dark tourist kazakhstan

• dark tourism
• Search & Find

Chagan Nuclear Tests, Crater Lake & Ghost Town – Kazakhstan

During the Cold War, the Soviets couldn’t get enough of blowing up nuclear weapons in northeastern Kazakhstan.

The tests were not always with the intent to one day nuke the USA, however. Conducted by the military under the banner of “ Nuclear Explosions for the National Economy ”, the aim was to investigate the feasibility of using nuclear weapons to help drill for oil or move earth in the construction of canals and reservoirs.

It is easy to forget that the Atomic Era was once wrapped up in a sense of positivity. The benefits of nuclear power seemed endless. Chernobyl was still decades away.

The US had a similar program (“ Operation Plowshare ”), however, while America quickly realized it was a bad idea (conducting 27 tests before stopping in 1977), the Soviets continued until the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989. It is believed that over 120 nuclear tests were conducted in total.

One area that copped it was the Chagan long-range bomber base.

The now-abandoned region on the Irtysh River contains a crater lake caused by one of the tests as well as the nearby abandoned town and airbase.

It has been completely left to nature and is a mecca for dark tourists and abandoned junkies that make it to this area of Kazakhstan.

• Related Content: Abandoned Soviet Bio-Weapons Facility, Kantubek – Vozrozhdeniye Island

History of the Chagan Nuclear Tests

Chagan was the largest test that Nuclear Explosions for the National Economy program conducted. Interestingly, it was also the first.

Some believe that the Soviets managed to get their hands on top-secret information pertaining to the American Project Plowshare program. The first peaceful nuclear explosion conducted at the Nevada Test Site in July 1962 was the 104 kt Sedan test .

Chagan was a near clone of this and was detonated on January 15, 1965. It had increased yield making it the equivalent of 140 kilotons of TNT. The aim was to produce a large cone-shaped crater suitable for a lake.

The location of the Chagan test was within the Semipalatinsk Test Site , on a dry bed of the Chagan River. The position was chosen so that the edge of the crater would dam the river during the high spring flow each year.

By all accounts, the test was a success in terms of the resulting crater that was filled to become Chagan Lake, (more on this below).

However, what the Soviets had not fully accounted for was the radioactive plume. Chagan released a large amount of steam and pulverized rock and what could have been as much as 20% of the bomb’s fission byproduct into the atmosphere.

The small but measurable radioactive plume was detected over Japan. This caused an international uproar with the US quick to complain that the Soviets were violating the October 1963 Limited Test Ban Treaty .

The protest did not stop the Soviets from conducting their tests. However, subsequent nuclear explosions under the program were significantly smaller.

• Related Content: Reggane and In Ekker – French Nuclear Test Sites, Algeria

Chagan Lake

Lake Chagan still exists today and can be visited without the need for a guide or special permission. This is despite the fact that it continues to be radioactive.

The Chagan test that caused the initial crater, created a 178-meter-deep (584 ft) hole in what was a dry section of the Chagan River. The blast caused a 400 m (1,300 ft) wide hole that has appropriately become known as “Atomic Lake”.

The crater was quickly filled with water from the Chagan River with the deepest section today being over 100m.

The water contains 100 times more than the permitted level of radionuclides in drinking water. It is not a place for boat tours or swimming either.

The Soviet government was once proud of Lake Chagan and the nuclear testing that created it. They even made a film with the Minister of the Medium Machine Building Ministry , (the department responsible for the Soviet nuclear weapons program and the tests at Chagan).

In the film, the Minister joyfully takes a swim in the crater lake. The film also depicts how water from the lake was used to irrigate local farmland and feed cows.

Chagan Ghost Town

The abandoned town of Chagan used to house the military personnel (and families) that worked at the nearby Chagan military airfield and Semipalatinsk Nuclear Test Site.

Over 10 thousand residents used to live within the town before the break down of the Soviet Union. With funding cuts and the military base fully closed by 1995, the site has been a ghost town for 25 years.

This fact alone makes it a fascinating dark tourist experience.

Where is Chagan Ghost Town & Crater?

Chagan is about a 1hr drive from Kurchatov along the R-174 highway. The ghost town is just a mile off the main road, with entrance to the former airbase a few miles south of the town.

Visiting Chagan Today

The Winds Of Chagan, A Post-Soviet Nuclear Ghost Town An eerie wind is the only sound to be heard in a once-secret northern Kazakh town which used to be the hub of the Soviet nuclear weapons program. Posted by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty on Friday, January 18, 2019

There are three areas of interest when you reach Chagan, the abandoned ghost town, the former military airbase, and the lake.

Inside the Ghost Town

The town was once full of stereotypically, grey and drab Soviet-style apartment blocks. Many still exist but in a completely dilapidated state.

Initial looting and the elements over more than two decades have really taken their toll. However, fans of abandoned ghost towns will love the derelict malaise.

An interesting memorial will greet you at the entrance to the town. The pyramid-shaped block of granite features a plaque with the image of a T-95 long-range strategic bomber in flight.

