While this show wasn’t a complete success for me, it had a lot of brilliant moments.

The Terror tells the true story of two ships who were trying to go through the Arctic to create a passageway for boats, one being named The Terror, that unfortunately went missing and only some years later was the wreckage found and clues on what happened to the crews came to light.

While this story is a true story that happened in real life a lot of things were added into it that we cannot know whether were true or not due to the fact that everyone who was part of this mission ended up dying. In the show, while the crew have to battle the Arctic weather, being trapped, and not knowing what to do with supplies running low, they also have to deal with a mysterious monster that seems to be hunting them down and killing them.

This monster I found really intriguing up until the point where they revealed it. I feel this show could’ve been a lot better if they never showed you the monster because then it’s just this unknown entity that is living in this wasteland of snow and ice and is clearly camouflaged by all of the whiteness around them. I think that would’ve been a much more exciting endeavour and kept you on your toes more because you never know where it is, rather than them actually showing us the monster and the CGI unfortunately not giving me the desired fear that I had felt when you couldn’t see the monster at all.

However, while I didn’t enjoy the CGI of the monster, the visual effects of the gore and the brutality of what was happening to these men was very good. It shook me to the core and there were moments where I had to hide my eyes because I started to feel quite sick and nauseous watching. The blood and the gore and the effects of what was happening to these men’s bodies was so realistic it was very hard to watch, but that just shows that it was good because that’s how you want the audience to react. You want them to be shocked and terrified by what’s happening and this definitely affected me.

I do wonder if maybe the story could’ve been stronger without the monster because the fear of being stuck in the middle of nowhere with no way of getting out and slowly dying is absolutely horrific. I do feel 10 episodes for the show was a bit long and a lot of it could’ve been cut down. Most of the episodes didn’t keep my attention very well and it was only in the final 2 or 3 episodes where I actually paid full attention and really got interested. It was when we got onto the cannibalism side of the story that really took its toll on me.

Unfortunately this is the part of the story which could be true, it’s not a fictional part, and seeing these people eat this meat that you know came from one of their comrades is absolutely horrific. When you see the doctor’s body laid out on the table in the way that it was, it was so raw and so honest. It really makes my stomach turn just thinking about being in that situation of having to decide whether you’re going to do this and whether you want to live or die.

This season was spectacular in what it was trying to do but I just feel it was a bit long. It was really interesting and, while I do feel they fell short with the monster, the other elements that they have in the show were super strong and made it a tough watch but one that I’m very glad I did. It definitely made me want to go on and research more about The Terror and what actually happened in the situation, just thinking of what those men went through in their final moments is too much to bear.

What do you think of The Terror?

Until next time.

Published by shonaharding

Media graduate with a passion for reviewing film and TV. View all posts by shonaharding