Unveiling the Darkness: A Deep Dive into ‘The Damned’ (2024) – Is This Horror Film Worth Your Time?

The Damned is a 2024 film directed by Thordur Palsson, featuring a talented cast including Odessa Young, Joe Cole, and Rory McCann.

SYNOPSIS:

Set in a 19th-century Icelandic fishing village, the story follows a widow named Eva during a brutal winter. A foreign ship wrecks nearby, forcing the villagers to make a heart-wrenching decision about whether to save strangers or protect their own dwindling food supplies.

The film explores the legends of the draugr, a terrifying creature from folklore. The story hints that these tales might be real. Unfortunately, as the film progresses, it gets bogged down in spooky scares rather than developing its intriguing premise. Viewers are left waiting for the moment when the characters acknowledge the dangers they face while struggling against the cold and their own sanity.

Initially, there’s a spark of interest as the crew grapples with their dire situation, debating the risk involved in rescuing survivors from the wrecked ship. They know helping others could worsen their own predicament, and tensions flare, especially with the crew’s leader, Ragnar.

Eva, who manages the fishing outpost, ultimately agrees with Ragnar’s tough stance on survival. However, as they begin to salvage supplies from the wreck, they also find disturbing evidence of their moral choice, including corpses that serve as grim reminders of their decision. As the stress mounts, Eva starts seeing strange figures, adding to the tension but not really deepening the story.

The interactions between Eva and Daniel, a crew member who knew her late husband, touch on her backstory but feel underdeveloped. Instead of focusing on these meaningful moments, the film relies on jump scares, losing sight of the compelling moral struggles it introduced at the start. The atmospheric cinematography by Eli Arenson is impressive, yet it can’t redeem the plot from its aimless pacing.

Despite having a solid cast and a unique setting, The Damned doesn’t fully utilize its potential. The film drifts into familiarity, trading depth for standard horror tropes without offering satisfying character development or a compelling narrative. What could have been a gripping exploration of survival and morality fades into a forgettable horror flick.

Flickering Myth Rating: ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★