In Russian are the words:

“Part of our hearts remain here forever. People of Chagan of different times and countries. 1954 – 1994”.

Large piles of rubble line the road into the Chagan, evidence of some of the demolition work that has been attempted over the years.

The main residential areas can be ventured around, however, you do need to exercise caution when entering any of the buildings. With collapsed ceilings and broken staircases, you have to tread carefully, with some areas being completely off-limits.

One large public building stands to the west of the town. This is in such a state of ruin it is difficult to ascertain what it might once have been used for. Close to this is the shell of what might have been the town public swimming pool.

Despite the forlorn condition of most of the buildings, it is still an exceptional experience walking around the remnants of what was once a bustling soviet community.

The Former Airbase

Once you have explored the main town, there is still a lot to see at the former military airbase.

This is located a few miles south of the main Semey-Kurchatov road and much like the town, the aerodrome (as it is known by the locals) is in an equally ruined condition.

Barrack buildings stand with collapsed roofs and missing walls, there are also a number of small tunnel-like bunkers around the site that were once used to store bombs, missiles, and other ammunition.

A double runway still exists, albeit overgrown with weeds. Alongside the runway, the main “terminal building” (complete with the Soviet red star) still stands. This is quite the sight and is a definite photo opportunity.

Overall, it is a somewhat eerie experience to wander around the airbase in the knowledge that this was once the home of nuclear technology that could have potentially been used against the west.

Both the abandoned ghost town and the airbase are essential dark tourism destinations for those adventurous enough to find themselves in this remote part of Kazakhstan.

If you’ve visited a strange or unusual destination that you think our readers will want to know about, we would love to hear from you.

The Patarei Sea Fortress: Abandoned Soviet Prison in Tallinn

Visiting the ATM cave in Belize (Home of the Crystal Maiden)

Balaklava Submarine Base, Crimea’s Secret Soviet Sub Complex

Leon Trotsky Museum [House and Murder Site]

Follow us on Instagram!

I have an insatiable wanderlust for the extraordinary. Born with an adventurous spirit, I have spent over the past decade exploring the far reaches of our planet, seeking out the strange and mysterious.

Leave a Comment Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Privacy Overview

Privacy Policy - Contact - Terms and Conditions

Are dark tourism performances of gulag life educational – or voyeuristic?

Lecturer in Tourism (Management/Marketing), University of Glasgow

Disclosure statement

Guillaume Tiberghien receives funding from the British Academy/Leverhulme small research grant

University of Glasgow provides funding as a member of The Conversation UK.

View all partners

Dark tourism – involving travel to places historically associated with death and tragedy – is on the rise worldwide. Increasingly, this does not involve only visiting such places, but also witnessing certain performances of dark pasts.

Visitors can observe mock trials and prisoners receiving their sentences at prison museums , experience overnight stays in prison walls and watch historical reenactments of dark historical periods. In Kazakhstan, for example, on which my research has focused of late, visitors to gulag museums can witness scenes showcasing hard labour, bullying and violence, emotional and physical abuse. Performances of prison life are commonplace nowadays in gulag museums. Visitors can vividly imagine it all – the tears, pain and despair.

The gulags (a bureaucratic acronym standing for Main Administration of Camps of the Soviet Union) dotted around Russia, the Baltic States and Kazakhstan are some of the most important Soviet penal institutions. They were a means of isolating and eliminating people who the system considered to be socially disruptive, suspicious and disloyal, as well as organising and demonstrating the superiority of the socialist penal system.

As a major instrument of political repression, terror and control in the Soviet Union, estimates indicate that some 18m people passed through the gulags between 1929 and the death of Stalin in 1953.

More than 1.3m people were deported to Kazakhstan from various parts of the Soviet Union. To acknowledge this, two gulag museums have recently opened in 2007 and 2011: Alzhir (Akmolinsk Camp for Wives of Traitors to the Motherland), which housed thousands of women, and Karlag, the former Karaganda Corrective Labour Camp.

Not usual museums

Since 2017, Alzhir and Karlag have organised a number of reenactment events showcasing what gulag life was like. The events are conducted by the museum staff, local military, school pupils and cultural staff.

During Soviet times, women in Alzhir were forced to work ten or more hours a day and were often subject to mistreatment, including beating and rape. Those who had infants experienced the trauma of having their children taken from them at the age of four and sent to orphanages – if they did not die from hunger beforehand – driving women to despair and, for some of them, madness.

In line with this history, performances at Alzhir’s museum portray the arrival of women on the wagon that carried them to the camp, the removal of their children, and scenes of physical mistreatments inflicted by the camp guards. The performances are run by dozens of actors, including the museum management.

In Karlag, meanwhile, the annual “night at the museum” event is attended by 500-1,000 visitors. It involves a nighttime tour of the museum, with staff staging dramatic scenes from the history of the gulag. This can involve mock interrogation scenes and performances involving inmates hanging by their hands and being otherwise mistreated by the camp guards. Visitors are additionally offered “gulag-type meals”, and “volunteer” prisoners are asked not to sleep to mimic supposed life conditions.

