One of the better shows to hit the small screen in the past few seasons was "The Terror", a ten-episode gripper of a series on AMC. I'm not usually a fan of horror movies/series, finding them unintentionally comic usually, but "The Terror" has all the right atmospherics and meticulous plotting and context to weave "the terror" into the story in a believable fashion. Taken from the novel of the same name, and based on the historical expedition by John Franklin in the late 1840s in search of the fabled Northwest Passage. Navigators believed, at the time and incorrectly, that there must be an open waterway passage around the top of North America from the Atlantic to the Pacific that would enable easier travel between the two waterways. Franklin's was not the first attempt, but it is the most famous, or rather infamous attempt, as the two ships (Erebus and The Terror, captained by John Franklin and Francis Crozier) disappeared, with all hands vanishing as well. Attempts to find the ships failed, and it was only in the past few years that the ships were found, at the bottom of Terror Bay (no relation to the ship nor series) in Nunavut, intact, somewhat south of where they were believed to have been stuck in ice. Remains of various sailors had been located over the years, indicating that the ships sailors, after two years (!!) stuck in the ice, made a break for the south, hoping to reach human habitation - the nearest being Fort Resolution on the Great Slave Lake, probably 700 miles to the south - a tall order.
So without giving away any details, things do not go as planned, not even close. The sailors have had some contact with the local Inuit tribe(s), and like most interactions in colonial North America with the British and Americans (later), it winds up with dead Inuit. They came in peace, but certain factions within the two ships fear the natives. A lone woman Inuit winds up as a hostage aboard the ships, where among the few who respect her are Captain Crozier (played by a superb Jared Harris, the real star of the series, who is making the portrayal of truculent, tough but empathetic sea captains something of a specialty), who speaks the local tongue, and Doctor Goodsir (well played with a winsome sincerity by Paul Ready). Due to the white man;s violation of the Inuit's home, and of nature perhaps, the "terror" - a supernatural beast called Tuunbaq - is release, and terrorizes the crews, picking them off one by one, and rampaging through the ice camps.
The cast is excellent, especially Harris, the captain who knows more about the Arctic than his superior Franklin does, and tries to mend the factions within the survivors who head south. Tobias Menzies as the flawed, lead-poisoned Commander James Fitzsimmons is also excellent, as is Ciaran Hinds as the pompous yet oh-so-very British (meaning polite without being personable) Franklin, whose dunder-headed command of the expedition serves as a prelude to later British explorers whose poor judgement lead to death (Scott in the Antarctic, among others). Hinds also has a slightly haunted look that fits the role, the look of a man who while acting with the utter self assurance of the British upper classes, has a gnawing suspicion that he might just be making a colossal cluster fuck of the whole situation.
As mentioned, not really into horror movies, and the threat of the "terror" in the series remains most effective the longer it remains unseen. Another detriment, small, is that it never looks all that cold. Having spent five winters myself in Northern Central Asia, and dealing with minus 40 degree temps, its just not that convincing, although all other aspects of set, costume and atmosphere are superb. And that is what makes "The Terror" vital viewing: through detail, dialogue, rich characters, we as viewers live the grim reality facing these men, out of their depth many of them, facing an external "terror" which, in a Conradian vein, is merely a doppleganger for the terror that lurks in the heart of men - especially those who go around the world as would-be colonizers. Don't miss it
So without giving away any details, things do not go as planned, not even close. The sailors have had some contact with the local Inuit tribe(s), and like most interactions in colonial North America with the British and Americans (later), it winds up with dead Inuit. They came in peace, but certain factions within the two ships fear the natives. A lone woman Inuit winds up as a hostage aboard the ships, where among the few who respect her are Captain Crozier (played by a superb Jared Harris, the real star of the series, who is making the portrayal of truculent, tough but empathetic sea captains something of a specialty), who speaks the local tongue, and Doctor Goodsir (well played with a winsome sincerity by Paul Ready). Due to the white man;s violation of the Inuit's home, and of nature perhaps, the "terror" - a supernatural beast called Tuunbaq - is release, and terrorizes the crews, picking them off one by one, and rampaging through the ice camps.
The cast is excellent, especially Harris, the captain who knows more about the Arctic than his superior Franklin does, and tries to mend the factions within the survivors who head south. Tobias Menzies as the flawed, lead-poisoned Commander James Fitzsimmons is also excellent, as is Ciaran Hinds as the pompous yet oh-so-very British (meaning polite without being personable) Franklin, whose dunder-headed command of the expedition serves as a prelude to later British explorers whose poor judgement lead to death (Scott in the Antarctic, among others). Hinds also has a slightly haunted look that fits the role, the look of a man who while acting with the utter self assurance of the British upper classes, has a gnawing suspicion that he might just be making a colossal cluster fuck of the whole situation.
As mentioned, not really into horror movies, and the threat of the "terror" in the series remains most effective the longer it remains unseen. Another detriment, small, is that it never looks all that cold. Having spent five winters myself in Northern Central Asia, and dealing with minus 40 degree temps, its just not that convincing, although all other aspects of set, costume and atmosphere are superb. And that is what makes "The Terror" vital viewing: through detail, dialogue, rich characters, we as viewers live the grim reality facing these men, out of their depth many of them, facing an external "terror" which, in a Conradian vein, is merely a doppleganger for the terror that lurks in the heart of men - especially those who go around the world as would-be colonizers. Don't miss it
RSS Feed
