Antarctica, the southernmost continent on the planet is known for its inhabitable climate and freezing cold atmosphere. What it’s not known for is its history in cinema. In fact, the polar desert had absolutely no movies filmed entirely in the location…that is until the late 2000s. In 2012 came the release ofSouth of Sanity, a low-budget horror movie produced entirely on the continent of Antarctica. Though the movie has remained largely unknown, with a whopping total of 3 reviews on the popular film websiteLetterboxd, there’s absolutely no doubt that the film has earned a spot in cinematic history.
The horror flick follows a simple slasher formula. Forced into isolation while away on a research expedition, a group of scientists are picked off one-by-one by a mysterious killer. While being hunted in their snowy research station, the team is thrown into extreme paranoia as they wait for their death. The movie isn’t exactly unique; the plot is one found in hundreds of horror movies: friends turning against each other after a murderer appears and quickly each are knocked down by the killer. We’ve seen it before. The thing is, the actual movie itself isn’t what makes this film so interesting. What really sells South of Sanity is the historical background behind it.
While in Antarctica working for British Antarctic Survey (BAS), Scottish filmmaker and climbing instructorKirk Watsondecided he wanted to create something new as a way to hone his skills. Watson wanted to film an original story that incorporated his Antarctic climate. He decided to create a fictional horror film– something vastly different from the documentary maker’s usual work. Watson recruited fellow BAS worker,Dr. Matt Edwards, to write the script. The doctor, who had been planning to spend his time crafting research articles, quickly decided he was going to find inspiration from his childhood love of horror movies.Speaking to the BBC, Dr. Edwards remarked that much of the film’s scares were sparked by the researchers’ own fears while working through the long Antarctic Nights.
Once work on the script was completed, the creative pair was tasked with casting their feature. Of course, being stationed in the middle of nowhere meant there weren’t many choices. With a lack of true acting talent, but no shortage of bored scientists, Watson cast his own BAS coworkers to star in his film. Every single character in the movie was played by a member of BAS, making the cast and crew a giant bundle of scientists, doctors, and mechanics.
Because there was such a vast shortage of any sort of qualified talent, many of the movie’s members had to wear multiple hats during the films’ production. Both Watson and Edwards starred in the picture, along with their BAS coworkers. Dr. Edwards played the role of not only writer and actor, but also of makeup artist. With only his professional makeup artist mother’s recipe for fake blood and a set of children’s party makeup, Watson did his best to accomplish his many creative tasks given the circumstances.
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The actual filming ofSouth of Sanitywas extremely turbulent as well, showing exactly whySouth of Sanityis the first of its kind. With freezing cold temperatures and ice covering more than 90% of the continent, the climate provided an endless amount of challenges for the cast and crew. Shooting for the movie took place in the summer after much of the year’s scientific research had been completed. Because Antarctic summer nights last most of the day, temperatures can drop as low as -31 F, obviously much colder than what most humans have ever even felt. In the sameinterview for BBC, Watson spoke about how the low temperatures impacted the movie:
We filmed a couple of day scenes on a weekend and the rest was shot in the dark just to make the film darker. So our actors suffered a bit in the cold as we had people sitting outside for ages, or playing dead people lying in the snow. It became a bit tricky with the ‘dead people’ as they shivered, so they were carefully edited to get rid of the movement. We had several actors with mild hypothermia during the filming. The good thing was they had lived there for a year, so we’re pretty used to it.
The editing done to improve the hypothermia-induced shaking that Watson mentioned was actually positively noted in one of the few, mostly negative, reviews for the movie,stating, “Where their skills come to the fore is in the setup and editing of the murders, which all come across as being filmed by people who know how to do horror and do it well.” This shows that, although it is clearly more difficult to film quality content in the extreme climate, it is not impossible.
That being said, South of Sanity’s cast had lived in the area for over a year before filming began, and still suffered from hypothermia. Obviously, most actors do not have the courtesy of such training, meaning that such exposures could severely endanger the health of any run-of-the-mill actor. For this reason, it seems thatSouth of Sanitymay be the only fictional feature film ever made completely in Antarctica…at least until we can find better ways of fending off the cold.
There have of course been other fictionalized movies partially filmed in the region (and tons of documentaries–March of The Penguins, anyone?), including French filmThe Odyssey,Mr. Forbush and the Penguins, and Japanese flickVirus. What setsSouth of Sanityapart is its true dedication to the location.
WhileSouth of Sanitymay not be the best horror movie around, it certainly has one of the most fascinating productions. The completely unique background information surrounding the film nearly makes up for the movie’s low-budget and fudgy acting– watching the film, knowing how hard it must have been to film, will surely be a glorious time for any cinema fan. And seeing as it’s probably gonna be the last Antarctic movie for quite some time,South of Sanitymight as well be enjoyed.
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