7 Years Ago, AMC Released Its Best Horror Show Based on a Spine-Chilling Real-Life Tragedy

Seven years ago the first season of the AMC series was released, which was directed by Ridley Scott himself and was based on the mysterious story of the disappearance of two ships of the British Royal Navy and their crews.

The first season of The Terror has an incomparable atmosphere of hopelessness and despair – even without knowing the historical background of the tragic campaign, you feel the terrible end with every cell.

A year later, in 2019, the anthology's second season was released, but a dedicated fan base considers the first chapter to be the best – it received a near-perfect 94% on Rotten Tomatoes.

What Is The Terror Season 1 About?

In 1845, an expedition under the command of experienced polar explorer Sir John Franklin set sail from the north coast of Canada on the ships Terror and Erebus in search of a Northwest Passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific – and disappeared without a trace.

The search dragged on for several decades, information about their fate was gathered bit by bit, and to this day the picture of what happened is full of gaps.

The main threat to the expedition was not the crushing embrace of ice, not the cold of a blizzard, and not spoiled canned food – but an unknown gigantic monster, as if woven from snow and polar darkness.

The Terror Is Based on the Real Mysterious Tragedy

The Terror is based on the true story of Franklin's lost Arctic expedition. In 1845, two British Navy ships, HMS Erebus and HMS Terror, set out to find the Northwest Passage.

The expedition survived two winters, and when the search for the sailors began in 1848, it was discovered that their tracks had been lost. Two equipped ships and 129 crew members were missing.

In 1854, explorer John Rae learned some details about the missing sailors from the Inuit. Rae was the first to suggest that the sailors, wandering in the ice, were forced to resort to cannibalism. In 1992, this version was almost completely confirmed.

The search for the expedition was completed in 2014-2016. First the HMS Erebus was found, and in 2016 the sunken HMS Terror was also discovered.

The Terror Season 1 Was Produced by Ridley Scott Himself

The goal of The Terror is to make the viewers feel like they are in the same boat as the characters. This is a very immersive show, where everything hits you at once: the white silence of the Arctic, the cramped cabins, the polar sky, the hull of the ship.

The series was produced by Scott Free, a company owned by director Ridley Scott, and Scott's signature is very much in evidence in The Terror.

Despite all its psychological insight, the series manages to remain an epic about heroic deeds and a logbook of the officers' fraternity.