Thordur Palsson (director)
(studio)
15 (certificate)
89 (length)
10 January 2025 (released)
02 January 2025
Set in a remote Icelandic fishing station in the 19th century The Damned succeeds on a number of physical and mental levels.
From the start as Eva (Odessa Young) begins her narration, the shots of the desolate snow-covered landscape, the cold is palpable, seeping into the viewer as the well wrapped crew leave their station to sail out to the fishing grounds.
The boat is Eva’s, a widow who now has the responsibility of taking the decisions on how to survive the harsh winter. But her authority is loaded, as when seeing a ship sinking out at sea, she has to decide whether they launch their boat, risking low provisions and their lives looking for survivors in the notoriously treacherous stretch of water.
Finding a barrel washed up Eva, and with their own desperate situation in mind, she decides that they should go out to salvage what they can. It’s a terrifying ordeal, mentally and physically, leading to the death of crewmember. Later bodies start washing up on the shore. This triggers old superstitions in the community and a dread and fear begin to take hold.
Director Thordur Palsson and co-writer Jamie Hannigan have taken some elements of Norse mythology and layered them into a tale of creeping dread and psychological horror.
Valuable fish stocks are destroyed, some see shapes in the shadows, fed by the story of the Draugur. A vengeful creature that manipulates the victims’ minds. The infighting gets more intense as the community begins to fall apart.
The guilt, paranoia and fear that pervades the community is intense. The fine cast are perfectly tuned to the script and the bleakness of the film giving some powerful yet subtle performances.
And yet for all the firelight that casts strange shadows in the station upping the discomfort of the viewer, The Damned also has some spectacular exterior photography. The rugged beauty of the snow-covered landscape only intensifies the gloomy internal sets making the film all the more claustrophobic.
The Damned will be in UK and Irish cinemas from 10th January 2025.
