‘The Damned’: Odessa Young Is Captivating as a 19th-Century Widow Facing a Haunted Icelandic Winter

Sandra Miska

A frozen and eerily beautiful 1871 Icelandic fishing outpost provides the setting for the atmospheric psychological horror thriller “The Damned.” Odessa Young stars as Eva, a young widow who runs a remote fishing station she inherited from her husband, Magnus. Despite experiencing a winter that is even more brutal and unforgiving than usual, Eva is able to manage her motley crew of men with strength and dignity, but everything changes after a mysterious ship appears in the horizon one morning.

Young, who previously gave impressive performances in “Mothering Sunday” and “The Order,” continues to stun in the role of Eva, whose position makes her an unusual woman for her time, or any time, for that matter. She commands the respect of her men, although some doubted she would return to the outpost following the recent death of Magnus. However, it is her devotion to continuing her husband’s work that keeps her going. She displays the grit and determination needed for surviving a season in which freezing to death is a real possibility. That is, if she and the others do not starve to death first, as harsh conditions have led them to rely on the fish they would have normally used for bait as sustenance. 

Everything changes one morning when Evan and the men go to shore to set out for a day of fishing and see what appears to be a wrecked ship in the distance. There’s a debate between the men as to whether or not they should take their boat out to try and rescue survivors. Eva makes the tough call to stay ashore, as they barely have enough provisions to get themselves through the winter, let alone a boatload of strangers. However, she later makes the decision to take the boat out to retrieve supplies, a call that leads to tragedy on top of tragedy.

After all of this goes down, strange occurrences start to take place. Helga (Siohan Finneran), the only other woman at the station, is convinced that they are being cursed for not helping the men. She says that a demon is tormenting them and the only way to be rid of it is to do a cleanse with fire. It would be easy to write Helga off as a superstitious old lady, but when their food, and eventually members of the crew, starts to disappear, one starts to wonder. Soon, Eva begins to see things, but is it the lack of food, sleep and/or power of suggestion from Helga leading to her eyes playing tricks on her, or is there something darker going on? 

“The Damned” was shot on location in Iceland, and the stunning visuals, along with Young’s performance, are a highlight. Young does have some great scenes with Joe Cole as Daniel, one of Eva’s men who has potential to blossom into her next husband until things go sideways. However, those expecting a traditional horror film will be disappointed. Once the alleged demon takes over, the plot is very slow-burning and there are few terrifying moments in the scenes leading up to the climax. There’s a lot of talk pertaining to superstition, especially after bodies wash up on shore, but nothing is fully fleshed out. 

“The Damned” releases Jan. 3 in theaters nationwide.