If you loved the first season of The Terror you may want to check out The Damned, a creepy horror movie set on a remote arctic island where something terrifying lurks in the shadows and swirling fog. Death and despair linger over the sorry group of remote fishermen (and women) after they make a tragic decision to save their own lives.
Odessa Young headlines the cast, playing a widow who is either going crazy or seeing some really frightening shit. So goes your typical psychological horror movie, setting aside. We’ve seen countless movies where hallucinations (or creatures appear only to disappear when a character looks away and then back again) are the main source of scares, and to that end The Damned doesn’t give us much in the way of originality.
But as with many horror movies, success or failure are decided not on uniqueness but execution. Thankfully, director Thordur Palsson creates a bleak and sinister atmosphere in which his story, from a script by Jamie Hannigan, thrives. The movie, painted in gray and dreary blues, makes you feel as though you are trapped in a winter wondernightmare. Hopelessness abounds, wrapping your soul–and the souls of those on screen–in a growing sense of despair and desperation.
When you do catch a glimpse of the haunting evil, Palsson wisely keeps things nondescript–it’s a figure in the fog, a grotesque shadow in the corner of the room.
In the end, The Damned can’t quite escape its genre trappings, however. If you’ve seen enough horror movies like this, you can largely predict how it will end–it would have been nice to see Palsson and Hannigan take their story in a new direction and deliver a more unexpected third act. The movie ends almost abruptly, a disappointing finish to an otherwise alluring tale.
It may not match the sophistication of Season 1 of The Terror, but The Damned has enough spiritual similarities to be worthy of a viewing.
Review by Erik Samdahl unless otherwise indicated.