Arctic Gothic: genre, folklore, and the cinematic horror landscape of Dead Snow (2009)

Abstract

ABSTRACT In critical evaluations of what is commonly termed ‘Scandinavian Gothic‘, the geographic landscape figures prominently, and it is often claimed to almost act as a living presence. Taking this notion as a point of departure, this paper analyses the portrayal of the Arctic wilderness – with its vast and icy sceneries – in Tommy Wirkola's Dead Snow (2009). In a regionalised twist on a now common Gothic horror narrative, the film focuses on a group of friends who decide to take a skiing holiday in a snow cabin in Norway, only to be attacked by a group of zombie Nazi soldiers, who lurk in the icy corners of the landscape. My analysis centres on the evaluation of Arctic wilderness as a point of focalisation, where notions of space, haunting, and characterisation mix with Gothicised interpretations of collective memory, Norwegian folklore, and the cultural hauntings of history. As snow mixes with blood – at times, quite literally – intermediated understandings of past and present blend, as do representations of uncanny experiences of deconstructed identities through time. Ultimately, I aim to provide a critical evaluation of ‘Arctic Gothic’, a cinematic and critical space where cultural practices, bodily horror, spectral memories, and the vastness of the Arctic landscape collide, blend, and merge.