Senior management of Karlag museum believe that such events mean visitors “can keep these memories of the museum for a long time”.

Voyeuristic curiosity?

These museums mostly attract local visitors. But tourism expert John Lennon – who coined the term dark tourism in the 1990s – believes that the sites could attract many Western visitors in the future:

There is plenty of evidence that people are interested and there is an important story there … They are places where visitors can learn about the enormous evil that was perpetrated across the Soviet Union … In an era of fake news and revisionism, such sites are hugely important.

This is good news. But as places of memory and commemoration, these museum practices are controversial to some historians and specialists of the gulag. The historian Steven Barnes, for example, has argued that they raise “significant moral questions about the acceptable limits in the portrayal of atrocity”. Museums that showcase these dark historical pasts are caught between the moral duty to offer tourism experiences that are historically accurate and the commercial desire to entertain visitors.

Such performances attempt to immerse visitors into the dark atmosphere of the epoch. By doing so, the museums hope to create a more personal connection to the tragedy. But such performances can be viewed as exploitative of victims, which can upset local communities and the descendants of victims. Some descendants of the victims told me that they experienced feelings of shame and guilt on witnessing these performances.

What some people see as historical accuracy, others read as voyeuristic curiosity. Personally, I think it’s great that performances might increase visitation to the sites – but they will nonetheless remain contentious and voyeuristic if they only serve tourism purposes.

These dark tourism practises – and similar ones around the world – certainly present a major challenge in terms of remembering and selectively interpreting a dark and difficult historical past.

• Soviet Union (USSR)
• Penal system
• Interdisciplinarity
• Dark tourism

Service Centre Senior Consultant

Director of STEM

Community member - Training Delivery and Development Committee (Volunteer part-time)

Chief Executive Officer

Head of Evidence to Action

DARK TOURIST: Exploring What It Means To Travel (& Interview With David Farrier)

• Facebook Data not found. Please check your user ID. Twitter You currently have access to a subset of Twitter API v2 endpoints and limited v1.1 endpoints (e.g. media post, oauth) only. If you need access to this endpoint, you may need a different access level. You can learn more here: https://developer.twitter.com/en/portal/product Youtube 1.2K

SKELETON CREW TRAILER 1

Y2K TRAILER 1

LOOK INTO MY EYES: The Healing Power Of Connection

Melbourne International Film Festival 2024: KNEECAP, BABES, TEACHES OF PEACHES, SASQUATCH SUNSET & WAKE UP

RED ROOMS: Half Sick Of Shadows Online

I’LL BE RIGHT THERE: If Parenthood Were A Modern Indie

THE MONKEY: TRAILER 1

OMNI LOOP: TRAILER 1

ALIEN: ROMULUS: A Love Letter to the Alien Franchise, With Mixed Results

WOMAN OF THE HOUR TRAILER 1

THE BECOMERS: What’s Weirder, Aliens Or 2020?

KRAVEN THE HUNTER: TRAILER 1

Tom is a recent graduate based in the UK, who…

Although the term ‘dark tourism’ was only coined in 1996, the presence of death in travel has been a common one in Literature throughout the years. In Greek legend, the dead had to travel across the river Styx to reach Hades. Citizens of the Roman Empire used to travel hundreds of miles to watch gladiatorial combat, where men and animals butchered each other. And now in 2018, Netflix has thrown its hat into the ring with  Dark Tourist to try and understand why so many tourist destinations around the world put such an emphasis on death.

Presented by documentarian and journalist David Farrier , each of the eight episodes of Dark Tourist visits a different corner of the world to explore the customs, tourist traps and strange personalities that draw ‘dark tourists’, or purveyors of the “mad, macabre, and morbid”. From swimming in a lake made from a nuclear test, to being taken on a tour of La Catedral by Pablo Escobar’s hitman, there are some wild and strange activities shown.

It’s a premise that sounds very close to viewing different cultures as oddities or curiosities in a museum, but one of the many strengths of the show is the passion and respect Farrier shows to each culture. In fact, the show goes from strength to strength in exploring not just foreign and scare-reported cultures but questioning what it means to be a ‘tourist’, and why people are so keen to tour locations of genocides and mass murders. Dark Tourist is a fascinating and insightful adventure into the human mind via the roads of Ashgabat, the outbacks of South Africa, and the weird cultures that pop up around the world to celebrate death.

Unpacking What It Means To Travel

Dark Tourist proceeds for the first few episodes as a fairly by-the-book, if highly entertaining, travelogue show. This format is shaken up in the fourth episode, ‘The Stans,’ when Farrier and a companion visit an institute related to the radioactive wastes of Kazakhstan’s Polygon. It causes the two to reinterpret the location they had just visited, understand the way their jovial tourism affects the countries they visit, and question the oft-glorified narrative of travelling and adventuring.

