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Chilling “The Terror” Is a Masterclass In Atmospheric Horror

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Can we change the title to “Master and Commander: The Far Side of John Carpenter’s The Thing?

Disclaimer: I have seen the entirety of The Terror, but there are only minor historical spoilers.

The worst part of living in Norway is slowly seeing the numbers on the thermometer go down, putting all your t-shirts and shorts in the closet, and having to start wearing more and more layers to go outside. There’s also the creeping darkness that starts to arrive earlier and earlier each day, with your energy and mood slowly decreasing until you are surrounded by nothing but darkness and the occasional blizzard. Stepping into the cold darkness of winter, unable to see anything beyond the end of your nose, makes for some great horror scenarios. Combine that with the gruesomeness of impromptu medical procedures in period dramas and lots of Victorian costumes and you get The Terror, a show as gory and creepy as it is beautiful.

Based on Dan Simmons’ best-selling novel of the same name, The Terror follows Franklin’s lost expedition, in which two ships set sail for the Arctic in 1845 in hopes of finding the Northwest Passage but got trapped in the ice and later abandoned. While the ships – The Erebus and The Terror (really) – were recently discovered in pristine conditions under the hellish arctic ice cap, the entire crew of 129 men was never to be seen again. And the Northern Passage? It was traversed 60 years later by Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen. Though there are reports on the fate of the crew from interviews with local Inuit people, the details are vague enough that Simmons and later AMC could just go to town and add as much mythology as they wanted. The Terror follows a long tradition of gothic stories of reckless men daring to mess with nature and paid the ultimate price, the crew of HMS The Terror have to face frostbite, scurvy, poisoning, mistrust, paranoia and maybe even a supernatural and indestructible monster.

While a show executive produced by Sir Ridley Scott immediately makes people compare this to Alien, the truth is that The Terror is much closer in story, themes and aesthetic to John Carpenter’s The Thing. You have an ensemble of great character actors in larger-than-life roles, all in a confined space surrounded by nothing but snow and ice for miles and miles and throw in a monster for good measure. When I was a kid, I hated The Thing. While the effects were cool, I thought it was boring and not really scary. Having moved to Norway and experienced winter every year, I now understand that the true horror of the film came from the elements. Yes, the monster is still cool, and the effects are great, but what scares me is the thought of being trapped somewhere during winter, not knowing whom to trust or how to survive. Just like Carpenter’s masterpiece, The Terror is a masterclass in atmospheric horror. While 10 episodes may feel like too much (the book is certainly long), it’s a slow burn that little by little tortures you with the best in survival horror. Aided by some beautiful cinematography, and some wizard-level CGI capable of replicating the arctic in a soundstage, the show lets the location do most of the heavy lifting at first. Yes, the monster’s presence lurks in every episode, but it’s the immediate danger of the vast frozen wilderness showing the enormous ships as nothing but insignificant twigs that create horror bigger than any alien could. You can hear the constant creaking of the ships, the blowing of the icy wind, the crunching of snow and ice by human feet and who knows what else. After a few episodes, you will start wearing hoodies while watching the show, the cold and darkness will creep up on you and cloud your mind until you become as mad as the shipwrecked crew of The Terror.

Being surrounded by total darkness for most of the day, the freezing temperatures and the fear of scurvy (at least in the past) can make any person go mad. This is the reason we have folktales and vampires, werewolf and the like. Isolation combined with a fear for the unknown can turn ordinary things into anything. Just as sailors (including Christopher Columbus!) confused a manatee with a mermaid, a shipwrecked crew can turn a polar bear into an unkillable supernatural creature.

Cabin fever is a claustrophobic reaction caused by spending too much time indoors, especially during the winter – which can lead to hysteria, so what’s simpler than a blizzard trapping a group of people in an enclosed location to just let the horror come naturally. There’s even a condition known as “Piblokto” which is common among the Inuit people in winter that causes irrational or dangerous acts followed by amnesia. Hallucinations caused by these conditions in addition to the insane boredom of being trapped somewhere with nothing to do can easily translate to tales of monsters and mythical creatures.

There’s a reason we are obsessed with tales of horrors that come with winter: the Abominable Snowman, Frozen (not to be confused with the Disney film), 30 Days of Night, John Carpenter’s The Thing, The Shining. Winter is so easily associated with horror because just the idea of it evokes something beautiful like snow, and something horrible like frostbite. Thick coats, icy exteriors, and shivering actors make for great horror stories. It’s really no surprise that the ninth circle of hell is covered in ice

One last tidbit: after Franklin’s expedition was lost, the British Government sent a few ships in search of them. Four of the five ships sent in 1852 were also trapped in ice, but one of them was later recovered by an American whaler and returned to the U.K., and timbers from the ship were used to manufacture three desks. One of the desk was given by Queen Victoria to President Rutherford B. Hayes and named the Resolute desk, which we all know contains a clue to the location of a treasure found by none other than Nicolas Cage.

Editorials

‘Leprechaun Returns’ – The Charm of the Franchise’s Legacy Sequel

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leprechaun returns

The erratic Leprechaun franchise is not known for sticking with a single concept for too long. The namesake (originally played by Warwick Davis) has gone to L.A., Las Vegas, space, and the ‘hood (not once but twice). And after an eleven-year holiday since the Davis era ended, the character received a drastic makeover in a now-unmentionable reboot. The critical failure of said film would have implied it was time to pack away the green top hat and shillelagh, and say goodbye to the nefarious imp. Instead, the Leprechaun series tried its luck again.

