The Damned (dir. Thordur Palsson)

by Jack Martin | Jan 9, 2025

Certificate: 15

Running Time: 89 mins

UK Distributor: Vertical Entertainment

UK Release Date: 10 January 2025

WHO’S IN THE DAMNED?

Odessa Young, Joe Cole, Siobhan Finneran, Rory McCann, Turlough Convery, Lewis Gribben, Francis Magee, Mícheál Óg Lane, Andrean Sigurgeirsson

WHO’S BEHIND THE CAMERA?

Thordur Palsson (director), Jamie Hannigan (writer), Conor Barry, Tim Headington, Kamilla Hodol, Emilie Jouffroy, Nate Kamiya, John Keville and Theresa Steele Page (producers), Stephen McKeon (composer), Eli Arenson (cinematographer), Tony Cranstoun and Nathan Nugent (editors)

WHAT’S IT ABOUT?

In 19th century Iceland, the inhabitants of a fishing village make a haunting decision…

WHAT ARE MY THOUGHTS ON THE DAMNED?

If director Thordur Palsson’s The Damned succeeds at one thing, it’s getting the viewer to feel very, very cold. And I don’t mean from an emotional standpoint, for this movie is literally blanketed in freezing snow from the very first shot, and it does not ever let up with its harsh wintery atmosphere until the final hard cut to the ending credits. It’s enough to make anyone want to wear a nice warm jumper and pair of mittens whilst watching, even if they’re in the warmest viewing environment possible, which for a movie that is otherwise pretty chilling (the different kind) is all too appropriate.

The horror-thriller takes place during a particularly harsh winter in 19th century Iceland, specifically in a tiny fishing village somewhere within the eternally-bleak mountains. The unforgiving weather means that the handful of fishermen, under the leadership of young widow Eva (Odessa Young) whose husband previously ran the outpost before his death, are barely getting by on the small resources they have left, so when they spot a sinking foreign ship in the distance, Eva and her employees make the heavy decision not to save any of the crew, in order to preserve their supplies. Not too long after, the villagers start to become overwhelmed by guilt and paranoia, sparked by a series of terrifying and even deadly supernatural occurrences that lead Eva to believe that a “draugr” – a malevolent undead being commonly found in Norse mythology – might be after them for revenge.

Blending spooky storytelling with wintery atmospheres so harsh it’s almost enough to make The Revenant feel like a day at the beach, The Damned works fairly well as an effective ghost story, one that largely favours mood and tone over unimaginative scares. Palsson, working from a script by Jamie Hannigan, establishes a neat slow-burn pace that still manages to go by quick, with the director impressively compressing taut character-based drama, haunting set-pieces and a creepy sense of dread into a tight runtime of just under ninety minutes. While it does take a while for the ball to really get rolling, there’s still plenty to admire in the meantime, from Eli Arenson’s captivating cinematography to the strong and sturdy performances from its limited ensemble, as led by a fierce Young and also including the likes of Joe Cole, Siobhan Finneran and Rory McCann. The combined strength of these attributes ensures that the viewer is fully engrossed in the story and this small cast of characters, even when little appears to be happening for long periods of time.

Though it does well to create a grim and unsettling atmosphere, that doesn’t automatically make The Damned a perfect horror. On occasion, it falls victim to a couple of (admittedly well-executed) jump-scares that rely on abrupt editing and sharp sound design to elicit a jolt, rather than on the unnerving environment of the scene. Some of the characters are also far less developed than some of the core leads, so when something happens to one or two of them, the emotional weight isn’t as heavy as it is with others, because such little time has been spent getting to know them as well as, say, Joe Cole’s guilt-ridden seaman, that you don’t feel nearly as bad as everyone else in the movie does.

Without giving anything away, the ending also falls flat. It pins much of its intrigue on a reveal that leaves even more questions than answers, but there’s no time to unpack any of it because it’s reserved for the final few minutes of the film, leaving it as not just a mightily rushed conclusion, but one that undermines a lot of the suspense and build-up that had made up the preceding film. If, perhaps, a few extra minutes were added to flesh certain things out, enough to where it’s much easier to make sense of what’s actually been going on, then maybe The Damned might have been able to stick the landing a lot better.

But that aside, The Damned is a decent chiller, in both the figurative and literal sense. Not only are there some creepy shots that make formidable use of the snow-covered landscapes, which on one or two occasions do manage to send a chill down your spine, but the way in which it conveys how utterly freezing it must be to live in such conditions – to where the makeup effects subtly bring out the near-frostbitten redness of people’s faces – is enough to send a different kind of chill across your whole body. Either way, you’re going to want a warm blanket to cosy up in while you watch it.

SO, TO SUM UP…

The Damned is a chilling (in both senses of the word) horror-thriller that is well-made and effective in its portrayal of freezing temperatures, but occasionally falls victim to underwritten scares and a disappointing ending.