Review #268: 'The Fog' (1980)

One the eve of its centennial, the small town of Antonio Bay experiences some strange events. Father Malone (Hal Holbrook) is sat in his study when a stone falls out of the wall behind him to reveal an old journal. It belongs to Father Malone's grandfather, and tells how he and the other five founding members of the town caused a ship called Elizabeth Dane to crash, and then plundered it. They planned to open a leper colony, but all of the crew on board were killed. And now a strange fog has begins to creep upon the town, carrying with it a ghostly ship. Three fishermen are killed by sword-wielding spirits, and it soon becomes clear that the crew of the Elizabeth Dane are back to claim six lives for themselves.

As mentioned by Marc in his review of John Carpenter's most recent film, The Ward (2010), Carpenter's career is a very mixed bag. Made during his early heyday, The Fog was produced on a low-budget, and contains the same kind of style and atmosphere that we saw in the excellent Assault on Precinct 13 (1976) and Halloween (1978). It's not his best film by any means, but The Fog has become an almost classic in the horror genre. To my surprise, (as other reviews I had read told me otherwise) The Fog is very good, and although isn't ground-breaking like Halloween, or as damn cool as Escape from New York (1981), or even as inspired as The Thing (1982), but it is certainly eerie, and has that 1980's feel to it that the likes of Carpenter and David Cronenberg made their own.

The premise of it is certainly silly. It's the time of thing you would read in an old collection of horror stories, and see in a 1950's B-movie. But this is essentially a B-movie, but made straight-faced by Carpenter with his golden touch that rules out any possibility that the film might come across as silly. This is pure popcorn horror, made by an old master. Especially memorable is the scene where we first glimpse the ship's crew, huddled in a church with the fog swirling around them. Their leader slowly draws his sword; his red eyes glowing, while Carpenter's self-penned atmospheric synth-score plays over. Again, silly-sounding. But it's not, it's actually beautiful and extremely cool. A very pleasant surprise, and another reminder of just how good Carpenter was before his decline. You'll have to hold a knife to my throat to watch the sequel though.


Directed by: John Carpenter
Starring: Adrienne Barbeau, Jamie Lee Curtis, Janet Leigh, Hal Holbrook
Country: USA

Rating: ****

Tom Gillespie