The general consensus for the Leprechaun films was never positive, and the darker yet blander Leprechaun: Origins certainly did not sway opinions. Just because the 2014 installment took itself seriously did not mean viewers would. After all, creator Mark Jones conceived a gruesome horror-comedy back in the early nineties, and that format is what was expected of any future ventures. So as horror legacy sequels (“legacyquels”) became more common in the 2010s, Leprechaun Returns followed suit while also going back to what made the ‘93 film work. This eighth entry echoed Halloween (2018) by ignoring all the previous sequels as well as being a direct continuation of the original. Even ardent fans can surely understand the decision to wipe the slate clean, so to speak.

Leprechaun Returns “continued the [franchise’s] trend of not being consistent by deciding to be consistent.” The retconning of Steven Kostanski and Suzanne Keilly’s film was met with little to no pushback from the fandom, who had already become accustomed to seeing something new and different with every chapter. Only now the “new and different” was familiar. With the severe route of Origins a mere speck in the rearview mirror, director Kotanski implemented a “back to basics” approach that garnered better reception than Zach Lipovsky’s own undertaking. The one-two punch of preposterous humor and grisly horror was in full force again.

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Pictured: Linden Porco as The Leprechaun in Leprechaun Returns.

With Warwick Davis sitting this film out — his own choice — there was the foremost challenge of finding his replacement. Returns found Davis’ successor in Linden Porco, who admirably filled those blood-stained, buckled shoes. And what would a legacy sequel be without a returning character? Jennifer Aniston obviously did not reprise her final girl role of Tory Redding. So, the film did the next best thing and fetched another of Lubdan’s past victims: Ozzie, the likable oaf played by Mark Holton. Returns also created an extension of Tory’s character by giving her a teenage daughter, Lila (Taylor Spreitler).

It has been twenty-five years since the events of the ‘93 film. The incident is unknown to all but its survivors. Interested in her late mother’s history there in Devil’s Lake, North Dakota, Lila transferred to the local university and pledged a sorority — really the only one on campus — whose few members now reside in Tory Redding’s old home. The farmhouse-turned-sorority-house is still a work in progress; Lila’s fellow Alpha Epsilon sisters were in the midst of renovating the place when a ghost of the past found its way into the present.

The Psycho Goreman and The Void director’s penchant for visceral special effects is noted early on as the Leprechaun tears not only into the modern age, but also through poor Ozzie’s abdomen. The portal from 1993 to 2018 is soaked with blood and guts as the Leprechaun forces his way into the story. Davis’ iconic depiction of the wee antagonist is missed, however, Linden Porco is not simply keeping the seat warm in case his predecessor ever resumes the part. His enthusiastic performance is accentuated by a rotten-looking mug that adds to his innate menace.

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Pictured: Taylor Spreitler, Pepi Sonuga, and Sai Bennett as Lila, Katie and Rose in Leprechaun Returns.

The obligatory fodder is mostly young this time around. Apart from one luckless postman and Ozzie — the premature passing of the latter character removed the chance of caring about anyone in the film — the Leprechaun’s potential prey are all college aged. Lila is this story’s token trauma kid with caregiver baggage; her mother thought “monsters were always trying to get her.” Lila’s habit of mentioning Tory’s mental health problem does not make a good first impression with the resident mean girl and apparent alcoholic of the sorority, Meredith (Emily Reid). Then there are the nicer but no less cursorily written of the Alpha Epsilon gals: eco-conscious and ex-obsessive Katie (Pepi Sonuga), and uptight overachiever Rose (Sai Bennett). Rounding out the main cast are a pair of destined-to-die bros (Oliver Llewellyn Jenkins, Ben McGregor). Lila and her peers range from disposable to plain irritating, so rooting for any one of them is next to impossible. Even so, their overstated personalities make their inevitable fates more satisfying.

Where Returns excels is its death sequences. Unlike Jones’ film, this one is not afraid of killing off members of the main cast. Lila, admittedly, wears too much plot armor, yet with her mother’s spirit looming over her and the whole story — comedian Heather McDonald put her bang-on Aniston impersonation to good use as well as provided a surprisingly emotional moment in the film — her immunity can be overlooked. Still, the other characters’ brutal demises make up for Lila’s imperviousness. The Leprechaun’s killer set-pieces also happen to demonstrate the time period, seeing as he uses solar panels and a drone in several supporting characters’ executions. A premortem selfie and the antagonist’s snarky mention of global warming additionally add to this film’s particular timestamp.

Critics were quick to say Leprechaun Returns did not break new ground. Sure, there is no one jetting off to space, or the wacky notion of Lubdan becoming a record producer. This reset, however, is still quite charming and entertaining despite its lack of risk-taking. And with yet another reboot in the works, who knows where the most wicked Leprechaun ever to exist will end up next.


Horror contemplates in great detail how young people handle inordinate situations and all of life’s unexpected challenges. While the genre forces characters of every age to face their fears, it is especially interested in how youths might fare in life-or-death scenarios.

The column Young Blood is dedicated to horror stories for and about teenagers, as well as other young folks on the brink of terror.

Leprechaun Returns movie

Pictured: Linden Porco as The Leprechaun in Leprechaun Returns.

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