Chilling Horror Thriller ‘The Damned’ Heading to Theaters

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December 6, 2024

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Written by Kelli Marchman McNeely

Kelli Marchman McNeely is the owner of HorrorFuel.com. She is an Executive Producer of "13 Slays Till Christmas" which is out on Digital and DVD and now streaming on Tubi. She has several other films in the works. Kelli is an animal lover and a true horror addict since the age of 9 when she saw Friday the 13th. Email: horrorfuelinfo@gmail.com

Vertical has now announced that Thordur Palsson’s ominous and chilling film The Damned is coming to the UK and Irish cinemas.

The Damned is a tense psychological horror film that follows a 19th-century widow Eva. She must make an impossible choice after a ship sinks off the coast of her isolated outpost during the middle of a fierce winter.

With provisions running low, the close-knit community must choose between rescuing the shipwrecked crew and prioritizing their own survival. Facing the consequences of their decision and tormented by guilt, the inhabitants wrestle with mounting dread and begin to believe they are all being punished for their choices.

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The impressive ensemble cast includes Odessa Young (The Daughter), Joe Cole (Peaky Blinders), Siobhan Finneran (Downton Abbey), and Rory McCann (Game of Thrones). Turlough Convery (Ready Player One), Lewis Gribben (“Black Mirror”), Francis Magee (Rogue One: A Star Wars Story), and Mícheál Óg Lane (Calvary) also star. Andrean Sigurgeirsson (The Darkness), Guillermo Uria (The Real Story Of…), and Arnar Máni Iansson Gray round out the cast.

HorrorFuel’s Joseph Perry had this to say about the film in his spoiler-free review:

“The Damned is a masterful horror film that unveils its secrets at a superb pace, combining the fear of The Other with Icelandic mythology and folklore.”

Inspired by the Westfjords of Iceland in the 1800s, The Damned takes place in an unforgiving, almost unliveable setting, yet one that is steeped in immense beauty and turbulent folklore.

For director Thordur Palsson (The Valhalla Murders), himself a native Icelander, it was this folklore and mythology that led him to develop the idea that would later become The Damned. Growing up in Iceland, family members often shared gruesome tales of ghosts, demons, and evil spirits.

As he recalls: ‘Every Icelander has heard all kinds of different variations of the truth – all elements of our history that have been passed down. One of these stories was about a ship that sank off the shores of Iceland, with all survivors being killed by the natives. Having known of this, I started to write a story relating to it and kept fleshing it out, adding darker elements.’

The Damned promises to be a chilling, thought-provoking, and emotionally charged cinematic experience when it opens in theaters on January 3, 2025, from Vertical Entertainment.

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