The Damned

What a fantastic kickoff for horror movies in 2025. This psychological horror flick is expertly crafted and features a strong female lead set against the backdrop of an Icelandic fishing village. The film opens with a group of fishermen enjoying dinner in a cozy cottage while a local woman shares a folk tale that sets the stage for the eerie journey ahead. It's got that slow-burn, atmospheric kind of horror, focusing on a folklore creature called the Draugr. The cast is amazing, with Odessa Young delivering a standout performance. The cinematography is stunning, capturing the freezing, snowy Icelandic landscape near the beach. Those exterior shots are just gorgeous to look at and perfectly convey the film's mood and themes. The music is spot-on, and the whole production is top-notch.

The Draugr seems to represent strangers in this wild setting where resources are scarce and food is limited, forcing characters into tough and traumatic decisions. But this movie goes beyond just showing how unforgiving nature can be; it digs into human nature itself-relationship dynamics, loss, grief, guilt, trauma, survival versus morality-the nature of evil, superstition and folklore, female agency, and what leadership truly means. It really explores how isolation and harsh conditions can play tricks on our minds and how we struggle to deal with hard truths. The themes here are just fantastic.

There's a line in the movie that really stuck with me: "The living are always more dangerous than the dead." I couldn't agree more. And by the way, that's a solid tip for all the horror filmmakers out there!

In summary, I highly recommend this movie to everyone-not just those who love psychological horror. It's such a breath of fresh air in today's horror scene and offers a really satisfying experience overall. Great performances from the entire cast, especially Odessa Young. Make sure to give it a watch without expecting it to be super scary!

I watched the Icelandic film 🇮🇸 The Damned (2024) in theaters this evening. The storyline follows an Icelandic fishing team that is hunkered down in a shack together trying to survive winter. One day they see a crashed ship in the water with an abandoned crew with nothing they can do to rescue them. After a few days they head out to see if they can obtain supplies and set off a series of unfortunate events that sets a curse on their camp.

This picture is directed by Thordur Palsson, in his directorial debut, and stars Odessa Young (Assassination Nation), Joe Cole (One of these Days), Lewis Gribben (T2 Trainspotting), Rory McCann (Game of Thrones) and Mícheál Óg Lane (The Guard).

The Damned is one of those movies that feels like it's missing an ingredient from beginning to end. The atmosphere and desperation of the circumstances is perfectly established with the attire, settings and backdrops. There's good use of background music to establish the drama and intensity. The movie does start with a bang. I'll also say eels aren't used enough in horror movies. There's awesome use of an ax and a fantastic throat slash. There's a strong buildup to the final scene, but the conclusion was disappointing.

In conclusion, The Damned has more than enough going on to keep your attention, but doesn't live up to its potential. I would score this a 6.5/10.

This is genuinely a film I can recommend to any die hard horror fans, or anyone interested in a genuinely facinating horror plot - The Damned is a unique start to the 2025 theatrical roster for sure. Fantastic acting, engaging story and an overall extremely beautiful piece of cinematic eye candy, some genuinely skin crawling shots and creepy story development, accompanied with a fantastic score and continual mystery, even to the final act. The film starts at a steady incline, filling us in slowly but surely, then dips into a horrifying second to mid-act, however when the ending and climax finally arrives, I personally felt it felt extremely rushed, alongside the ending. The finale and conclusion acts, although piecing together, falls apart so heavily to where it takes you entirely out of the mood by the time credits roll. This was an extremely worthy and interesting theatrical debut, but I feel audiences will not sync with the rushed-feeling ending, which is a shame, because this film from beginning before end was tense, gripping and genuinely unique. Still worth a watch.

GenX reporting-in from the first screening at our AMC. I see almost every horror film. This is the first of 2025, an Icelandic horror about malnurishment, regrets, ghost stories, alcoholism, and fisherman. The cinematography, scenery, costumes and acting are all Very well done, A++. Decent gore. I could understand most of the dialogue, but I wish my theatre would offer open captions for films like this. If I was at home I would pause and rewind parts. It's very good, but not good enough to view it again. In the end it falls short in its climax. Some of the horror is sliced-in or not on screen for long, cut short. But honestly we would be complaining if this film was longer, as its the perfect run time for a slow burner like this; Less boring that way. The landscape and vibe is haunting. Do you have to see this film in the theatre? A: No. If you have A-List or Movie Pass and extra time definitely check it out. It's almost great 6/10 for costumes, scenery and acting.

I was excited to see this film because I am a horror and Rory McCann fan.

Overall, I enjoyed the movie for what it was. I have a particular preference towards supernatural horror, so if you do too, you may like this as well. It is also a psychological horror. If you read the other reviews, they mentioned that it was pretty good up until the end and that it was too slow of a burn.

I disagree that it was too slow. The pacing was on par, in my opinion, for it being just an hour and a half length movie. What I do agree with is that the ending stopped this from being great.

When I read others' reviews, they were vague on what made the ending so bad, so I was curious about it before I watched. Without spoiling it, I believe the direction that the plot went was a cop-out or a rushed way to wrap up the the story. I left the movies trying to justify the ending in a way where it could have made sense because I really enjoyed the rest of the film. Again, trying not to spoil it, the ending seemed a bit illogical (despite it being supernatural and psychological) and gives partial clarification to the plot points. Especially for those who found this to be slow, it does not give a good pay off for watching.

I still don't feel like it was a waste of time, however. I rated it a bit higher and still think its worth a watch because that particular ending happened within about the last 3 minutes of the movie, so essentially, an hour and 26 min was still good and therefore not a waste.

I also rated it a bit higher because the other parts of the film: the cinematography, costume design and sound design were really great. Especially for a horror film, the things you don't initially think about, like eerie sounds, can make or break the atmosphere and this movie did it right in setting the atmosphere during the entire run time.