For anyone that’s been following along at Screen Love Affair, you know the horror genre is one of my favourites. However, most horror movies these days don’t work for me. Not only do so many of them feel the same, they often lack any real identity, and the worst part is that they lack any real fear. However, it’s not all doom and gloom. 2023 and 2024 both delivered horror movies that ended up in my top 10 favourites list (spoiler for the 2024 list) with Skinamarink and Oddity. 

The Damned intrigued me. From the first trailer I saw for it ahead of Nosferatu, I knew I had to see the movie. The movie takes place sometime in the 19th century in a remote Icelandic fishing “village” which is more or less made up of about seven people. Odessa Young plays Eva, a widower and owner of this fishing enterprise. One day a foreign ship sinks offshore near their village and when bodies eventually wash ashore, bizarre things begin to happen to this small community. 

So, does The Damned rise to the occasion, or does it sink into the icy depths of generic horror slop?

My Thoughts

It’s crazy in a genre that is as saturated as horror is, that I’m constantly surprised and impressed with how much uniqueness can still exist. The Damned is beautiful, bleak, horrifying, and exactly what I was hoping to see. 

Let’s start first with how the movie looks. The Icelandic backdrop is gorgeous. If you hate winter, I suppose you may disagree, but the coastal village surrounded by snow covered hills and mountains was absolutely breathtaking. At the same time though, it’s cold and you feel that throughout the entire movie. This is where the “bleak” aspect comes in. This world is cruel, harsh, and unforgiving. The village is struggling, with so little food they end up resorting to eating some of their bait. That’s also why, when a boat sinks off their shore, ultimately they decide there’s nothing they can feasibly do, and so they leave the crew of the shipwreck to their fate. 

Beyond this, it wasn’t just the world that felt bleak, but this was a rare case where the doom and dread that permeates throughout the movie gives you a feeling of hopelessness for these characters. In a typical slasher, I always expect there to be, at the very least, a final girl that survives the events of the movie. I had no such confidence about the fates of the characters in this village and it’s because of how well the different aspects of this movie come together to create this sense of hopelessness. The landscape, while beautiful, is also cold and isolating. The music, while nothing groundbreaking or new, enhances those feelings of unease as the movie progresses. 

This isn’t your average jumpscare horror snoozefest, this is something that genuinely had me shook as I was watching it. All the typical horror tropes are pretty much cast (pun intended) aside for a subtlety that managed to scare me for real. The most effective tool the movie uses is silence. One scene in particular was completely silent, but what I was watching freaked me out so much that I almost wanted that loud pop jump scare to release me from the tension I was feeling. That’s also where the depth of this movie comes into play and how it sets itself apart. This isn’t some sort of slasher/monster movie in the traditional sense. The horrors experienced in this movie are very much a consequence of the mind and the soul. Grief, trauma, sadness, and fear are all significant themes the movie and its characters explore and experience and this is done to great effect. 

I don’t want to give away too much here, but there is a benefit to following the movie closely and much of the movie is up for interpretation. I’m writing this review after screening the movie only once, but I’m excited to see it again in theatres to get even more immersed in the movie and see what things I catch on a second viewing. 

As far as performances go, everyone is solid in their roles, including Joe Cole who you might recognize from Peaky Blinders) and Game of Thrones alumni Rory McCann and Francis Magee among others, but this is really the Odessa Young show and she was absolutely brilliant. As a woman living in the time that she did, she masterfully moves between the grief of a widower, the strength of a leader, and the passion of someone with more love to give. I first saw Young in My First Film and, as I noted in my review, I thought she was also fantastic then too. At just 26 years old, she has some great experience already and is a talent worth keeping your eyes on!

Verdict

I mean, what more can I say beyond beautiful, bleak, and horrifying? This is exactly what I want out of horror movies. The Damned filled me with a hopelessness and dread that I haven’t experienced in a horror movie in a while and I’ll be damned (two puns in one review, somebody stop me) if I didn’t really dig it. It also achieved this all while being a very simple movie that didn’t overly rely on effects or cheap tricks to build its tension. This is good old fashioned horror filmmaking on display and I’m very happy to kick off 2025 on such a solid note!

The Damned is in theatres now in the UK, Ireland, USA, and Canada. Don’t miss it!