ABSTRACT
The Arctic, Antarctica, and Hollywood share a symbiotic history. Throughout the 20th century, those regions have provided invaluable content for film-makers, but their cinematic depictions have produced a polar mythology portraying them as impenetrable, exotic, and mysterious. Polar documentaries continue to reveal the tribulations of heroic adventurers, but an impressive catalogue of documentaries featuring the natural beauty of the Poles biodiversity and geography has also been produced, with March of the Penguins and Encounters at the End of the World recently topping the list. Fast-forward to 2003, and a flurry of B-movies, Ice Crawlers, Alien Hunter, Deep Shock, and Retrograde, exemplifies how human-induced warming phenomena have infiltrated contemporary polar horror films. Corporations have replaced the military by conquering polar landscapes to showcase their technological prowess and business savvy. The Last Winterargues that meaningful exchanges between animals and humans are possible, especially when humans value animal's ecological fragility.
