Folk horror fans should keep Thordur Palsson’s THE DAMNED on their radar. In a 19th century Icelandic fishing community, the residents’ inability or even willingness to rescue the survivors of a sinking ship puts a curse on them.
Odessa Young is perfectly cast as the widow, the lone female in the village. There are many gory moments, beautiful visuals courtesy of Lamb cinematographer Eli Arenson, and a fine string score by Stephen McKeon. The revelation at the end, which casts doubts on what we’ve seen up to that point, did not sit well with me, but The Damned should still be worth seeing for genre enthusiasts.
It has been announced that Vertical Entertainment picked up the US distribution rights for a release later this year.
