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.
Palsson 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.’
In addition to drawing from Icelandic history and folklore, Palsson combined more modern, sociological themes.
‘When we were developing the story, we started to see very interesting correlations between this and what was happening in the world – the human instinct to take care of our own before helping others. There’s this idea, all over the world, that we should take care of our own people on the streets before taking in people from war-torn countries. It’s interesting when those themes and stories can be told through a genre lens. I wanted to try and get this message across through means of a compelling story rather than beating the audience over the head with it.’ Palsson states.
The Damned, which I called “psychological horror done right” in my review, is now playing in theaters from Vertical Entertainment.
