Stargate’s Amanda Tapping Went Full Horror Movie, And It’s Perfect

By Jonathan Klotz
| Published 2 minutes ago

Amanda Tapping’s most well-known role is as Colonel Samantha Carter in the Stargate franchise, but after Stargate SG-1 finished, she went on to star in the SyFy original monster-hunting series, Sanctuary. As Helen Magnus, she was the head of a global network of secret facilities designed to house, treat, and study “abnormals.”

This meant a lot of running around after large, terrifying monsters, which is why the Season 1 episode, “Instinct,” works so well. Shot in the style of a found-footage horror movie, “Instinct” shows how a single encounter with an abnormal can be life-altering, and oh yes, when you don’t know what’s going on, the entire Sanctuary team comes off as being completely insane. 

By now, fans had seen Helen’s team in action: Will (Robin Dunne) is the new guy, a forensic psychiatrist and her protege,  Henry (Ryan Robbins) is the tech guy and also a werewolf, while Ashley (Emille Ullerup) is Helen’s daughter (that always immediately raises questions when people find out) and the most accomplished fighter of the group. Seeing them through the perspective of TV weather girl Amy (Rekha Sharma) and her cameraman, Zach (Matty Finochio), turns the usual Sanctuary viewing experience on its head. After the two bystanders wander into a warehouse with a trapped monstrous abnormal inside, they learn of a world of myths and monsters that’s always been around them, and while Zach is impressed, Amy thinks this is the story that will make her career. 

“Instinct” opens with the two groups running into each other and trying to find a way to coexist as Amy tries to get answers about the Sanctuary from the team, and Zach wants to get out in one piece. In one of the best moments, Zach is trying to eavesdrop on the team using the camera, when he hears Helen say that the monster is right behind him. Panicked, he turns around, sees nothing, turns back, and Helen is right there to chastise him for listening in.

After learning that the abnormal is a typically docile ancient Japanese beetle, they calm down until the lights go out, and we get the horror-movie shot of the abnormal lurking in the darkness, right over Helen’s shoulder. The head-on steadicam shots make “Instinct” look unlike any other episode of Sanctuary, and the episode takes full advantage of it by going for jumpscares whenever possible. 

Sanctuary Was Ahead Of Its Time

Sanctuary was usually shot in a large, open studio with no real sets. Those were digitally added in later. For “Instinct,” the crew used an old Volvo warehouse, which gave the episode a cramped, claustrophobic feel. Intentionally shot to look like a single, continuous take, the episode was actually 40 long shots spliced together, but if you’ve seen any found-footage movies, you can tell where the splices happen. 

Even though the series ran for four seasons, Sanctuary stayed under the radar the whole time, which is a shame, as it includes one of the strangest versions of Tesla, a vampire in the world of the series, and the best Jack the Ripper (Helen’s estranged husband). As expected for a show starring Amanda Tapping while she was moonlighting on Stargate Atlantis, there’s plenty of references to that other franchise, including Michael Shanks making a guest appearance, and in “Instinct,” an ARG prop is repurposed as a sonic gun. 

Sanctuary’s quality level varies wildly from season to season, but “Instinct” is an early highlight for the show before it loses itself in its own mythology. Paying tribute to Cloverfield gave fans a chance to see the team a bit differently and to have some fun by seeing how insane Helen’s explanations behind abnormals sound when removed from the context of the Sanctuary itself. If you’ve never given the show a chance, fire it up on Tubi and let the familiar feeling of Canadian sci-fi wash over you.