Intensity: 🩸🩸 out of 🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸
Directed by Thordur Palsson
Feeling cold and isolated this time of year? The Damned (2024) will happily add paranoid and hungry to your list! Icelandic folk tales and psychological horror combine in this frosty tale of desperate 19th century survival.
The Damned: The Players
- Odessa Young [TV’s The Stand (2020-2021)]: Eva, the widowed owner and woman-in-charge of a remote fishing outpost.
- Joe Cole [Green Room (2015)]: Daniel, best friend of Eva’s late husband and second in command of the fishing crew.
- Rory McCann [TV’s Game of Thrones (2011-2019)]: Ragnar, the burly foreman who leads the crew of fishermen.
- Siobhan Finneran [TV’s Downton Abbey (2010-2012)]: Helga, Eva’s assistant, teller of ghost stories, and keeper of superstitious knowledge.
The Damned: The Breakdown
Synopsis
The Damned takes place in a remote northern fishing outpost in the middle of the 19th century. The winter snows have cut them off from the rest of the world until spring and their food is all but gone.
Without warning, Eva is forced to make an impossible decision: rescue a group of strangers or leave them to their dismal fate. What follows is a chilling tale of hunger, superstition, fear, and regret.
Production
Filmed largely during the Icelandic winter, The Damned could’ve fallen into the snow-covered, everything-looks-the-same trap. Thankfully, excellent camera work and the artful use of oil lamps and other period lighting bring the sets to life. It’s all as starkly beautiful as it is harsh and unforgiving.
A great part of the oppressive feel of this movie comes from its audio palette. The chilling wind, the crunch of the snow, mysterious half-heard sounds. They’re all expertly combined to keep the viewer slightly off balance. Kudos to the sound department for making that work so well.
The Damned is not a special effects bonanza by any stretch. There’s very little gore and any makeup effects are subtle, but well done. Interestingly, this subtlety fits the pace of film. After a brief action sequence, the film settles in for the slow burn and marinates the viewer in dread.
Cast and Story
Admittedly, the story in The Damned is a bit thin. Many of the characters — especially among the fishermen — could’ve used more fleshing out. While a few of them stand out like Ragnar, Daniel, and Hakon [Turlough Convery; Saint Maud (2019)], the rest more or less blend together.
This doesn’t mean any of the performances are lacking, of course. The entire cast does exceptionally well with what they’re given; Odessa Young and Joe Cole in particular. It just would’ve been nice if some of them had been given a bit more to work with.
That being said, however, dialog in The Damned feels natural. Plus, the decisions of the characters are reasonable and fit the situation. All the while, the movie creeps along with excellent pacing as we watch paranoia and suspicion slowly seep into the outpost’s residents.
Summary
The Damned is writer/director Thordur Palsson’s debut feature and he definitely came out swinging. With memorable performances, striking landscapes, and adept camera work, Palsson has created a fun (if chilly) slow burn period piece steeped in Icelandic folklore and dripping with dread.
The Damned will be available in UK Cinemas beginning on the 10th of January.
Review by Robert Zilbauer.