The Damned Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		3.0
Overall		3.5

The Damned Blu-ray Movie Review

This Old House

Reviewed by Michael Reuben November 19, 2014

A horror film about travelers who knock on the wrong door may not be original, but there's a difference between a movie that does something interesting with the premise and one that wastes it. For an example of the latter, see the 2013 dud Seven Below (or, preferably, don't). An example of the former is MPI Media's The Damned, an independent American production shot in Colombia with an international cast and a Spanish director, Victor Garcia, who was finally getting a chance at a decent script after being stuck with forgettable sequels like Mirrors 2. The film was originally called Gallows Hill, but the title was changed for reasons that can't be discussed without venturing into spoiler territory. The Damned may not have been the best choice for an alternate title, especially since it had already been claimed by the 1969 classic directed by Lucino Visconti. But at least it's an accurate description.

The script by Richard D'Ovidio (The Call) relies more on atmosphere and conflict than on elaborate effects and explicit gore, although The Damned supplies just enough of the latter to pay off the suspense. Perhaps the film's greatest asset is its cast, led by Peter Facinelli (Nurse Jackie and The Twilight Saga) and Sophia Myles (Transfomers: Age of Extinction), none of whom are regulars in the horror genre.

David Reynolds (Facinelli) and his fiancée, Lauren (Myles), have flown to Colombia and traveled to the city of Medellin for the express purpose of tracking down David's eighteen-year-old daughter, Jill (Nathalia Ramos). Jill is traveling with her Colombian boyfriend, Ramon (Sebastian Martínez), and her Aunt Gina (Carolina Guerra), who is the sister of her late mother, Marcela (Tatiana Renteria, in photos and flashbacks). David wants his daughter to return home and attend his wedding to Lauren, but Jill has been ignoring her father's calls and emails. There's a lot of barely suppressed conflict bubbling under the surface, and all of it will burst out as soon as the family is placed under stress.

The group sets off in a rented car to make a chartered flight back to the U.S., but a soaking downpour impedes their progress. A local cop, Morales (Juan Pablo Gamboa), warns David to take a different road, but David ignores him and ends up immobilized and in urgent need of assistance. The only house in the vicinity belongs to an old man named Felipe (Gustavo Angarita), who, at first, doesn't want to let strangers inside but relents when he sees that David has a daughter. Felipe, who doesn't speak English, insists that everyone remain in one upstairs room. Stealing away to explore, Jill and Ramon shortly discover why Felipe is so reluctant to admit anyone. He is keeping a little girl locked in a large wooden box in the basement. She says her name is Ana Maria (Julieta Salazar), and she appears to have been imprisoned for a long time.

From this point forward, The Damned plays out one creepy scenario after another, all of which follow logically from the entry of the Reynolds party into a situation for which they were wholly unprepared. The backstory is supplied later in the film, and it only takes a few sentences, but by then the basic mechanics of the evil inhabiting the house have already become clear, as has some of the Reynolds family's troubled history. "Eveyone has secrets", says David Reynolds at the beginning of the film, and that turns out to be true not just of the old man who answered the door but of everyone who knocked.

Garcia relies on as little CG as possible, preferring practical effects and physical interactions among his cast to create a sense of threat, violation and sheer ickiness. A cockroach wrangler was heavily involved, along with some impressive prosthetics technicians. The house itself is a threatening creation, full of dark spaces and odd angles. All of the action occurs under a pounding rain, as if providence itself were trying (and failing) to wash away the evil that has been let loose on the world.

The Damned Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

As can be observed in the "Making Of" featurette included in the extras, The Damned was shot on Red cameras; the cinematographer was Spanish DP Alejandro Moreno, and the producers confirm in their commentary that the film was substantially color-corrected in post-production on a digital intermediate. MPI Media's 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray, which was presumably sourced from digital files, has the clean and smooth surface that Red cameras so frequently deliver, which provides an interesting contrast to the torrential downpour and textured interiors of the house where most of the film's action plays out. Except for spurts of blood, the color palette is muted to blend into the faded decor and dark shadows of the house and basement, but the blacks are so well-defined, and the shadow detail good enough, that the various shadings of darkness always reveal exactly what we need to see. Except for occasional banding at scene transitions, no artifacts appeared. The 87-minute film has been mastered on a BD-25 with an average bitrate of 24.30 Mbps.

The Damned Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The dominant presence on The Damned's lossless DTS-HD MA 5.1 soundtrack is the pounding rain, and the track has been carefully mixed so that the sound of the rain changes depending on where the viewer is situated inside or outside, whether the windows are open or shut, whether the action remains upstairs or has moved into the basement, etc. Several key sequences involving vehicles also have impressive sound editing, as do segments involving demonic "vocals" (I don't want to be more specific, but you'll know them when you hear them). Some viewers may find subtler sounds like the skittering of bugs and the rending of flesh by the evil force even more disturbing than the bigger effects. The tense horror score was supplied by American composer Frederik Wiedmann, who previously worked with Garcia on Mirrors 2 and is probably best known for his work on several DC comics TV adaptations, including Green Lantern: The Animated Series.

As is often the case with MPI's releases, a PCM 2.0 track is also included. Note that the film contains a substantial amount of Spanish dialogue, which is translated by non-switchable English subtitles.

The Damned Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Commentaries


• With Actor Peter Facinelli and Writers/Producers Richard D'Ovidio and David Higgins: Higgins and D'Ovidio were "hands on" producers, and Facinelli was the lead actor of the cast. Together they supply substantial detail about both the history of the project and the day-to-day production process, including a series of reshoots required to "punch up" specific scenes. Facinelli is especially interesting when he describes how the cast worked together, and he doesn't hold back in recounting the discomforts of spending most of the shoot soaking wet.


• With Director Victor Garcia and Co-Editor J.L. Romeu: Romeu was the second editor on the film, who worked on fine-tuning the initial assembly by editor Etienne Boussac. Because of Romeu's presence, Garcia tends to focus on pacing and rhythm, although he also discusses the actors' performances and the overall design of the film.



• "Heaven Help Us" Featurette (1080i; 1.78:1; 4:08): Everything in this featurette is repeated in the longer "Making Of" listed below.



• Making Of (1080i; 1.78:1; 9:46): This promotional featurette was made when the film was still entitled "Gallows Hill" and includes interviews with Facinelli, director Garcia, producers Higgins and Peter Block, and actors Gustavo Angarita, Carolina Guerra, Nathalia Ramos and Julieta Salazar, who is as winning in person as she is frightening in the film.



• Trailer (1080p; 2.35:1; 1:57).



• Additional Trailers: At startup the disc plays trailers for Beneath, Witching & Bitching, At the Devil's Door and Cam2Cam, which can be skipped with the chapter forward button and are not otherwise available once the disc loads.

The Damned Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Horror fans are a finicky crowd. Some want an entirely fresh plot; others want as much explicit gore as possible; and still others seem to dislike everything but the classics. The Damned isn't especially original; it isn't a gore-fest; and it certainly isn't a classic. What it has going for it are strong performances, a clear directorial vision and a tautly edited pace that doesn't waste your time. If those elements sound appealing, then the film is worth a look. The Blu-ray is certainly well-produced, and the two commentaries are insightful.