Movie Review: THE DAMNED

By ABBIE BERNSTEIN / Staff Writer

Posted: January 3rd, 2025 / 01:22 AM

THE DAMNED movie poster | ©2025 Vertical Entertainment

Rating: Not Rated
Stars: Odessa Young, Joe Cole, Siobhan Finneran, Rory McCann, Turlough Convery, Lewis Gribben, Francis Magee, Mícheál Óg Lane
Writer: Jamie Hannigan, story by Thordur Palsson
Director: Thordur Palsson
Distributor: Vertical Entertainment
Release Date: January 3, 2025

THE DAMNED is period Scandinavian folk horror that succeeds in being eerie and suspenseful throughout, right up until its “Wait, what?” last scene.

We are at a remote fishing station in nineteenth-century Iceland (THE DAMNED was shot in Iceland and Ireland). Eva (Odessa Young) talks about the hardship here, although Magnus, her late husband, said this was a place of opportunity.

Magnus was the owner of the fishing station. Following his death last year, the station belongs to Eva. The fishermen are grateful that Eva kept it functioning, as they expected her to sell the station and move back to civilization. Eva, however, feels a duty to the men and to her husband’s memory. More, she feels at home here.

With the winter snows blowing, there is no way out of the station by land until the spring thaw, and the sea is even more treacherous than usual. Supplies are running low.

When an unforeseen calamity occurs, Eva and the men must make a terrible choice (no, it doesn’t involve killing their own or cannibalism). In the aftermath, some strange occurrences begin around the camp. Servant Helga (Siobhan Finneran), the only other woman on the station, believes they are all now being haunted by a draugr, a dangerous creature from Norse mythology.

Director Thordur Palsson, who crafted the story for the screenplay by Jamie Hannigan, has some wondrous images. Someone walking through the evening snow with a lantern becomes a little golden ball of light traversing a shadowy blue-white landscape. The menaces of gloom that expands and contracts, of long twilight, and of inhospitable wind and terrain all have power, and we share the unease of the characters.

The use of outdoor settings and the production design by Frosti Fridriksson are excellent, from snow fields to the wooden fish-drying racks to the utilitarian fishing boats.

The cast is all solid, with Young persuasively conveying Eva’s convictions, her uncertainties, and her loneliness. As Daniel, the closest Eva has to a confidante, Joe Cole seems trustworthy and honest. Finneran looks and sounds entirely like what we’d expect of someone in Helga’s position.

The filmmakers create a sense of timelessness and dread, and the crisis they set up for the characters is entirely worthy of the effect it has on everyone. Experientially, THE DAMNED is worthwhile for ninety-nine percent of its running time.

But in the last few minutes, there’s a reach for something extra that threatens to collapse the movie under the unsustainable weight of too many brand-new questions. THE DAMNED is mostly good, but a better finale would have been welcome.

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