The Reel Review
Three filmmakers creating a segment on Svalbard for their travel docuseries find themselves fighting for their lives after everyone else on their tourist ship mysteriously vanishes, in this low budget genre mashup of horror, sci-fi and mystery.
Filmed off the coast of Svalbard and at the abandoned Soviet mining outpost of Pyramiden, the bleak Cold War setting, remote Arctic wilderness and ominous score sets the stage for what could have been a promising mystery. But sadly, the flimsy screenplay from co-star Michael Weaver (who also appears in the film as the show’s host, Ray) fails to yield any real suspense as the mystery, and some iffy animal CGI, unfolds.
Arctic Void’s big reveal, unveiled VERY slowly over the final act, is more annoying than intriguing as the mystery sputters to an infuriatingly dull non ending. The only real draw for this film is the travelogue-type visuals of the remote Svalbard for adventure tourists curious to see this remote part of the world.
REEL FACTS
• The Svalbard archipelago has a population of approximately 2500 people.
• Pyramiden is a mining outpost built by the Swedes and sold to the Soviets before being abandoned in 1998. Adventure tourism to the Russian-owned settlement has been suspended in the wake of Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
• The film was shot in 16 days.
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