While this event is a startling blow in the narrative of the episode, the themes it brings up resonate through the rest of the series. The show transcends its genre, and starts to shine a spotlight on the effects of tourism on the locations it visits, as well as the way the series’ habit of visiting ‘undiscovered’ communities and ideologies may, by ‘discovering’ them, cause them to fundamentally change.

After this, typical tourist destinations or facades are called in to question – Farrier notes the absence of people in the beautiful yet desolate city of Naypyidaw, linking it in ways to its country’s brutal past. There becomes a clear pattern of the series exploring locations that seem fascinating, but are burdened with dark historical tales, from a city deserted after the Turkish invasion of Cyprus to Japan’s ‘Battleship Island’. These are not pure and pristine destinations to spend a week, they’re pieces of history with troubled and problematic pasts.

This underlying sense of an uncomfortable history is brought out in part by the ways Farrier and his crew interacts with the locations, and in part by the sheer time spent in each place. Each episode could easily explore hundreds of dark tourist destinations, but they are limited to three – and it clearly does justice to these places that time is spent delving into each horrible history or murderous past.

At times, Farrier also interviews or questions the people who glorify this death – he spends time with people who seem far too fascinated with Jeffrey Dahmer and also visits a ‘survivalist’ group (i.e. white supremacists) in South Africa called the Suidlanders. This part of the ‘Africa’ episode is the only time the series drops form and doesn’t explore the history – it’s quite bizarre that he doesn’t call out these people for their racist views, or others that clearly sympathise with their plight, when he questions others who glorify war and death. For the most part, however, he faces history and present in an unflinching glare – if you can call Farrier ’s charming idiosyncrasies such.

The documentary never seems to come down on one side or the other about dark tourism – at some points, it challenges rich or vapid tourists who are attracted to the novelty factor of each destination, but at others it purports to understand and empathise with the forces that draw people to the locations. This nuanced view adds to the sense of exploration and discovery throughout the series, although it likely angers people who watch the show with a preformed opinion.

In The Firing Line

Some of the places Farrier visits are typical tourist destinations: Pablo Escobar’s turf in Medellín, Aokigahara in Japan, and Cypriot beaches. However, many other places see him and the crew in very immediate danger, such as radioactive sites in Japan and Kazakhstan, or catering to the whims of fringe groups and individuals like the aforementioned Suidlanders. It stands as a testament to their dedication to documenting these places and people that there are so many situations where you fear for their safety.

Over the course of the series, Farrier ’s ease of communication with the people he meets and their customs can be seen to increase. At points he seems completely at peace, even when being painted head to toe as part of a voodoo ritual or when training for post-apocalypse vigilanteism with hardened conspiracy theorists. The natural way he interacts and jokes with people attests to the respect shown to the people of varying faiths and beliefs visited – he doesn’t just tolerate these rituals but participates, encourages and learns from the experience. Where another show might treat these events or beliefs as curiosities to be documented and viewed in disbelief, as a sad number of other travel programs seem to do, Farrier ’s dedication to understanding the subjects of his travel always seem to shine a light on how and why people practice beliefs that differ to his.

The choice of framing each interaction through his perspective also lends an air of authenticity and authority. For a series that explores topics that are so deeply personal to each person – death, illness, and life – Farrier ’s reactions and interactions helps communicate the feelings and ideas related to the topic in a way that an ‘objective’ documentary wouldn’t.

While this great rapport can be attributed to Farrier’ s personable demeanour, his crew clearly deserves celebration too. They follow him boldly into the most dangerous situations, and clearly work some production magic in order to secure access to some impressive locations. Particularly commendable is the drone work used for many establishing and wide shots for locations visited – sweeping vistas and the odd quirks in land patterns and city layouts shown from the sky perfectly complement the sweeping but quirky topics explored in the accompanying narration.

Dark Tourist

It’s becoming apparent that 2018 is the year of non-fiction for Netflix. While The Cloverfield Paradox, Annihilation and Extinction have been received poorly, the likes of Wild, Wild Country, Nailed It! and now Dark Tourist have provided nuanced, novel and fascinating modes of entertainment. Whoever commissions non-fiction content for the platform must be feeling rather smug right now.

Dark Tourist would be great if it was just an amusing and entertaining array of cultures presented in a respectful way, but the fact that it manages to transcend its genre and explore and analyse what it actually means to travel makes for one of the most remarkable and profound travel shows ever made. The narrative manages to find the fine line between respecting other cultures whilst challenging problematic views, Farrier clearly builds rapport and connections with the people he visits, and it doesn’t hurt that there is some surprisingly fantastic cinematography too.

Simply put, Dark Tourist shouldn’t just be considered a seminal travel series, but it also earns its way into the pantheon of the best documentary shows.

To further understand and discuss the topics and locations explored on the series, I spoke with presenter David Farrier .

This is Tom Bedford with Film Inquiry. Thank you for taking the time to answer these questions for us – your series is a fascinating tour, both in terms of cultural and personal exploration.

Evidently you find dark tourism and the macabre side of history interesting, but what in particular inspired you to make this series? Was there one specific location or story that spurred your interest, or a collection of many examples of dark tourism?

