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!

The good reviews have me a bit confused to be honest. Overall this film was boring. Slow burn can be really good and intense but I just think this was too boring, it never felt like it really got going. I will say that the performances are all very good (for a script that is not) and I noticed almost immediately that the score is good. Visually it was somewhat enjoyable but a little bit same same and like I say there just wasn't a lot happening. People dislike the ending but I honestly felt like that could've been the best bit if there was just more plot armour leading to it. The film needed a twist to make it interesting but a rushed twist just annoys everyone and makes the whole thing very mediocre.

The film is very atmospheric, filled with dread, frigidness, and quite unsettling. It follows a crew on a coastal Icelandic fishing outpost that comes across another shipwrecked crew. They face a damned-if-you-do-and-damned-if-you-don't scenario (no pun intended); saving this crew would mean jeopardizing their own safety, but not saving the other crew would be morally wrong. The decision they make haunts them.

The cinematography is very nice, highlighting the Icelandic wintry landscapes, and the sound design is effective. While watching, it feels like you're actually there at the outpost with the characters in the dead of winter.

Odessa Young is great as the lead not only of the film itself, but also of the crew within the film. She's quietly and subtly bold as a widow coming to grips with leading an all-male crew of the coastal fishing outpost inherited from her late husband. Young has good presence here as we follow her going through something sinister that she's in over her head to understand, balancing the terror she's experiencing while also trying to remain a competent leader for her crew. The rest of the ensemble is good too, particularly Cole and Finneran. You really feel the group's esprit de corps and camaderie, which really adds to the film as we see a sinister presence proceed to wreak havoc.

While the story itself is compelling, the film has one issue, and it's a big one: the pacing; which is odd to say since the film is actually not very long, at just 1 hr 29 mins. In large part this is because the film takes place entirely in one small location and it follows the lead primarily, while the other characters are on the sidelines. At the same time, this seclusion adds greatly to the film's atmosphere. So perhaps while many may find this film to be glacial in its pace at times, others very well may appreciate it and take the film to be a slow burn, or a slow thaw, no pun intended.

But however you take this film, it is certainly worth checking out, if only for the great acting and isolating, cold atmosphere.

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.