Slow burning horror with the venerable Song Kang-ho (Thirst, Memories of Murder) as the leader of an expedition to the farthest inland point of the Antarctic. As the weeks of marching across the harsh floes begin to take their psychological toll on the explorers, they start to have doubts about their journey when they find the remains of long dead Norwegian adventurer. In spite of the sameness of the exteriors, shots are framed artfully and establish a creeping dread and isolation that builds to a terrifying, eldritch conclusion. Reminiscent of Gus Van Sant's 2002 desert trek Gerry, by way of Lovecraft.Director Yim Pil-Sung went on to make an unconventional folk horror film in 2007's Hansel and Gretel, also worth seeing.

This movie begins with a party of 6 South Korean explorers slowly trekking their way to a point in Antarctica called the "pole of inaccessibility" which owes its name due to the fact that is so far from any shoreline and extremely difficult to reach by foot. Along the way they find a strange marker which happens to have a box buried directly underneath it. Upon opening the box they find a journal written by an ill-fated British team over 80 years earlier. However, they soon find that their destinies begin to mirror each other as one by one the members of their team begin to die. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this was an interesting film which certainly contains some beautiful scenery. Unfortunately, as the movie progressed I found it more and more difficult to fully comprehend. The ending was especially perplexing. That's not to say that it was necessarily bad by any means but I believe it was unnecessarily convoluted. That being the case, I have rated this movie accordingly. Average.

I was impressed with this one. Sure, I've seen some saying it's effective but not quite, not flawless but not perfect, well, maybe it's because mostly were expecting the standard Asian horror. A ghost in Antarctica? Another girl with long black hair, covering her face, but she has no place to hang over from, no ceilings to walk on, except their small tents of course. Anyway, if you are open for something maybe not new, but a plot not worn out, Antactic Journal is quite the pleasant surprise. It's more of a mystery movie, will let you guessing, hard to predict the end (which is NOT a twist this time) but easy to realize where its heading. So just sit back, grab some popcorn, a beer or two and enjoy it, cause it has around 2 hours if I remember correctly.The view is beautiful, all white, all silent, you can almost feel the cold. Shivers, shivers and an ocean of snow. I rated it 6, indeed not perfect, but nice to see something a tad bit different from time to time.

Funny thing about Antarctic Journal is that it reminds a lot of The last winter which I have seen few weeks ago. There are many similarities... the setting in the arctic desert, a small group of people growing desperate and paranoid, chilly atmosphere, nice pictures, minimalistic score. Just like The last winter this movie looks like its going somewhere, hints at several ghosts, hallucinations or in this case inner fears and then ends up stuck in this endless nothingness. Antarctic Journal is a very slow paced and atmosphere driven movie, spending more time on introducing the characters than going for cheap ghost thrills. After all I think the drawer "horror movie" is plain wrong for the movie, its rather a psychological drama to me. Anyway, the ending to me was just a let down as in last winter, although more consequent. Maybe I didn't quite get the idea behind the movie because the ending is pretty confusing so you don't know whats truth or hallucination. But like another comment here said the movie doesn't leave you with the feeling of wasted time... its calm, far from chilling, rather strangely interesting and keeps your attention till the end. Maybe my rating might be too bad considering this and the nice cinematography but still I was expecting far more from the set up. Judge for yourself.