review

i like john carpenter, his work always entertains even if it is not always consistent. he has made classic films such as halloween and the thing. some would say his best work is long in the past, even so i enjoyed both vampires and ghosts of mars.
last night i watch the fog again. it has been many years since i last saw this film, and you know what i still enjoyed it. although it still holds up it is a movie of it’s time, and i suspect the remake will be much more gory and glitzy.

the fog tells the story of how the celebrations for antonio bay’s 100th birthday turn to horror. as the special day begins, there are odd and dangerous occurrences in the town. in one of them the town’s priest, father malone (played by hall holbrook), discovers the journal of his relative. after reading it he learns that the town is built upon the deliberate murder of a ship full of lepers.
and now 100 years later retribution is about to be visited on the town.
although a very traditional horror movie, the fog is unique in that it’s two stars are women and both of them beauties, adrienne barbeau, who plays the owner of the town’s lone radio station, and jamie lee curtis, who plays a drifter who believes that bad luck has followed her into town.
some of the acting is wooden, but the set pieces more than make up for any of the films shortcomings.
such as: the first viewing of the ghostly lepers as they board a fog bound trawler and kill all the crew, especially the last member, whose face is the only part of the frame that is lit as he wanders what is going on.
or the moment when as jamie lee curtis’ hitchhiker has begun to relax in tom atkins truck, both of them are startled when for no reason all the glass in the truck shatters.
equally so is the moment when they both board a deserted trawler looking for the crew, find no one and settle back to wait for the coast guard, only to be scared by the falling out of maps from a locker, the audience jumps expecting to see a dead body, relaxes and smiles ruefully only to be doubly shocked when the body does fall out.
the first wisps of fog as it crawls around the town, we know what it means, and we know danger is ahead. the effect is helped by the electronic score.
when adrienne barbeau’s son and nanny are menaced by the ghostly lepers. the glowing fog outside the door, the ominous banging on the door, and eventually the death of the nanny. then andy sitting in his bed waiting for the nanny, but instead watches as his bedroom door is being broken through. a last minute rescue and he is away with atkins and jamie lee curtis.
but while all of that is going on adrienne barbeau is broadcasting – her smoky dj voice being replaced by that of a concerned and desperate mother pleading for someone to rescue her son (she can see the fog approaching their house) and then she transforms again into a business like announcer who has to do the job no matter what.
then there is the scenes in the church as the day is coming to a close and the ghosts search for their revenge, all they now need is their lost gold and one more death to make up for what was done to them. father malone seeks redemption by offering himself as a sacrifice, carrying a solid cold cross he confronts the ghosts one of them grabs hold of the cross and it burns bright as if burning away sin and hate. malone is pulled away by tom atkins.
meanwhile adrienne is also under attack from the ghosts, it is during her struggle that we finally see one of the leprous faces.
with the chiming of the bell, the day is over and the ghost disappear.
adrienne barbeau gives out a final warning to all who sail the ocean, to look out for the fog as it will strike again.

as i mentioned before this is very much a traditional horror movie. it plays it straight, there are no post-modern asides to the audience, you are expected to take what is happening at face value. while the writing isn’t going to win the film oscars there are several relatively well defined characters and the whole sequence where adrienne barbeau becomes terrified for the life of her son is incredibly well handled.
pretty much everything that takes place in the movie is there for a reason, it is taut, well paced and in places a little scary. the gore and the violence are all done very much off screen (now whether that was a stylistic choice on carpenter’s part or brought about because he had little budget to play around with i don’t know).
the soon to be made re-make will no doubt feature lots more blood, lots more special fx and will probably be a slightly less pleasing movie for all that.
the fog remains one of my favourite carpenter movies.