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Plot – The small California fishing town of Antonio Bay is all set to celebrate its centennial. The residents of the town have a celebration planned, but someone else has other plans for how to mark the anniversary. As the clocks strike midnight various peculiar events start to take place throughout the town. Accompanying these moments of unexplained phenomena is a dense, glowing fog which engulfs the town and its residents. Residing within the fog are a group of spectral entities with murder on their mind. Confusion and terror begin to grip the town when the local priest believes he may have found an explanation. Stumbling across a diary dating back to the town's birth 100 years ago he learns that six of the town's founders purposely led a ship of lepers onto the rocks, leaving all on-board dead. Now they've come back for revenge.
This is the fourth feature from John Carpenter that I've watched within the last couple of weeks. While I already considered myself a big fan of his work, there were many of his most acclaimed films I had not seen, mostly as a result of my general indifference/dislike of the horror genre. As such a massive fan of They Live, Escape from New York and Assault on Precinct 13 (all films I'd take into consideration for my top 100) however I decided to expand my scope and give them a shot. So I've watched Halloween, The Thing, Christine and now The Fog. And while I'm sure it's not a common choice, my favourite of the group would definitely have to be this ghoulish effort.
Much like Christine it's not an especially 'scary' horror film. Indeed I'd classify it more as a paranormal chiller than horror. What it is however is a creepy, moody and stupendously atmospheric piece of work. Much of that is down to the realisation of the film's 'evil', the wronged crew members of the ship that was intentionally led onto the rocks one hundred years ago. Essentially taking on the appearance of ghost pirates (or is that pirate ghosts?
) they really are creepy as f**k! A great design by visual effects/make-up artist Rob bottin. The use of fog for atmospheric effect is such a classic mainstay of horror films that to make a film where fog is actually the antagonist is just f**king genius! And on reflection such an obvious move. It's also so incredibly simple to achieve, just fog and some lights. And yet it just works beautifully. Also adding to the atmosphere is yet another of Carpenter's trademark scores, an eerie and pulsing electronic score ratcheting up the tension. I just love his scores.
The cast doesn't really have any big stars, nor does it even have a 'main' character really. What the cast does have however is a series of solid performers who all give a series of likeable and empathetic showings. In fact one of the film's great strengths I felt was that through a combination of the script and the performances, characters were very quickly built up into people I really liked and cared for. The film juxtaposes three different stories before combining them for the final showdown with our ghouls. There's the potential romance between a local resident and a hitchhiker he picks up that is interrupted by having to investigate an abandoned ship; there's the radio DJ trying to take care of her son; and then there's the trio of the town's priest, town councillor and the councillor's assistant uncovering the horrible history behind the birth of the town. And eventually they all find themselves together battling against the fog and the horrors that lie within.
As strong willed radio DJ Stevie Wayne, Adrienne Barbeau is incredibly appealing and sexy. And for a radio DJ she is just about perfect casting as she displays a wonderfully sexy and sultry voice. Acting legends Hal Holbrook and Janet Leigh both add a real touch of class as the curmudgeonly priest Father Malone, and a town council official heading up the centenary celebrations respectively. Nancy Loomis is very funny as Leigh's deadpan assistant, while Charles Cyphers and Tom Atkins both bring an endearing quality to their limited characters. If there's one disappointment in the cast however it's most certainly Jamie Lee Curtis. It's not that she delivers a poor performance, it's just that she's not really featured all that much and as a result feels rather wasted.
It's quite a small and personal film in terms of scale. And one thing I admire about Carpenter here and in both Halloween and Christine is the lack of blood and gore. Horrible fates may befall the characters but Carpenter doesn't revel in them; building the suspense, alluding to the incidents and letting us picture them in our minds as opposed to throwing blood and guts in our face.
Conclusion - I'm sure many readers, if indeed not every single one of you, will be baffled as to how I enjoyed this effort more than the horror classics, Halloween and The Thing. For me however this just came the closest to the other Carpenter films I love in that it's just a massive amount of fun. A highly entertaining, spooky romp which takes a very respectable fourth place in terms of how I'd rank Carpenter's body of work.
