By Jason Haskins
The small Californian township of Antonio Bay is approaching their hundred-year anniversary and with that celebration comes a haunting reminder of what the town was founded on: blood money from sailors that the town elders had sabotaged. Now, these souls have returned for revenge in a valley of fog to sweep the town and bring about complete and utter chaos. Trapped in the middle is a local resident, Nick (Tom Atkins), a hitchhiker he picked up (Jamie Lee Curtis), and the local radio superstar who's held up in her darn lighthouse (Adrienne Barbeau). They must survive the night and possibly help bring justice for the wrong their town has done.
This flick is not to be confused with the Stephen King adaptation, The Mist, despite the bad things being covered, similarly, in a thick layer of evaporated water (or whatever the hell it is). This is supernatural fog and it even spawned a remake in the mid-2000s, which I don't recommend you to see--it might tarnish your image of this stellar film (and cinema in general). The Fog was released in 1980 and is hands down one of my favorite offerings by horror icon John Carpenter. This was Carpenter and co-producer/writer Debra Hill's feature length follow-up the film that jumpstarted their careers and slasher cinema in general. I'm talking about a little movie called Halloween (1978).
While The Fog may have aged somewhat and won't really be considered terrifying by modern standards, the entire premise is quite eerie as is the whole atmosphere Carpenter and his team created here. What I love about this movie is how it uses its setting for maximum creepy value. The whole idea of ghostly mariners haunting a coastal town because of a past problem may not be the most original idea ever, but it works wonders here into a cohesive piece of horror cinema that holds its own. The build-up is quite suspenseful, as is the classic opening sequence and ending, which still stands out as some of the best work Carpenter's ever done.
The acting isn't the best, but it's certainly not atrocious. I really dig Adrienne Barbeau here as I find her to be completely beautiful--she was Carpenter's beau at that time. Jamie Lee Curtis may be on the cover of my VHS box, but she certainly isn't the main squeeze of The Fog. Tom Atkins is pretty awesome, which is to be expected as he was on fire in the eighties. All in all, the whole cast works really well to put into perspective the situation and make things as plausible as possible. What I really dig is how ridiculous it probably was shooting the movie with all of these fog machines yet they look genuinely frightened--and that does heaps of good for the viewer.
I don't know what it is, but I've always enjoyed oceanic stories and when you blend that with a ghost angle, you have a prize-winning piece of cinema for me to chew on. I don't expect everyone to love this movie as much as I do, but it has a ton of great moments that set it apart from other forgotten films of the era. There are equal parts creepiness and suspense with some memorable moments that go down as some of Carpenter's best work here. On paper the whole idea might sound hokey and it definitely suffers from a little bit of eighties, but that's all the more reason to watch it. Have yourself a movie night and put this on for some fun--I guarantee someone will like it...especially someone who dug all of Carpenter's eighties work. This was the start of a beautiful friendship Carpenter had with the eighties and it's still really watchable after all this time.
5 out of 5 stars
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