Odessa Young and Joe Cole lead Nordic horror film The Damned

Vertical has shared the official trailer for The Damned, a chilling thriller set in the 19th century. Odessa Young (Manodrome) and Joe Cole (Peaky Blinders) star.

Life in an isolated fishing outpost amid a brutal winter in an Iceland-inspired region is hard enough as it is, but when a ship sinks off the coast, Eve (Young) and the other members of her community must decide whether to rescue the crew or ignore them.

Supplies are limited in this harsh landscape, inspired by the Westfjords in the late 1800s. Offering the newcomers provisions could spell their demise. But they will face the consequences of their decision, as the trailer teases the community being plagued by terrifying visions manifested by their guilt.

The Damned comes from director Thordur Palsson (The Valhalla Murders) and will be released in select theaters beginning on January 3, 2025. Jamie Hannigan writes the script, based on a story from Palsson. Looking at the trailer, it looks like the kind of Nordic horror ideal for fans of The Terror and Robert Eggers' The Witch.

Palsson is an Icelander himself and based The Damned on some of the folklore he learned growing up. Family members would often tell stories about demons and evil spirits.

According to the production notes, the cast and crew took great pains to mimic the reality of a dire situation like this one. The cast spent a week of rehearsals in Reykjavik, just getting to know one another to help create the bonds of the close-knit community depicted on-screen. Palsson says he was particularly interested in exploring the disagreements that inevitably crop up in situations like this, especially as people in the community have varied beliefs. Some of them are rather close-minded, while other characters are terrified of the supernatural.

‘You’ve got the religious side, you’ve got the supernatural side, you’ve got Helga with her strongly held Pagan beliefs. Skuli scoffs at the idea of anything otherworldly. He’s all about self-preservation," says actress Francis Magee, who plays Skuli.

Besides Young and Cole, The Damned stars Siobhan Finneran, Rory McCann, Turlough Convery, Lewis Gribben, Francis Magee, Mícheál Óg Lane, Andrean Sigurgeirsson, Guillermo Uria, and Arnar Máni Iansson Gray.

The Damned begins playing in theaters on January 3.