The Damned is a movie that proves my whole theory: being a fisherman in 18th century Iceland would suck. Maybe a little more than sitting through this drudgery of a movie, but the flick doesn’t have me tap-dancing across the fjord either.

It’s about a small fishing village on the coast of Skyrim… I mean Iceland… where the villagers let a ship sink because they don’t have enough food for themselves much less survivors. But an evil dead draugr wasn’t too fond of that and now lurks in shadows until someone turns on the lights. It’s that exciting.

To be kind, this movie has all the cold, brittle atmosphere you’d ever want. Its frigid, dark, brutal, and generally unpleasant because, apparently, living in dying village in Iceland is pretty miserable. It nails that sensation of frozen isolation perfectly.

And if you want that eerie sensation that an evil spirit is lurking in the corners of your house, then maybe that’ll work for you too. I mean, you also have to be ok with the evil whatzit not actually doing much of anything most of the time too. Just lurkin’.

Yeah, I lost interest in this flick about half way in when it became apparent they weren’t interested in anything more than lurking. It ultimately served its purpose of being a distant and cold art house film that didn’t feel like it needed to try harder.

And then the movie ends in a way that caused my eyes to roll out of their sockets in exasperation. I was fed up with the slow, cold burn already but then they pull a fast one that left me deeply annoyed and unsatisfied.

I didn’t like this generically titled movie… though I acknowledge its ability to set a table with cold, brutal, darkness. It nails the setting but otherwise is content to take a maybe thirty minute premise and drag it out to ninety.

Score: 69