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Year of release
1980
1980
Directed by
John Carpenter
John Carpenter
Written by
John Carpenter
Debra Hill
John Carpenter
Debra Hill
Starring
Adrienne Barbeau
Janet Leigh
Tom Atkins
Jamie Lee Curtis
Hal Holbrook
Adrienne Barbeau
Janet Leigh
Tom Atkins
Jamie Lee Curtis
Hal Holbrook
The Fog
+
Plot – The small California fishing town of Antonio Bay is all set to celebrate its centennial. The residents of the town have a celebration planned, but someone else has other plans for how to mark the anniversary. As the clocks strike midnight various peculiar events start to take place throughout the town. Accompanying these moments of unexplained phenomena is a dense, glowing fog which engulfs the town and its residents. Residing within the fog are a group of spectral entities with murder on their mind. Confusion and terror begin to grip the town when the local priest believes he may have found an explanation. Stumbling across a diary dating back to the town's birth 100 years ago he learns that six of the town's founders purposely led a ship of lepers onto the rocks, leaving all on-board dead. Now they've come back for revenge.
This is the fourth feature from John Carpenter that I've watched within the last couple of weeks. While I already considered myself a big fan of his work, there were many of his most acclaimed films I had not seen, mostly as a result of my general indifference/dislike of the horror genre. As such a massive fan of They Live, Escape from New York and Assault on Precinct 13 (all films I'd take into consideration for my top 100) however I decided to expand my scope and give them a shot. So I've watched Halloween, The Thing, Christine and now The Fog. And while I'm sure it's not a common choice, my favourite of the group would definitely have to be this ghoulish effort.
Much like Christine it's not an especially 'scary' horror film. Indeed I'd classify it more as a paranormal chiller than horror. What it is however is a creepy, moody and stupendously atmospheric piece of work. Much of that is down to the realisation of the film's 'evil', the wronged crew members of the ship that was intentionally led onto the rocks one hundred years ago. Essentially taking on the appearance of ghost pirates (or is that pirate ghosts?
) they really are creepy as f**k! A great design by visual effects/make-up artist Rob bottin. The use of fog for atmospheric effect is such a classic mainstay of horror films that to make a film where fog is actually the antagonist is just f**king genius! And on reflection such an obvious move. It's also so incredibly simple to achieve, just fog and some lights. And yet it just works beautifully. Also adding to the atmosphere is yet another of Carpenter's trademark scores, an eerie and pulsing electronic score ratcheting up the tension. I just love his scores. The cast doesn't really have any big stars, nor does it even have a 'main' character really. What the cast does have however is a series of solid performers who all give a series of likeable and empathetic showings. In fact one of the film's great strengths I felt was that through a combination of the script and the performances, characters were very quickly built up into people I really liked and cared for. The film juxtaposes three different stories before combining them for the final showdown with our ghouls. There's the potential romance between a local resident and a hitchhiker he picks up that is interrupted by having to investigate an abandoned ship; there's the radio DJ trying to take care of her son; and then there's the trio of the town's priest, town councillor and the councillor's assistant uncovering the horrible history behind the birth of the town. And eventually they all find themselves together battling against the fog and the horrors that lie within.
As strong willed radio DJ Stevie Wayne, Adrienne Barbeau is incredibly appealing and sexy. And for a radio DJ she is just about perfect casting as she displays a wonderfully sexy and sultry voice. Acting legends Hal Holbrook and Janet Leigh both add a real touch of class as the curmudgeonly priest Father Malone, and a town council official heading up the centenary celebrations respectively. Nancy Loomis is very funny as Leigh's deadpan assistant, while Charles Cyphers and Tom Atkins both bring an endearing quality to their limited characters. If there's one disappointment in the cast however it's most certainly Jamie Lee Curtis. It's not that she delivers a poor performance, it's just that she's not really featured all that much and as a result feels rather wasted.
It's quite a small and personal film in terms of scale. And one thing I admire about Carpenter here and in both Halloween and Christine is the lack of blood and gore. Horrible fates may befall the characters but Carpenter doesn't revel in them; building the suspense, alluding to the incidents and letting us picture them in our minds as opposed to throwing blood and guts in our face.
Conclusion - I'm sure many readers, if indeed not every single one of you, will be baffled as to how I enjoyed this effort more than the horror classics, Halloween and The Thing. For me however this just came the closest to the other Carpenter films I love in that it's just a massive amount of fun. A highly entertaining, spooky romp which takes a very respectable fourth place in terms of how I'd rank Carpenter's body of work.