The Damned

Myths and legends are subjects that are deeply ensconced in the world of horror, especially where the crossover of supernatural and fantasy words are concerned. From slashers to ghost stories, so many of our favourites rely on tales passed down through generations to form foundations for them to scare the lives out of us. “The Damned” is no exception.

Set on an unforgivingly icy Icelandic archipelago in the late 1800s, “The Damned” concerns a group of fisherman going through a particularly lean period. Led by Ragnar (Rory McCann, aka The Hound from “Game of Thrones”), the six men are just about holding it together, watched over by housemaid Helga (Siobhan Finneran) and Eva (Odessa Young). Eva owns the fishing station they live on - she inherited it the previous winter after her husband tragically died.

Things get even dicier when a ship happens to capsize nearby and some of the men, including second-in-command Daniel (Joe Cole) want to go out for a rescue. However, Ragnar and Eva give the command to stay away, as she needs them fit for their own needs. Eva then finds a barrel on the beach full of cured meat. They return to the site of the shipwreck where a number of survivors swarm the boat. Ragnar is pulled overboard, while one of them is killed by Daniel, and for their own survival, the crew leaves.

The men eventually wash up on shore by the station, and while they are put in coffins, Helga says there are superstitions to be attended to, lest the men get back up as draugr, an Old Norse term which is akin to spirits or zombies. This is ignored as nonsense, but some of them soon begin to see a strange figure in their midst, leading to arguments between crewmembers and even madness.

One of the best things about “The Damned” is its ambiguity, the way it plays with the audience’s mind as it does the minds of the station crew. Several events conspire to set the men against each other, including their one successful fish all going missing, and it gets to a point where bodies start to pile up from arguments turned into fights, by men, not zombies. It doesn’t help that Helga places several symbols and charms around the station, racketing up the level of superstition and embedding it in the crew heads that they should be worried about the men they left to die coming back to get them.

It’s a fairly slow burn, with the film mainly following Eva as she walks the bitterly cold shores on her own. Eli Arenson’s photography affords the landscape a sense of beauty as well as desolation, and while Eva cutting a lonely figure across the snow is an oft-repeated motif, the cinematography and Stephen McKeon’s minimal and haunting score allow for a meditative sense. With all this talk of the dead coming back to life, her husband is still clearly in her mind, although director Thordur Palsson is smart enough to leave it wordless.

Palsson and writer Jamie Hannigan handle even the cliches fairly well, with one of the crew being a die-hard Christian who talks multiple times about forgiving the various sins. However, this is contrasted with not only skepticism but also the Pagan stylings of Helga, although thankfully it’s left as a minor theme, which just adds a little more flavour to the intermingling of the crew. The actors playing the fisherman are all excellent, although you’d be forgiven for thinking the casting director is the same as on the aforementioned HBO show with dragons, as they all share that same kind of ruggedness, and to be fair, at least two of them were in it – McCann and Francis Magee, who played Night’s Watchman Yoren.

However, the film belongs to Odessa Young, who is absolutely magnetic as Eva. She plays both roles well, that of a young girl frightened by the violence she sees, but also realistic enough to grit her teeth and make the decisions that need to be made. She’s particularly great in the final act, with an ending that will definitely stay with you for a while. If there’s any justice, “The Damned” will make her a star as “It Follows” did Maika Monroe.

“The Damned” is an arresting piece of supernatural horror that keeps its cards close to its chest right up until the finale. The way it looks at myth and superstition adds another layer, and it’s impressively scary at times, with a little bit of gore. And it asks ourselves how justified we are to act in self-preservation – and where does it stop?

“The Damned” is out in UK and US cinemas now