PopHorror Let's Get Scared
Dan Simmons is one of my favorite authors. His book, Summer of Night, takes the innocence and coming of age story from Stand By Me and wraps it in an otherworldly terror as intense and insane as an entire school foll of Pennywise the Dancing Clowns. So when I had heard that his novel, The Terror, was being made for TV by AMC (the people who brought us The Walking Dead), I was thrilled beyond measure. Luckily for me, the first three episodes premiered at this year’s What the Fest? Film Festival, so I was lucky enough to catch them all at once. Did AMC do Mr. Simmons proud?
Synopsis:
The crew of a Royal Naval expedition searching for the Arctic’s treacherous Northwest Passage discovers instead a monstrous predator.
Strangely enough, the title of the show, The Terror, is named after one of the boats on this Arctic excursion. That seems like the last ship you would want to sail to explore the coldest and most brutal place on earth, but what do I know? The show was created by relative filmmaking newcomer, David Kajganich, but if the first three episodes have anything to say, this man has quite the career ahead of him. So far, three directors have taken the wheel that drives The Terror – Tim Mielants (Legion TV series), Edward Berger (Deutschland 83 2015) and Sergio Mimica-Gezzan (Falling Skies TV series), all from scripts created by a team of writers that includes Dan Simmons himself, as well as Kajganich, Under the Dome‘s Soo Hugh and Andres Fischer-Centento, Josh Parkinson (Eastbound and Down 2012), Castle Rock‘s Vinnie Wilhelm and Gina Welch.
The Terror stars some pretty familiar faces as well. Jared Harris (Poltergeist 2015), Tobias Menzies (Outlander TV series) and Ciarán Hinds (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Pt. 2 2011) lead the expedition into this unforgiving land. Paul Ready (Ripper Street TV series), Adam Nagaitis (The Man With the Iron Heart 2017), Ian Hart (Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone 2001) and Christos Lawton (Downton Abbey TV series) do their best to keep the rest of their crew mates from getting killed in way too many different ways.
After watching just the first three episodes of The Terror, I can safely say that I am hooked. And that’s the only thing that’s safe about this show. The tension builds from the get go as you realize that these men are doomed. They’re in wooden ships that are frozen in hundreds of miles of ice with no way to break free. Everyone is crammed in tight on two relatively small crafts, stuck together with no real privacy, seeing the same faces day in and day out. Egos are still going strong by those in power, and if one of them makes even the smallest wrong decision, it could be the end of everyone on board.
The only tool that could get them out of this jam, the ship’s compass, spins in furtive circles this close to the North Pole. Going out on the deck drives the stark, bleak whiteness surrounding them home, a vision of barren, bleached desert that looks the same on land as it does in the sky. There is no help coming and no way to reach anyone to let them know the situation. It’s bone-chillingly cold, and there’s only a limited supply of coal. Of course, there are no trees to burn in this frozen wasteland. The only wood comes from the sides of the boats. The food is running out… and there’s sickness on board. All of these things are soul-crushing in their own right. But add to them an Arctic monster called the Tuunbaq, and the entire situation becomes a recipe for frigid, harrowing death.
The scariest part of The Terror is the fact that it’s based on a true story. Back in 1847, two ships, captained by John Franklin, were sent by the Royal Navy to find a way through the Northwest Passage in Antarctica. The players are all the same, and their stories really happened. Coincidentally enough, both the HMS Terror and the HMS Erebus were discovered at the bottom of the Arctic Bay within that last five years, which will hopefully give scientists and historians answers as to what actually happened to these 129 men.
The Terror is an acerbic, slow (freezer) burn of a show. I’m already afraid for my favorite characters, as the good guys get taken out as often as a Game of Thrones storyline, and although I know that none of these men will survive, I keep holding out hope for Dr. Goodsir (Paul Ready) and Captain Francis Crozier (Jared Harris). Sure, Crozier tolls the doom bells like the very first Crazy Ralph, but he’s almost always right, so they should really listen to him more often. The compassion and concern shown by the aptly named Dr. Goodsir makes him such a sympathetic character that you can’t help but love him, even as he watches his friends and crewmembers die right before his eyes. There are no bad guys in The Terror, only good, honorable yet flawed men who make bad decisions.
The show is beautifully shot, and it must have cost a mint to make these snow-covered sets. The ice floes in the black ocean water are as beautiful as they are terrifying. Just the idea of falling into that wretched, briny expanse, as dour and enigmatic as anything seen in space, made my blood run cold, and I couldn’t warm up for hours after watching. There’s a dog on board, as as the series progresses, he becomes less and less animated. If they show that dog die, I swear…
Although, I have to say, I loved the scene with Henry Collins (Trystan Gravelle), dressed in a lumbering, old fashioned diving suit, submerged beneath the frigid waves, chipping away at the ice block that formed around one of the ship’s propellers, as Dr. Goodsir, still on board, sawed at the sternum of the deceased David Young (Alfie Kingsnorth) during the young man’s autopsy. It was genius to show these two scenes simultaneously and only made it all the more freaky when Collins saw the dead body of a drowned crewmember float by him as he fought his natural instincts to get out of the hypothermic water. As for the monster, Tuunbaq is definitely not a bear, and it isn’t the Thing. What it is, we will never know, as no one survived an encounter with it. Although, if the Inuit are afraid of it, you know it must be terrifying.
My only complaint about The Terror is how dark it is. A gloomy story is one thing, but dim lighting is another. It may have just been my television, but there were scenes where I could barely tell what was going on, it was so tragically unlit. I can only assume that the filmmakers wanted a stark contrast between the scorching, white Antarctic snow with the interior ship scenes, but I have no idea.
I will say that, if you’re a fan of both human and supernatural horror, you should check out The Terror. Even if you don’t like historical films, you should at least watch the first three episodes, which are available on AMC’s site. I guarantee that you’ll find something to love.
