For a few nights, Hrothgar experiences nightmares about his late wife's suicide, triggered by a mysterious woman who stalks him in his sleep.

After Beowulf recovers, Kyra reveals that Nivri was an abusive spouse and she killed him after he attempted to force himself on her.

Grendel's mother attempts to appeal to Beowulf's inner evil to seduce him, but fails and transforms into a giant humanoid spider-like creature.

The poem's emphasis on genealogy is represented by humans and monsters mating with each other, with Grendel being the son of Hrothgar and Beowulf being the result of a god of darkness inseminating a woman.

[3][4] Beowulf and Grendel are shown as mirror images of each other, as the former harbors an internal struggle to contain his monstrous nature, while the latter was conceived by his mother as a revenge for an external oppression.

[4] She also sexually attacks Hrothgar, inverting the trope of horror film monsters chasing after female leads.

[3] The film's soundtrack mainly featured electronic and industrial songs from various artists and original score material by Juno Reactor's Ben Watkins.

The general criticisms for the film were the weak script, below-average acting, corny dialogue, deviations from the source material, and over-reliance on camp, although it was hailed for its production design.

There are other moments, however, that seem so absurd and outlandish that we wonder if the writers, Mark Leahy and David Chappe, have even read the poem."

The review praised the film's "energetic action" and said that it "excels in set design", but added that "the techno (music) is pretty annoying.

Michael Livingstone and John William Sutton are brief, calling it an "an otherwise ridiculous" film, though they say it well reflects the problematization of "black-and-white morality" "in our postmodern, post Vietnam, post-9/11 era."