Drilling in the frozen north and releasing an ancient monster is the subject of ...

erickhill · on May 5, 2017

And John Carpenter's The Thing.

tyingq · on May 5, 2017

Minor nit, but I don't think they reveal that the creature in The Thing was cut out of the ice and revived until the much later 2011 prequel. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thing_(2011_film)

Edit: Looks like I'm wrong. Apparently the ice block is in the John Carpenter film, but things aren't spelled out in great detail. I need to watch both of these again...

strictnein · on May 5, 2017

And "At the Mountains of Madness" by H. P. Lovecraft, more or less. Although at the other pole.