David Farrier:  When it comes to travel I definitely just like to be surprised and see things I haven’t seen before. The main thing I wanted to do when I visited Prague for the first time this year – this was after wrapping Dark Tourist – was to visit the Bone Church, this beautiful old Catholic church that employed a guy to pop a bunch of human bones up on the walls in all these ornate patterns in the the 1800s. And the thing is.. I wasn’t the only one there. I think increasingly a lot of people want to be surprised and not just laze by a pool reading a book when they visit a new place.

But to answer your question, Dark Tourist was the brainchild of Mark McNeill , who’s been making stuff in New Zealand for ages. He’s had the idea for years, and he’s just been carrying it around on his notepad forever. He saw my film Tickled a few years ago, and then thought I might be a good person to work with on the show. I loved the concept – using something like death and destruction as a way into a place, before making something that is hopefully much more life-affirming.

We wanted to surprise people and take them places they might not have seen before. And of course try and explore some of the murky issues that pop up around dark tourism. I think one of the early images we had in our mind were those around Pripyat, and a place in Mexico called the Island of the Dolls. Funnily enough we didn’t end up using those in series one. Maybe we’ll circle back.

In the show you’re open about destinations you didn’t make it to, such as your attempts to get to Famagusta in Cyprus. Was there anything else you wanted to explore in the show, but never managed to?

David Farrier:  North Korea was always circling around – but we ended up getting very sidetracked with Turkmenistan. We had this once-in-a-lifetime chance to to get in there with cameras during our shooting schedule thanks to this outrageous Olympic event. Turkmenistan is the new hermit Kingdom almost, and has plenty of similarities. We were so happy to look around there – this new $5 billion dollar city in the middle of the desert. So much marble. We also toyed around going to Vozrozhdeniya Island – also known as anthrax island, but that came with some of its own issues. You know, anthrax and stuff. Look – let’s just say we have a big google doc of places that we’d like to get to one day.

You’re in many dangerous positions in the show, be it from humans, radiation or the supernatural. Were there any locations or trips that stood out during the filming show as particularly dangerous for you and the crew? And did you have any kind of emergency plan or assistance for filming in these dangerous locales?

David Farrier:  I found McKamey manor uncomfortable – this torture house in America. Just because I honestly couldn’t tell how dangerous it was. It was hard to read. The stories around that place are just so confused – there are people that came out of there broken. You can see their stories all over YouTube. People go through and clearly get hurt by Russ McKamey – sometimes a lot. I spent three hours going through the consent forms, and signing those felt… not great.

Swimming in Atomic Lake in Kazakhstan probably wasn’t the wisest idea – or eating fish from there – but in general, safety was pretty important to us, and to the people we worked with on the ground around us. We had local security with us at certain points, and the people we worked with in each country were just so, so vital. You can’t just charge into a place and expect things to go smoothly. Working with locals was key, and also really rewarding. I feel like I made lots of new friends.

Dark Tourist is fantastic in how it doesn’t just explore Dark Tourist attractions but the phenomenon of Dark Tourism itself, and the way sometimes the ‘dark’ aspect of it is glorified to an extent – the most notable occasion is your visit to the orphanage in Kazakhstan, which confronts the forces that brought you to the country in the first place. How would you compare dark tourism to ‘standard’ tourism in terms of ethically and authentically exploring a place?

David Farrier:  That orphanage and the work that goes on there was a combination of really heartbreaking, and also inspiring. Those doctors and nurses are incredible. And the kids! All smiles! That was a special and sobering day, and to highlight issues still faced by the people there after those atomic tests was pretty important. We wanted the show to challenge people, and that’s how that episode was structured. I mean, it’s a pretty fast paced, madcap sort of series – but we wanted to surprise viewers and bring them back to reality.

Dark Tourism is a complex area, and diverse – as you can see from the show. The line between entertainment and education is a big one for a lot of the tour operators, and tourists. Like, Narco tourism. There is huge debate raging about that in Medellín. Do people go there for the thrill and a selfie, or to learn? What about serial killer tours? A nuclear tour? A lot of it has to do with intent. People’s intent.

Our intent in the show was to go to these places where something horrific might have happened, poke some of the ethical issues, and then focus on the humanity around the sidelines. Dark Tourist , despite being about death, is a really positive show. The best part of this whole thing has been hearing from people in India and Argentina and Japan going “You missed this place! Come visit this bit of our history and meet me and let me show you this thing!” That’s the dream response.

At many points in the show, you state a desire to understand why people become dark tourists or engage in certain behaviours, such as Russ McKamey, the owned or McKamey Manor. After visiting many dark tourist hotspots, do you think you understand now? Would you consider yourself a Dark Tourist?

David Farrier:  I’m definitely a dark tourist, although probably a fairly cowardly one! I think the reasons are really varied, but boil down to three things. We’re all terrified of death, so dark tourism is a good excuse to get up close to death, and process it a little bit. Secondly, there’s that thing in all of us that slows down when we pass a car crash because we’re curious what has happened. I’m not saying that’s a good reason to engage in dark tourism, but it’s a part of it. And finally I think people want to dive into another culture and learn about things and be challenged.

