So 2024 was, in my opinion, an exceptional year for horror films, and if The Damned is any indication, 2025 is on the same track. This entire film felt like a spooky winter-time ghost story told around a fire. And I loved every haunted second. Until the end. Read on!
The Damned, directed by Thordur Palsson, is a dark and chilling horror film that dives into the idea of choices and their consequences. The story follows Eva (played by Odessa Young from HBO’s The Staircase), who’s in charge of a remote fishing village in Iceland after the death of her husband. When the folks there witness a ship sinking nearby, they face a tough choice, and their guilt starts to mess with their heads, making them feel like they’re being punished for what they did.
Visually, the movie is stunning. It captures the stark beauty of the icy landscape really well, starting off with some jaw-dropping views of the desolate outpost before switching to a creepy, candle-lit room. Throughout the film, it jumps between bright daylight and eerie darkness, which really adds to the feeling of isolation—sometimes you can’t see anything at all, and sometimes there’s just emptiness.
The performances are excellent too. Young nails her role as Eva, who’s tough but struggling. She really brings the emotional weight to the film, shifting from a quiet strength to panic as the story unfolds. Her character feels like the one warm light in an otherwise cold and harsh world.
The psychological tension is really well done for most of the movie, building a sense of dread that grips you. The combination of limited food and loneliness creates this intense atmosphere, and the aftermath of the shipwreck adds a frightening layer to it all, topped off with some surprising jump scares.
However, the ending didn’t quite hit the mark for me. Up to that point, the movie focuses on the guilt from the shipwreck, but the final conflict sort of undermines all that tension. Plus, there’s a twist at the end that felt confusing and didn’t really fit with the rest of the film. Overall, though, I loved the experience, just wish the ending had been stronger.
Score
The Damned is a dark and chilling horror film that dives into the idea of choices and their consequences. This entire film felt like a spooky winter-time ghost story told around a fire.
