With fiancée Lauren (Sophia Myles) in tow, American David (Peter Facinelli) travels to Colombia to find his traveling teenage daughter (Nathalia Ramos). They are sidelined by a storm and head to a nearby inn for shelter. The closed establishment's elderly owner (veteran Colombian actor Gustavo Angarita) reluctantly allows them in. In the basement, they discover an imprisoned child and free her, presuming she is a victim. The truth, however, is more complicated, and they find themselves fighting for their lives over the course of the night. The Damned is a mediocre genre picture, and its flaws are predictable. Early on, an atmosphere of overcast dread and isolation draws one in, but the film's central ideas (involving a demonic ghost which hops from possessed human to possessed human, a la Fallen) are unoriginal, and it uses them in haphazard ways, often changing the rules of its mythology on a whim. It is never particularly frightening or suspenseful, either, because director Victor Garcia fails to maintain a consistent, tight pace and relies on bargain-bin scare tactics, including loud jolts and a synthesized baritone voice to indicate possession. Garcia previously directed an unspectacular trio of direct-to-video sequels (Return to House on Haunted Hill, Mirrors 2, and the roundly despised Hellraiser: Revelations). Credit him for trying an original film, but it is not an auspicious step forward. On the upside, the cast, including recognizable faces Facinelli and Myles, is capable and largely convincing, so tone-deaf performances are not among the film's problems.

C