I spent plenty of time with Santa Muerte devotees in Mexico – whose main icon is death herself – and their attitude to death and drama was so incredibly healthy and wonderful to me. I feel proud we got to share that different take on death in a series that goes out so widely on such a big platform like Netflix.

You’re on record as having an interest in cryptozoology, however for the most part this doesn’t make its way into Dark Tourist . Is there a reason for this? Or are you perhaps saving it for Dark Tourist Season 2/ a different show?

David Farrier:  I’ve always loved cryptozoology and this idea of exploring, looking for creatures written off by so many people. There are such characters involved with a giant passion for the unknown. There’s something quite majestic about it. I think it didn’t quite fit into the vibe of Dark Tourist … although now you say it, maybe we could explore Mokele-mbembe in the Congo – a rumoured dinosaur that’s apparently killed a few people.

Look, as long as we get to show off the splendid variety of things on this planet – and how different we all are and how we think about things – and this idea that YOU don’t necessarily have all the right answers – then I’m happy.

Film Inquiry thanks David Farrier for taking the time to talk with us.

Have you been to any dark tourist locations that Farrier would enjoy? Let us know in the comments below!

Dark Tourist was released on Netflix on July 20, 2018.

Does content like this matter to you?

Become a Member and support film journalism. Unlock access to all of Film Inquiry`s great articles. Join a community of like-minded readers who are passionate about cinema - get access to our private members Network, give back to independent filmmakers, and more.

Tom is a recent graduate based in the UK, who writes about films and games, and makes a few of his own. If he's not watching a film, playing a game or writing a script - don't worry! - he's probably just gone to make a cup of tea. He's never far from a screen.

This is No Game: Why READY OR NOT Still Matters

• Write for Us
• Become a Patron
• Comment Policy
• Terms & Conditions
• Staff Login

© 2023 Film Inquiry. All Rights Reserved.

The Definitive Voice of Entertainment News

Subscribe for full access to The Hollywood Reporter

site categories

‘dark tourist’: tv review.

New Zealand's David Farrier takes Netflix viewers around the world on vacations too dark, blood-drenched, radiation-filled and tragedy-adjacent for the average holiday-goer in 'Dark Tourist.'

By Daniel Fienberg

Daniel Fienberg

• Share on Facebook
• Share to Flipboard
• Send an Email
• Show additional share options
• Share on LinkedIn
• Share on Pinterest
• Share on Reddit
• Share on Tumblr
• Share on Whats App
• Print the Article
• Post a Comment

It isn’t until the eighth episode of New Zealand journalist and filmmaker David Farrier’s new Netflix series,  Dark Tourist , that somebody mentions Louis Theroux.

As befits the oddness of Dark Tourist , the interview subject who aptly brings up the British documentarian behind Louis Theroux’s Weird Weekends and My Scientology Movie , is Michael Channels, who coasted a wave of fame last fall as a 30-year-old pen pal to Charles Manson and alleged owner of a Manson will.

Air date: Jul 20, 2018

Amused in this context to be asked why he was trying to be Louis Theroux, Farrier laughs and agrees: “I’m like the cheap version of Louis Theroux.”

Jokes aside, Farrier ( Tickled ) is probably correct that Dark Tourist plays as a slightly less in-depth version of the sort of quirkily humorous, frequently murky immersive nonfiction journeys Theroux has built a career upon. That’s probably OK, because Theroux isn’t so prolific that there isn’t room for the kind of investigation-meets-comedy-meets-light-anthropology that Farrier practices in Dark Tourist . The series isn’t always focused or consistent, but it’s got ample strangeness and droll laughs, and every once in a while it packs an unexpected emotional punch.

The lack of consistency is hardly surprising. Farrier seems to begin every episode, before a wonderfully macabre animated credit sequence, with a very slightly different definition of what “dark tourism” even is. That definition is usually so strained by the end of 40 minutes that it takes bent-over-backward voiceover narration to impose a theme on his adventures. 

Related Stories

'in search of': tv review.

So what is dark tourism? It’s the phenomenon of people vacationing in places associated with death and destruction, though Farrier even expands the definition to encompass general “strangeness” as well. He never gets quite so far as to open up the definition to include any trip too inconvenient for any normal person lacking the resources provided by a TV budget, press credentials and the door-opening magic of a video camera. Probably he should. There’s nothing all that dark about attending a press conference and rocket launch at Baikonur, the birthplace of the Soviet space program. Even Farrier’s attempt to add morbidity to the equation by musing that the rocket in question looks technologically behind the curve doesn’t change the fact that this particular expedition, though it might be complicated or out of the logistical reaches of your typical traveler, is something that most people would just describe it as cool.

