The Damned
The snow blows cold off the high sharp mountains down to the cove by the dark sea on midwinter night, a place of grim opportunity for those who can endure the misery, the freezing winds, the men of the fishing station leased by Eva Magnusson, inherited from her husband when he died on the waters, huddled around the lamplight, drinking and singing to keep their bruised spirits afloat until dawn brings another blow.
Across the icy blue waters, caught in the currents of the sharp peaks called the Teeth, are the white sails of a stricken ship, sinking fast, the voices of the sailors carried by the wind; the men divided, fearful, it is Eva who makes the call: with barely enough food to sustain themselves and the catch poor this season to attempt a rescue in dangerous waters would only damn them all to either a quick death by drowning or a slow death of hunger, and they will not render aid.
Set in the 1870s and filmed on the achingly beautiful but unforgiving coast of Iceland, The Damned is directed by The Valhalla Murders’ Thordur Palsson from a script co-written with Pilgrimage’s Jamie Hannigan, a descent into madness and despair of an isolated outpost where any dying breath of hope has frozen and a terrible decision made in the face of an impossible situation amplifies the tragedy, a vortex sucking them all down.
Starring Odessa Young as Eva, she is not cruel or unkind but she is pragmatic, hardened by her loss and the life she finds herself in, stealing food from the dead they failed to save when a barrel of meat washes ashore, not given to superstition but aware that the minds of the men who answer to her have already been tainted by the dread of what lurks in the night from stories told by Helga (Siobhan Finneran) of the sinister draugr, a creature of skin, bone and hatred.
A tale set at the blighted lands found at the ends of the Earth, each of the desperate men responds differently to the situation, stern helmsman Ragnar (Game of Thrones’ Rory McCann) accepting no dissent among the crew though Daniel (Peaky Blinders’ Joe Cole) is more sensitive, particularly towards Eva’s needs, even dependable Skuli (The Frankenstein Chronicles’ Francis Magee) faltering while wide-eyed Hakon (Wake Up’s Turlough Convery) sinks lower with every nocturnal fright.
The terror never approaching, it does not need to destroy them, hovering at the edge of the firelight as the fisherman turn on each other, never certain whether the shadow something real they have brought upon themselves with their refusal to help their fellow man or their consciences manifesting, tearing open the cracks to reveal the fears and futile rage beneath, The Damned unable to find comfort or solace on the cold ice or in the dark night under the unblinking stars.
The Damned will be available in UK Cinemas from Friday 10th January
