These days, very few TV shows qualify as genuine cult hits, but Season 1 of The Terror fits the bill. For most potential viewers, a drama about 19th-century polar explorers dying of scurvy doesn’t sound like a hot ticket, but for the discerning few, The Terror’s appeal is all too obvious. First airing on AMC in 2018, it’s a supernatural retelling of Sir John Franklin’s doomed expedition into the Canadian Arctic, blending gritty historical drama with survival horror. And now that it’s on Netflix, a new group of morbid weirdos will get to discover this masterpiece for themselves.
Long before AMC’s dramatization, Franklin’s lost expedition was already a point of fascination among history buffs: a disastrous colonial venture that perished due to a combination of hubris, bad luck, and terrifyingly inhospitable circumstances. Setting out in 1845, Franklin led the Erebus and the Terror from England toward the Arctic Circle, carrying 129 men and a regrettably inadequate range of supplies. Both ships became trapped in ice, and after 19 months with no sign of warmer weather, the crew decided to continue on foot. Several men were already dead, and supplies were dwindling. Over the next year, the rest of the crew was lost from disease, exposure, and starvation.
With a wealth of historical material to work from, writer Dan Simmons fictionalized this tale in his novel The Terror, adding a supernatural monster to the expedition’s plethora of real-life horrors. The resulting TV adaptation is uniquely compelling, balancing the seafaring authenticity of Master and Commander with the visceral dread of HBO’s Chernobyl, another drama that makes the most of Jared Harris, who stars here as Captain Francis Crozier, Franklin’s second-in-command.
Right from the start, The Terror sets up a taut psychodrama rooted in Victorian class divides and logistical arguments. We support Crozier as the sensible but uncharismatic voice of reason, a seasoned explorer who tries to warn Franklin of the coming danger. By contrast, Franklin (Ciarán Hinds) is driven by clueless optimism and religious faith, piling bad decision onto bad decision as he leads his crew to their demise.
Between these diametrically opposed leaders is the frivolous young Commander James Fitzjames (Tobias Menzies), while below decks, the supporting cast is populated by lesser-known but equally impactful character actors, including a breakout role for Adam Nagaitis as a sadistic and manipulative sailor named Cornelius Hickey. As the ships freeze and men begin to perish — some from natural causes, others by attacks from a mysterious creature — this claustrophobic setting becomes a pressure cooker for paranoia, infighting, and betrayal.
The lost Franklin expedition was long seen as a great unsolved mystery. The missing explorers sparked feverish public interest in the 19th century, and inspired multiple search parties. None succeeded, although some discovered scraps of evidence that pointed to an ominous conclusion. Only in recent years have historians and archaeologists pieced together a more comprehensive timeline. Franklin’s mismanagement was compounded by unusually harsh weather conditions, and there’s evidence that the crew resorted to cannibalism.
By the 1850s, Indigenous sources had already shared testimony about starving men who almost certainly came from the Franklin expedition, but such tales didn’t match the heroic image the British public envisioned. The Terror acknowledges this bias by emphasizing Franklin’s flaws, and by incorporating indigenous characters. Greenlandic actress Nive Nielsen plays a Netsilik woman who introduces Franklin’s men to the show’s supernatural antagonist, while her role plays into a nuanced depiction of the expedition’s sociopolitical background, touching our heroes’ biases and failings even as we sympathize with their tragic demise.
With its grimy historical production values and heavyweight cast, The Terror holds its own against higher-profile prestige dramas of the 2010s. Yet it’s still rooted in the horror genre, charting a grueling, gory descent into suffering and despair. Even without the presence of a man-eating monster, the crew’s situation is deeply disturbing, bringing historical depth to the bleak appeal of polar horror movies like The Thing or 30 Days of Night.
In the years since its premiere on AMC, The Terror has found a devoted and emphatically nerdy fanbase. The crowning glory of this community is Terror Camp, an annual academic convention where experts present lectures and workshops on polar history. Expanding through word of mouth, it’s very much a cult phenomenon. That’s a fitting tribute to a show with such compelling but niche appeal.
The Terror is streaming on Netflix.
