The Damned (2024) | Don’t Let the Title Fool You

You can’t get much more of a generic title than “The Damned.” It’s about as vague and useless as “Ghost Story” or “Spooky Time” in terms of giving your audience insight into the movie they're about to watch, and only further increases the chances that people will forget it afterwards. It’s a shame because The Damned is not a bad horror movie, and it has its moments of interest. Not to mention, it’s the first horror film that I have seen to tackle Scandinavian folklore surrounding creatures like Draugar. Bet you didn’t expect that with a title so generic.

Pros

Good acting from the small cast
Good use of camera angles and a less-is-more method of showing the horror
Slow build of tension and dread suits the psychological decline of the characters
Draugar's legend is interesting
89 minutes long

Cons

Pacing is a little slow
The last minute of the movie is stupid and attempts to do a lot of damage to the whole story

Plot & Thoughts

Eva (Odessa Young) is a widow who runs and manages a fishing station in 19th-century Scandinavia. Her husband was a fisherman who was beloved by the crew and the wife he left behind. In his stead, Ragnar (Rory McCann) is the captain of the group who makes most decisions, but occasionally looks to Eva for approval as he respects her as the owner of the station. After many unfruitful winter days, a foreign ship crashes off the coast. While some of the crew want to help, they know the dangers of rescuing so many people in their small boat and how the panic would likely kill some of them as the survivors would rush to get on board. However, they also realize that the ship may have supplies that could help them survive the winter, so they eventually head out with Eva’s approval to see what they can get.

During the scavenging mission, some survivors rush the boat. A fisherman is pulled into the water, and a survivor is killed in the scuffle. They bury the man they killed, but in a way that does not follow the traditions suggested by the fishing station maid, Helga (Siobhan Finneran). She claims that he died an angry and violent death and that his spirit may return vengeful to haunt them. After a few nights of misfortune and people going missing, the remaining fishing crew members begin to suspect she was right.

At just under an hour and a half, you would think that The Damned would move pretty quickly. It actually takes its time getting to the big event that kicks off the plot with the shipwreck. The works to some degree, as it gives attention to the different characters and establishes the relationships they all have with each other. When the horror finally hits, and they start getting more paranoid, their stories become more tragic. It just takes a little too long to get there, and some scenes go on for a while at times.

Where the film works best is with its horror elements. The way the film is shot and how things are often obscured or hidden in the background work well to set up the scares. There are a lot of dark scenes where something moves suddenly, and it can be unsettling. As the story progresses and more people go missing or die, the paranoia and tension ramp up in a good way for some horrific moments to take place and inject some intensity into the moment.

Where it doesn’t work so well, in particular, is the ending. I won’t spoil anything with specifics, but there is a bit of a twist in the final scene that was completely unnecessary. Not only is it erroneous, but it also undercuts a lot of the horror that takes place in the movie and conflicts with the moments in which people seem to go insane or become possessed. It’s essentially the equivalent of someone emptying a trashcan on a delicious cake you were in the middle of eating. I don’t know why it’s there, and the movie would be a lot better off without it.

TL;DR

The Damned is a simple movie that manages to do a lot with very little. There are some solid horror moments that range from quiet to intense. It doesn’t overstay its welcome with a relatively short run time and keeps things interesting with the Scandinavian folklore. However, it also has a really lame final scene that hurts a fair amount of the experience. I’d say it’s still worth a watch, but be warned.

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