The Polar Retrospective looks at stories of the past week that are related to the Arctic and Antarctic and focuses on one or more aspects. Halloween is just a few days behind us, the night when ghosts and monsters roam the streets and send a shiver down our spines. But the genuine horrors lurk not in the dark alleys of our cities, but in the icy expanses of the Arctic, where the boundaries of reality are fragile and fantasy runs wild.
The Arctic, a region of haunting beauty and merciless harshness, has always captured the human imagination. With its seemingly endless icy expanses, yawning crevasses in the ice sheets and eerie silence, it provides a unique backdrop for stories of horror and suspense. Yet not only the stuff of authors’ imaginations: Again and again, tragic fates have befallen real expeditions in the Arctic, with people disappearing in the endless expanses or being carried off by the merciless forces of nature. Stories of the Franklin and Greely expeditions, characterised by hunger, disease and madness, remain to this day as memorials to the dangers lurking in the Arctic.
The Arctic is not only a place of physical suffering, however. It is also a stage for the deepest fears and darkest sides of the human soul. Isolation and the darkness of the polar night erode the boundaries of perception and let the imagination run wild. Unsurprisingly, the Arctic has become a popular setting for horror and suspense films that play on our primal fears.
Claustrophobia in the endless expanse and darkness of the polar night
It seems paradoxical: an area of around 27 million square kilometres (based on the climatic definition of the Arctic) and yet the fear of claustrophobia, which crops up again and again in stories. But the vastness of the Arctic can be deceptive. People need to retreat to buildings to be protected from the merciless nature. Thus, for example, in the movie ‘The Midnight Sky’, the isolation of an Arctic research station becomes a nightmarish prison in which the protagonists are confronted with their own demons. Fear of the unknown, uncertainty about the fate of the world, and growing paranoia create an atmosphere of psychological terror.
On the other hand, there is the polar night, when the sun does not rise for months. It intensifies the feeling of isolation and the threat of barely visible monsters and beasts. At the same time, it ignites a fear that is as old as humanity itself: the fear of darkness. This is a key element of many scary and horror films and the Arctic provides the perfect backdrop. For example, in “30 Days of Night” an Alaskan town is haunted by a horde of bloodthirsty vampires who use the darkness to hunt their victims. The film skillfully plays on this primal fear of the dark and the unknown that comes to life in the night.
Nature as a merciless enemy
Arctic nature itself has also captured the imagination, thanks to the descriptions and stories of polar explorers. Often embellished with exaggerations that are described as artistic licence, it nevertheless provides plenty of material for the silver screen. In the films “The Grey” and “The Last Winter” nature itself becomes the antagonist. In “The Grey”, Liam Neeson fights not only against a pack of wolves, but also against the merciless cold and unpredictable snowstorms of the Alaskan wilderness. In “The Last Winter”, a team of oil drillers is attacked by a mysterious force that awakens from the melting permafrost. The films show the power of the forces of nature and the vulnerability of humans in this inhospitable environment.
The search for the unknown and the horror of the past in the present
Many previously unknown regions gave rise to fantastic ideas. And the Arctic has always been a place of myths and legends, of lost civilisations and supernatural phenomena, dating back centuries. Inspired by the book from 1816, the 1994 film ‘Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein’, for example, shows how the creature flees to the Arctic, hunted by its creator Victor Frankenstein. Here, the frozen wastes become the setting for their joint confrontation with their own destiny and the limits of human existence. The film shows how the quest for knowledge and the transgression of human limits can lead to unforeseen consequences.
As technology advanced in the 19th century, many expeditions set out into the Arctic to prove or disprove these fantastical ideas. And this history of polar exploration is full of tragedy, with the expeditions themselves becoming examples of unresolved mysteries that have been taken up by the film industry. The Franklin expedition of 1845, which was lost while searching for the Northwest Passage, inspired the series ‘The Terror’, which combines the story of the expedition with supernatural elements. The series shows how isolation, hunger and fear drive the men mad and make them victims of an eerie force.
The psyche and its boundaries between reality and fantasy
But the truly frightening stories take place not only in the icy expanse, but also in the minds of the people. Extreme isolation, darkness and cold can have a strong influence on the human psyche. In films like “Arctic” and “Hold the Dark” the protagonists fight not only for survival, but also against their own demons, against fear, madness and the dissolution of their own identity.
In the newly released film ‘The Damned’ (2024), by contrast, the Arctic becomes a portal to the supernatural. After the inhabitants of an Icelandic village cross a line in their struggle for survival, horror suddenly spreads. Ghostly apparitions and mythical creatures lurk in the solitude and challenge the very nature of human existence. Here, the film plays with our fear of the unknown, the uncontrollable and, above all, the power of the supernatural.
Overall, the Arctic is a place of fascination and dread, a place where the boundaries between reality and fantasy become blurred. The icy expanses are not only a challenge for the human body, but also for the human soul. And in the darkest corners of the Arctic, not only the dangers of nature lurk, but also the abysses of the human existence.
Dr. Michael Wenger, Polar Journal AG
