A small 19th-century Icelandic fishing village faces horrible consequences after it decides not to help a foreign sinking ship.
Gripping and haunting! Frost, endless nights, battle for survival, alienation… This is what people had to face – some still do – back then. The far North was and is a beast that cannot be tamed. To a large extent, though, things have evolved now. How about then, though?
In small towns and villages, myths and tales live longer than generations of people do.
Like any other folk and/or period horror, The Damned pays tribute to the time it portrays. That means the conditions of that era, as well as the way its people perceived it, acted, and reacted to it. Psychology was in its infancy, or not even born at all. As for sociology and its theories, they didn’t make it up there until modern times. So, what are people left with? Hundreds of years of superstitions, myths and tales that defined their lives and reality as they knew it. In this case, the guilt relates to the myth of Draugr. Looking back at ancient times and their myths, emotions, feelings and psychological states gave birth to gods and monsters that felt the same way humans did, so personally and collectively it was OK for humans to feel that way, too. Draugr’s vengeance only makes sense as vengeful people would react the same way.
From a filmmaking point of view, writer Jamie Hannigan and co-writer/director Thordur Palsson brought to life a story about people’s extreme hardships, delving into the consequences of doing what seems right, knowing what you know. The script is tight, the cinematography will make you freeze, and the acting will make you empathise with the heroes’ and heroines’ sufferings. Odessa Young, Joe Cole, and the rest of the cast do an excellent job in front of the camera, but extra credits go to the rest of the crew that made this film possible.
The Damned is impactful. While watching it, I thought of Psychology and Sociology theories, and there were glimpses where I thought to myself: Have we gone too techy, sophisticated, modernised, and reasonable to believe that beings significantly older than civilisations are only in the sphere of imagination? Before you answer, remember that three gods dominate this world, and people fight each other in their name.
Anyway, I cannot even begin to imagine how the early settlers survived, let alone evolved and made this lovely country that it is today. If you had to endure all that… how would you not feel damned!
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Solidarity for all the innocent lives that suffer the atrocities of war!
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