The Damned
(In Theaters Jan. 3)
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In this period horror, we land on the shores of an isolated Icelandic village. It’s winter. Food stocks are dwindling. Eva’s (Odessa Young) husband recently died and left her the village’s most seaworthy boat. Their survival at stake, Eva agrees to allow the fisherman to take the boat into the tempestuous, icy waters. Barely offshore, the men spy a boat wrecked on the rocky crag of a nearby cliff. A debate ensues. Mount a dangerous rescue of survivors who are likely to either starve or cause townspeople to starve—or leave them to their sinking ship? As the argument rages, wooden boxes laden with precious food supplies, come floating by along with corpses. Though some are guilt-ridden, most are steadfast in their commitment to save the village—travelers be damned. What seemed their best course of action begins to haunt the towns folk when several spot a draugr, or reanimated corpse, creeping about. With villagers disappearing, Eva struggles to keep her head despite the dark presence she first feels, then sees, lurking in the corner or beneath the floorboards. Working from a screenplay by Jamie Hannigan, director Thordur Palsson and cinematographer Eli Arenson, double down on the literal and figurative chills. They’re over-reliant on jump cuts, since the cast, particularly Young, magnificently convey an unrelenting sense of dread. (Lisa Miller)
The Dead Don’t Hurt
(Shout! Studios Blu-ray)
Viggo Mortensen and Vicky Krieps give excellent performances in the western The Dead Don’t Hurt (2023) playing an immigrant couple on the frontier. He’s from Denmark, she’s French, and they find common ground in the strange land they hope to settle. They fall together in San Francisco and ride out to the Nevada Territory just before the Civil War. The characters are intriguing and laconic, albeit the narrative is confusing for the longest time, jumping across time under Mortensen’s less than certain direction. Putting an immigrant couple at the story’s center is unusual in a western containing the well-defined archetypes of setting and place—the dusty town with its swinging door saloon and piano player, the corrupt mayor, a farcical “justice” system and a trigger-mad villain dressed in black. (David Luhrssen)
Everything Will Be Alright
(IndiePix DVD/Digital)
The intimacy is almost painful to watch as documentarian Stanislavs Tokalov holds the camera to the face of his 93-year-old grandmother. She’s having trouble remembering—born in Russia but where is she now? Latvia? The director follows her and his sister Irina through their everyday life as a multigenerational Russian family, a minority in Latvia. They watch Russian and Latvian TV, they squabble as families do and feel the pressure of Latvian nationalism. In one of the best scenes, Irina bundles grandmother into her World War II uniform and brings her to Victory Day, the annual celebration of Hitler’s defeat. The celebration is something like Veterans Day in the U.S. but more intense. Grandmother was 16 and at the frontline, carrying wounded soldiers from battlefields. Young people bring her flowers, congratulate her, one young woman adding, “We wouldn’t exist without you.” (David Luhrssen)
