The Fog (1980)Where can one turn when the very fog conspires with the unquiet ghosts of one hundred years past to claim a blood debt? John Carpenter's The Fog (1980) is the story of several residents in the small, coastal town of Antonio Bay, California, and their macabre encounters with a malevolent fog concealing the raised revenants of a shipwreck. The spectral revengers set upon unsuspecting denizens, violently killing them, as the denizens of the town attempt to survive this onslaught from the underworld. But in order to quell the vengeance wrought from beyond the grave, they will first need to uncover the grim foundation of Antonio Bay.
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The Fog begins with a campfire story, part of the legend of the town, the tale of the shipwreck of the "Elizabeth Dane", from which a fortune was plumbed from the sunken ship in the form of Spanish doubloons--a fortune which served as the basis to finance the town's emergence. The story is told by a man who looks a bit like an old sea dog, Mr. Machen (John Houseman), who tells of how the ship ran aground as a result of a terrible fog which seemed to emerge from nowhere, just long enough to contribute to the fatal disaster. The tale is told to a group of children, including the son of local radio station owner and on-air disc jockey, Stevie Wayne (Adrienne Barbeau). The kids are transfixed around the fire, the story creeping in like the eponymous fog under their skin, a chilling tale to set the tone of the film--an eerie, nightmarish tale. This supernatural fog manifests on the centennial anniversary of Antonio Bay, the looming malevolence hinted at first through a series of seemingly random and unexplained events, like car alarms going off or chairs sliding around in peoples houses between the hour of midnight and one in the morning. These seemingly innocuous events are followed by the skulking of murderous phantoms, equipped with cutlasses and hooks, silent as death, cold and unfeeling. Although what's in the fog is the true killer, the fog is itself made into an amorphous entity, moving as if alive. As air itself, it instills a sense of powerlessness in its victims, because how can you fight the wind? It is designed to appear alien and inscrutable, emanating an eerie blue and green radiance from within. It causes temperatures to drop dramatically as though the chill of death were near, and victims of its power are changed to appear as if they've been submerged beneath the sea for extended periods of time. Like other early films by John Carpenter, such as Assault on Precinct 13 or The Thing, The Fog is a story about people under siege by an intimidating, overwhelming force, one which is seemingly incomprehensible but no less deadly. And speaking of other films by John Carpenter, The Fog marks the film pairing of mother and daughter scream queens, Janet Leigh and Jaime Lee Curtis, more appropriate since Carpenter's breakthrough film, Halloween, was also the film debut of Jaime Lee Curtis in a story heavily inspired by Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho, which in turn featured Janet Leigh as a woman assaulted by a maniac with a knife. Small world.
The secret history of the town emerges from a concealed hole within the walls of the local church, discovered by the town's tippler pastor, Father Malone (Hal Holbrook). Malone's own grandfather was the author of this secret testimony, revealing his role in how the town was formed and what it ultimately cost him. When Malone reveals this account to a pair of women overseeing the town's anniversary celebrations--Kathy Williams (Janet Leigh) and Sandy Fadel (Nancy Loomis)--even Malone confesses that he could not finish the diary after such a revelation. What little clues we get about the true nature of this bizarre haunting of the seas and the town trickles in like the water from the transmuted plank Stevie's son, Andy (Ty Mitchell), gives her, providing another clue in the ominous message which sparks to life from it: "6 Must Die". The mystery of The Fog slowly unravels as the story progresses, inscrutable terrors cropping up along the way--even the dead leave cryptic messages hinting at their motive, grim puzzles and warnings. Along with the aforementioned residents encountering the offshore menace, a young hitchhiker named Elizabeth (Jamie Lee Curtis) and a Good Samaritan turned lover named Dick Baxter (James Canning) end up investigating the fate of the unfortunate trawler named "The Seagrass", tying in with the deadly fog and the ghost ship lurking within. With so many characters subject to the malevolent and relentless fog that moves with a life of its own, the audience is left with a dour sense that the welfare of these people of Antonio Bay is not guaranteed. And just as the fog was instrumental in the founding of Antonio Bay, it seems to be determined to dismantle it one hundred years later.
Recommended for: Fans of a chilling horror movie about campfire tales of ghosts and creeping forces of doom. The Fog is a tightly wound snapshot of a cross-section of people trying to survive when the very air is out for their blood.
The secret history of the town emerges from a concealed hole within the walls of the local church, discovered by the town's tippler pastor, Father Malone (Hal Holbrook). Malone's own grandfather was the author of this secret testimony, revealing his role in how the town was formed and what it ultimately cost him. When Malone reveals this account to a pair of women overseeing the town's anniversary celebrations--Kathy Williams (Janet Leigh) and Sandy Fadel (Nancy Loomis)--even Malone confesses that he could not finish the diary after such a revelation. What little clues we get about the true nature of this bizarre haunting of the seas and the town trickles in like the water from the transmuted plank Stevie's son, Andy (Ty Mitchell), gives her, providing another clue in the ominous message which sparks to life from it: "6 Must Die". The mystery of The Fog slowly unravels as the story progresses, inscrutable terrors cropping up along the way--even the dead leave cryptic messages hinting at their motive, grim puzzles and warnings. Along with the aforementioned residents encountering the offshore menace, a young hitchhiker named Elizabeth (Jamie Lee Curtis) and a Good Samaritan turned lover named Dick Baxter (James Canning) end up investigating the fate of the unfortunate trawler named "The Seagrass", tying in with the deadly fog and the ghost ship lurking within. With so many characters subject to the malevolent and relentless fog that moves with a life of its own, the audience is left with a dour sense that the welfare of these people of Antonio Bay is not guaranteed. And just as the fog was instrumental in the founding of Antonio Bay, it seems to be determined to dismantle it one hundred years later.
Recommended for: Fans of a chilling horror movie about campfire tales of ghosts and creeping forces of doom. The Fog is a tightly wound snapshot of a cross-section of people trying to survive when the very air is out for their blood.