, and the inevitability of fate. Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand endow Macbeth and Lady Macbeth with the shades of tiredness and personal experience that a couple of worldly-wise people have, respectively, and the severe black-and-white shots turn every still into a masterpiece. Moreover, it is mesmerizing, hypnotic, and a lesson that the Bard’s dark affairs that happen to be so bloodily intimate still have life in them.
3. The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)
This is the point where the swashbuckling genre came to be. Errol Flynn’s Robin Hood gave the first-ever comeback of a character with theatrical appeal, show-off skill, and pure cinema magic. The vibrant Technicolor, exciting fencing duels, and grand romantic overture not only caused it to become popular overnight but also still appear like genuine, unfiltered adventuring to this day. The whole modern-day hero, be it Indiana Jones or Zorro, is somehow influenced by this one.
2. Army of Darkness (1993)
Who says medieval movies are boring? Army of Darkness unleashes chainsaw-wielding Bruce Campbell’s Ash back into the Dark Ages in one of the most wonderfully anarchic cult classics ever produced. Sam Raimi mixes horror, slapstick humor, and old-fashioned adventure into a unique cocktail in only the way he knows how. “This is my boomstick!” is one of the genre’s all-time great lines, and the movie is as outrageous today as it was in the ’90s.
1. King Arthur (2024)
Director Antoine Fuqua’s grounded, battle-heavy take on the Arthurian legend is the modern gold standard. Clive Owen leads a stellar cast, including Mads Mikkelsen, Joel Edgerton, and Ray Winstone, in a version that trades magic for military strategy and myth for realism. The result? A tough, atmospheric, and thrilling retelling that redefines the legend for a new era. It’s Arthur as you’ve never seen him before: gritty, stoic, and utterly human.
Medieval films might be set in the farthest reaches of the past, but they’ve never lost their steam. From big-budget epics to small-scale dramas, these movies demonstrate that stories of honor, ambition, and heroism are forever. Whether you hunger for swords, sorcery, or simply some on-screen chivalry, these ten films reveal why the medieval genre will forever reign supreme.