-Written by Kyle Bain.
Struggling through a particularly cold winter in nineteenth-century Iceland, a widow, Eva (Odessa Young), and a crew of fishermen must make a series of challenging decisions when a boat sinks just off the shore. The Damned follows Eva as her decisions come back to haunt her, and her psyche is slowly, but surely tested.
Attempting to exist in the same vein as Nosferatu and John Carpenter’s The Thing, The Damned looks to create an immersive experience that treads the line between thriller and psychological horror. In some regards, the film is successful, but it falters as well–incapable of living up to the standards of those phenomenal films. It’s not fair to compare The Damned to massively successful films like those, and I refuse to let that affect my overall rating of the film–but, if you’re going to borrow aspects of those films, or even unintentionally use bits and pieces from those productions, be prepared for a comparison.
The idea of a monster, villain, or antagonist remaining nameless and faceless throughout the course of a film is one that greatly appeals to me. There’s something daunting about the unknown, and that’s one of the reasons why The Thing was, and still is, so successful. The Damned uses this to a degree. While there are certainly moments in which the facial features of the shadowy figures are noticeable, they are minimal–and that allows a sense of mystery to surround them throughout. I wish that this had remained the case throughout the entirety of the film, but by the time the film concludes, we are given complete insight into what has been occurring, and that ultimately steals from the intended intensity. Allow the mystery to remain, and I believe that The Damned would have been more successful.
I feel that my biggest issue with The Damned is the fact that none of the characters are adequately developed. It’s almost as if Writer-Director Thordur Palsson and Writer Jamie Hannigan chose not to develop them, to allow them to remain somewhat of a mystery as well. This only hurts the film, and as suspense is meant to be developed, I just didn’t care. I knew very little of their personalities or their backstories, and when death arrived to meet them, I couldn’t have cared less whether they lived or died. To care that little about a group of characters is horrible for the success of a film, and The Damned suffers from beginning to end in this regard.
There are aspects of this film that I found appealing, and I will get to them soon–but much of the film felt like it dragged on, like nothing happened. At only an hour and a half in length, The Damned should have felt like it moved too quickly before it felt like it dragged on–but I often found myself bored. I dozed off in the theater more than once, yet, when I walked out at the end of the film I found myself wide awake–meaning that the only reasonable explanation to this is that I was downright bored. The Damned had very little to get excited about, and, once again, the film suffered as a result.
Well then, what does work? The setting of the film, winter in Iceland, is stunning, breathtaking, and whatever other word you can think of to describe something that just works perfectly. A white blanket of snow covers nearly the entirety of The Damned, creating something incredibly serene and welcoming. Not only is it simply beautiful, it’s used to juxtapose the shadow-like figures that haunt this ensemble of characters. The film’s aesthetic is brilliant, some of the best use of visuals that I’ve seen in some time–and it simply sucks that it’s overshadowed by the other glaring issues that exist throughout the rest of the film.
I wanted more…I desperately wanted more from The Damned. I knew very little about its plot when walking into the theater, but the one preview made it look as if it had much potential. With the exception of the visuals, I struggled so much to appreciate this film. There’s a complete lack of character development, Palsson and Hannigan ultimately drop the ball at the conclusion of the film when revealing the antagonist, and it often felt that nothing was happening. The Damned didn’t live up to what expectations I had for it, and I found myself disappointed that I spent an hour and a half (minus my brief naps) in the theater watching.
Directed by Thordur Palsson.
Written by Jamie Hannigan & Thordur Palsson.
Starring Odessa Young, Joe Cole, Lewis Gribben, Siobhan Finneran, Francis Magee, Rory McCann, Turlough Convery, Mícheál Óg Lane, etc.
5/10 = WORTH THE RISK, BUT YOU’VE BEEN WARNED
Comments