Mostly, Farrier keeps within a more justifiable range. Over the eight episodes, he continent-hops around the globe, and a number of recurring “dark tourist” variations occur. In the two episodes in the United States, for example, serial killer tours catch his attention, following in the footsteps of Jeffrey Dahmer in Milwaukee and Charles Manson in Los Angeles. He’s got a thing for areas of high radiation and wanders, Geiger counter clicking aggressively, through a nuclear test site in Kazakhstan and dangerously close to the radiation-tainted ruins of the 2011 earthquake in Fukushima. Doomsday preppers pop up in multiple episodes, whether as virulently racist, distressingly friendly white separatists in South Africa or more garden-variety American extremists in Virginia.

Farrier likes hastily evacuated ghost towns, whether they were cleared after military conflicts in Cyprus or an economic collapse in Japan. He’s also a sucker for eerily tourist-free capitals erected at tremendous expense by dictatorial regimes, be they in Myanmar or Turkmenistan. When watched in a batch, the episodes gives you a feel for Farrier’s preferred rhythms. He usually starts with a touristy version of a ritual and then wonders if what he just did was too touristy before booking an intimate visit with a practitioner of esoteric customs. Another pattern involves the frequency with which Farrier walks into a situation involving animal sacrifice and gets squeamish.

Beyond revealing his repeated tropes and platitudes, the episodes collectively showcase Farrier’s sense of humor. He’s extremely droll, a tactic that allows him to outright insult more than a couple of subjects, who simply don’t notice. He’s also very good at setting himself up as a fool so that he can learn a valuable lesson, like when he accidentally calls a South African township visit a “slum tour” before apologizing extensively in the next segment, or when he narcs on his tour’s coyote in a Mexican border-crossing stunt filled with moments both harrowing and giggle-inducing. He’s intellectual and foolhardy in nearly equal measure, slightly favoring the latter approach.

Farrier is unquestionably voyeuristic and exploitative in certain moments, with a corpse-exhuming Indonesian funeral ceremony providing the most eyebrow-raising bits. But you sense he’s doing this to emphasize a characteristic of dark tourism, and he tries to expose his own ignorance and dig deeper. He doesn’t always succeed. Sometimes the ingrained colonialism of his visits becomes unavoidable, even for someone who’s himself a resident of a former colony. But he tries.

'Who Is America?': TV Review

Farrier is very good at recruiting unlikely and outrageous tour guides, like Pablo Escobar’s favored assassin during a trip to Colombia, or insinuating himself into a situation in a way that gives astounding access, like when a chat with a disturbing British museum operator ends with a phone call to the notorious criminal played by Tom Hardy in the movie Bronson . I often wished he would spend more time trying to learn more about his fellow tourists, since those are the relationships that yield the most powerful beats, like the climax of that trip to the atomic wasteland of Kazakhstan.

It’s possible that a clearer definition of dark tourism will evolve as Farrier keeps going and keeps refining. I’m still waiting for an understanding of whether, for example, a Jew traveling to ghettos and concentration camps in Eastern Europe is a dark tourist or a cultural tourist or something Farrier is wisely leaving out of the purview of this show.

These eight episodes are a reasonable starter set of vacations you’d never want to go on, tours you’d be too perplexed to take, museums too weird to visit and a few places just enticing enough to make you investigate a booking for your next holiday. Not bad for a cheap version of Louis Theroux.

Premieres Friday (Netflix)

THR Newsletters

Sign up for THR news straight to your inbox every day

More from The Hollywood Reporter

Creative arts emmys: alan cumming wins best reality host, ends rupaul’s 8-year streak, creative arts emmys, night one: winners list, creative arts emmys: angela bassett gets first win after nine nominations, kumail nanjiani says he relates to his “christmas-all-the-time guy” on ‘only murders in the building’, aaron pierre physically transformed to make ‘rebel ridge,’ ‘foe’ and ‘genius: mlk/x’ in a single year, bill maher slams “obnoxious posers” for criticizing cheryl hines after husband rfk jr. endorses trump.

Log in or sign up for Rotten Tomatoes

Trouble logging in?

By continuing, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from the Fandango Media Brands .

By creating an account, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes and to receive email from the Fandango Media Brands .

By creating an account, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes.

Email not verified

Let's keep in touch.

Sign up for the Rotten Tomatoes newsletter to get weekly updates on:

• Upcoming Movies and TV shows
• Rotten Tomatoes Podcast
• Media News + More

By clicking "Sign Me Up," you are agreeing to receive occasional emails and communications from Fandango Media (Fandango, Vudu, and Rotten Tomatoes) and consenting to Fandango's Privacy Policy and Terms and Policies . Please allow 10 business days for your account to reflect your preferences.

OK, got it!

