The defence The Arthouse Gremlin
“Its refusal to behave is the point.”
The strange choices create the kind of friction that follows you out of the theatre and into the argument.
Back to trending 
The Damned
Horror · Drama · Mystery · 2025
A 19th-century widow has to make an impossible choice when, during an especially cruel winter, a foreign ship sinks off the coast of her Icelandic fishing village.
Movie details
The Damned
2025 Horror · Drama · Mystery 1h 29m
Critical arithmetic
One number, for now.
Scores change. Arguments endure.
TMDB
5.8 / 10
Community rating
A 19th-century widow has to make an impossible choice when, during an especially cruel winter, a foreign ship sinks off the coast of her Icelandic fishing village.
CriticWise case file
What this film says about your taste.
Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.
The archetype split
Who fights over The Damned?
For the defence
The Arthouse Gremlin
“The stranger, the better.”
Read their case For the prosecution
The Popcorn Loyalist
“Big screen, big feelings, no apologies.”
Read their objectionThe split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.
Taste neighbourhood
Nearby on the taste map.
TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.
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Starve Acre
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When their son starts acting strangely, a couple unwittingly allow dark and sinister forces into their home, awakening a long-dormant ancient evil rooted deep in the countryside.
The Night House
Horror · 2021
Reeling from the unexpected death of her husband, Beth is left alone in the lakeside home he built for her. Soon she begins to uncover her recently deceased husband's disturbing secrets.
Fear Street: 1994
Horror · 2021
After a series of brutal slayings, a teen and her friends take on an evil force that's plagued their notorious town for centuries.
Silent Hill
Horror · 2006
Rose, a desperate mother, takes her adopted daughter, Sharon, to the town of Silent Hill in an attempt to cure her of her ailment. After a violent car crash, Sharon disappears, and Rose embarks on a horrific journey to get her back and begins to uncover the truth behind the apocalyptic disaster that burned the town 30 years earlier.
The Ring
Horror · 2002
Journalist Rachel Keller investigates a strange videotape that may be behind the untimely deaths of four teenagers. There is an urban legend about this tape: the viewer will die seven days after watching it. Rachel tracks down the video... and watches it. Now she has just seven days to unravel the mystery of the Ring in order to save herself and her son.
Apostle
Horror · 2018
In 1905, a man travels to a remote island in search of his missing sister who has been kidnapped by a mysterious religious cult.
The Ritual
Horror · 2017
A group of college friends reunite for a trip to the forest, but encounter a menacing presence in the woods that's stalking them.
Midsommar
Horror · 2019
Several friends travel to Sweden to study as anthropologists a summer festival that is held every ninety years in the remote hometown of one of them. What begins as a dream vacation in a place where the sun never sets, gradually turns into a dark nightmare as the mysterious inhabitants invite them to participate in their disturbing festive activities.
Where it lives
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Names above the title
The people responsible.
Cast & crew
Directed by
Thordur Palsson
Written by
Thordur Palsson · Jamie Hannigan
Odessa Young
Eva
Joe Cole
Daniel
Siobhan Finneran
Helga
Rory McCann
Ragnar
Turlough Convery
Hakon
Lewis Gribben
Jonas
Francis Magee
Skuli
Court is in session
Put The Damned on trial.
Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.
The prosecution The Popcorn Loyalist
“Oddness is not depth.”
A film can break every rule and still leave nothing behind but the memory of how hard it tried to be singular.