The Damned

The Damned
Starring Odessa Young, Joe Cole, Rory McCann, Siobhan Finneran
Directed by Thordur Palsson

Iceland is a place of beauty but also unforgiving cold, and "The Damned" showcases that parallel perfectly: the scenery is breathtaking, but the isolation and the cold chills you to the bone. Much like "The Thing," this film centers on a group of people isolated from society with no hope of rescue, where they turn on one another out of fear and desperation, being hunted by an entity bent on their destruction.

In the 19th century, Eva (Odessa Young) has inherited a fishing outpost after the death of her husband, and the workers are suffering. There's little to no food, the winter conditions become harsh, and it's a three-day mountain journey to the nearest town. One day they spot a ship wreck among "The Teeth" - a group of jagged rocks - but Eva and her crew choose not to save them because they're already low on food and supplies. That night they head out to the wreckage to scavenge it, and discover some of the crew still alive, leading them to head back to shore.

The next morning they discover bodies from the crew, and Helga (Siobhan Finneran) - the crew's charwoman - insists they put nails in the dead crew's feet to keep them from turning into draugrs, evil revenant creatures fueled by pure hatred and rage who can manipulate people's minds with terrifying dreams. This doesn't seem to work, however, as soon after Eva and her crew start having horrifying nightmares and they begin turning on one another, leading Eva to make a life-or-death decision that could spell doom for her crew.

"The Damned" is one of those little folk horror movies that doesn't use a lot of spectacle and effects to get its point across, but utilizes its isolated setting to full effect to maintain a sense of dread throughout. There's something unnerving about a group of people out in the middle of the frozen nowhere with no hope of rescue that inherently already establishes itself as terrifying, let alone a vengeful spirit bent on revenge that plagues them.

The story is filled with tension and suspense, as the crew is suffering from lack of food and unforgiving winter conditions, and that's before the dragur arrives. It's the consequence of the crew's actions, even though their pragmatic choice seemed logical at the start. They see a ship in distress, and the normal response is to go out and help, but they're already short on food that if they help them, they risk everyone dying of starvation. So they let the other crew to their fate, which proves deadly to them nonetheless. In a sense it could be seen as a morality play, but again it's not like they had hordes of food at their disposal - caught in the same predicament, I'd probably do the same thing in order to survive.

The cast is led by "Game of Thrones" star Odessa Young, who commands the crew with stern seriousness and a tender touch, making it entirely plausible that a woman would lead a gang of gruff seafaring men with no blow-back from the crew whatsoever. She has their respect, because she respects them, and it makes for an interesting slow-burn thriller when they begin going crazy and turning on one another.

More slow-burn than outright horror, "The Damned" makes use of its isolated setting and tension to provide a decent thriller.

The Score: B+