• About Rotten Tomatoes®
• Login/signup

Movies in theaters

• Opening This Week
• Top Box Office
• Coming Soon to Theaters
• Certified Fresh Movies

Movies at Home

• Fandango at Home
• Prime Video
• Most Popular Streaming Movies
• What to Watch New

Certified fresh picks

• 77% Beetlejuice Beetlejuice Link to Beetlejuice Beetlejuice
• 95% Rebel Ridge Link to Rebel Ridge
• 100% His Three Daughters Link to His Three Daughters

New TV Tonight

• 100% Slow Horses: Season 4
• 97% English Teacher: Season 1
• 93% Fight Night: The Million Dollar Heist: Season 1
• 100% Wise Guy: David Chase and The Sopranos: Season 1
• 54% The Perfect Couple: Season 1
• -- Tell Me Lies: Season 2
• -- Outlast: Season 2
• -- The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives: Season 1
• -- Selling Sunset: Season 8
• -- Whose Line Is It Anyway?: Season 14

Most Popular TV on RT

• 76% Kaos: Season 1
• 83% The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power: Season 2
• 89% Terminator Zero: Season 1
• 100% Dark Winds: Season 2
• 93% Bad Monkey: Season 1
• Best TV Shows
• Most Popular TV

Certified fresh pick

• 100% Slow Horses: Season 4 Link to Slow Horses: Season 4
• All-Time Lists
• Binge Guide
• Comics on TV
• Five Favorite Films
• Video Interviews
• Weekend Box Office
• Weekly Ketchup
• What to Watch

Best TV Shows of 2024: Best New Series to Watch Now

All Tim Burton Movies Ranked

What to Watch: In Theaters and On Streaming

Awards Tour

The Beetlejuice Beetlejuice Cast on Reuniting with Tim Burton

New Movies and TV Shows Streaming in September 2024: What to Watch on Netflix, Prime Video, Disney+, Max and more

• Trending on RT
• Beetlejuice Beetlejuice First Reviews
• Top 10 Box Office
• Toronto Film Festival
• Popular Series on Netflix

Season 1 – Dark Tourist

Where to watch, dark tourist — season 1.

Watch Dark Tourist — Season 1 with a subscription on Netflix.

What to Know

Host David Farrier's empathetic curiosity keeps Dark Tourist from feeling too exploitative -- though shallow observations about its macabre destinations often leave something to be desired.

Critics Reviews

Audience reviews, cast & crew.

David Farrier

Carthew Neal

Executive Producer

Mark McNeill

More Like This

Season info.

• Cast & crew
• User reviews

Episode list

Dark tourist.

S1.E1 ∙ Latin America

S1.E2 ∙ Japan

S1.E3 ∙ United States

S1.E4 ∙ The Stans

S1.E5 ∙ Europe

S1.E6 ∙ South East Asia

S1.E7 ∙ Africa

S1.E8 ∙ Back in the USA

Contribute to this page.

• See more gaps
• Learn more about contributing

More from this title

More to explore, recently viewed.

Will there be a ‘Dark Tourist’ season 2? Here’s what David Farrier toldus

During our conversation I asked Farrier if there were any plans to take the show into a second season, and while he insisted that the answer is up to Netflix, he did tease that there are many more places for him to visit.

“In researching all of this season we have a full Google doc of places to go and stories to tell. We only had a certain number of episodes and we filled them all up. So there is certainly more to tell and more to do. So we’ll see how this season does and take it from there.”

David Farrier has already taken in numerous locations while shooting “The Dark Tourist,” as he visited Colombia, Mexico, Japan, Kazakhstan, England, Cyprus, Cambodia, Myanmar, South Africa, Benin, and the United States, which he actually visited twice, for the show.

It is hardly a surprise that Farrier is so eager to do a second season of The Dark Tourist, as he previously told me , “I’ve always on my own holidays gravitated away from normal destinations, and I have always liked to go somewhere a bit different.”

There are a number of places that Farrier could frequent in a second season, including the likes of the Catacombs Of Paris and Auschwitz. While death and funeral rites in Bali have already become a tourist trap, as some people allegedly selling tickets and arrange tours as soon as they learn that an individual is on their deathbed.

About the Author

Jobs in new york, add your job.

• St. Dominic's Family Services Speech Pathologist (Therapist)
• Saint Dominic's Family Services Sr. Accountability & Compliance Specialist
• Saint Dominic's Family Services Director of Developmental Disabilities

View all jobs…

Things to do in nyc.

Post an Event

Modern Matinees: Family—The Faith Hubley Centennial Museum of Modern Art

Sports Watch Parties at Backyard at Hudson Yards: US Open Tennis Backyard at Hudson Yards, Public Square & Gardens

Wonderland: Curious Nature New York Botanical Garden

Nuebiome’s Free Facial Event ~ Discover Microbiome Balance Grand Central Terminal

Corn Craze Family Day Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian

Tortoise vs. Hare 2: This Time It’s Personal! Stapleton Library

View All Events…

Sign up for our daily newsflashes

Related articles.

More from our Sister Sites

Man hospitalized after homophobic attack on A train at Columbus Circle

Minna LaFortune drops ‘Baby Baby I Love You’

Voting is lit: Ohio’s Sherrod Brown & control of the US Senate

MLB Over/Under Bet of the Day: June 13, Royals vs Giants

Don’t miss a beat.

Sign up for our daily news explosion.