In The Damned a 19th-century widow is forced to make an impossible choice during a cruel winter when a ship sinks off the coast, risking what’s left of the village’s dwindling supplies.

Facing a harsh winter and almost non-existent supplies Eva, and the fishermen that work for her, are facing a hard struggle. When they see a ship crash into rocks offshore they choose to leave it to sink, and the crew to drown, because they couldn’t afford to risk their own lives and limited resources. 

This is a dark, tense, atmospheric, historical horror about the effects of being stranded and struggling with problems of the mind caused by the decisions you had to make. What makes this one a little more unique is the elements of Norse mythology added into the mix. One of the characters, Helga, begins to tell the others that the drowned sailors may come back as Draugr, which are evil revenant creatures fuelled by pure hatred and rage who can manipulate people’s minds with terrifying dreams. 

The film is as dark as the story might suggest. There are some genuinely frightening moments when some of the characters start to see visions of nightmarish creatures. It is filmed in a way that adds to the horror elements, and the sets and locations really help to bring the difficulties faced by the characters to the forefront. The director has created a genuinely intense and dramatic film, with all the choices he made and the legends he drew inspiration from. 

The cast is a small one, and each actor fits in perfectly helping to create a sense of realism with their performances. The emotions they portray make them feel genuine and allow empathy at their plight. The star of the film though is Eva, played by Odessa Young. She is a widow who took over the fishing outpost when her husband died. She commands the fishermen despite being a much slighter character than them. Young’s performance has layers of gravitas, youthful uncertainty, fear and concern over choices. She was really rather good. 

Overall, I really enjoyed this and will definitely be taking the time to go and watch it on the big screen when I get the chance. The dark gritty nature of the film was one that I found quite fascinating. I can heartily recommend checking it out. It’s getting a 3.5/5 from me. 

The Damned will be available in UK and Irish cinemas from 10th January 2025 courtesy of Vertical.

A Chilling Nordic Noir

Movie title: The Damned (2024)

Movie description: A 19th-century widow has to make an impossible choice when, during an especially cruel winter, a foreign ship sinks off the coast of her Icelandic fishing village.

Date published: January 10, 2025

Country: UK

Duration: 1h 29m

Director(s): Thordur Palsson

Actor(s): Odessa Young, Joe Cole, Lewis Gribben

Genre: Folk Horror, Drama, Horror, Thriller

3.5

Summary

The cast is a small one, and each actor fits in perfectly helping to create a sense of realism with their performances.

Simon Henderson

Simon Henderson began his journey with his podcast, Inspire Indie Radio, set up to promote independent, and unsigned, artists and help get their music out to other audiences. This is a big passion of his and something he is very proud to do.

One of his other big passions is movies and he followed up the podcast with movie reviews “from the mind of an average guy” on Tumblr. After a while he wanted to bring everything together under one name and so he chose Average Guy Entertainments because, as he is oft quoted as saying, “I’m just an Average Guy.”