The Fog (1980)

Tagline: “Bolt your doors, lock your windows, there’s something in The Fog!”
UK Running Time: 89 minutes

Film Quality: 4/5
Gore Content: 2/5
Entertainment Value: 4.5/5
Originality: 4/5

Introduction

After absolutely smashing it with ‘Halloween’, Carpenter was fast gaining a reputation for doing great things with low budgets. It was two years before another film bearing his name was released to the cinema and he was given more than triple the budget for another independent movie, ‘The Fog’. Still incredibly economic at just $1million (‘The Shining’ was released in the same year on a budget of $19million) he managed to turn out yet another little gem of a film that, despite being a uniquely Carpenter film, managed to convey his ability to try new things.

In a nutshell

A hundred years ago a clipper ship crashed into rocks just off Antonio Bay and the gold salvaged from the stricken vessel was used to found the small township that thrives ‘today’. All of the seamen, carrying riches to set up a leper colony, perished but it soon becomes apparent that the wreck was orchestrated and that a 100 year old curse was about to be cashed in as the menacing mariners lurking behind a mysterious fog enact their ghostly revenge.

So what’s good about it?

What worked so well in ‘Halloween’ was the simple plot, reliance on atmosphere and mood over gore and action and, for the most part Carpenter stays true to those principals. The opening five minutes is brilliantly atmospheric with a beautifully narrated ghost story courtesy of “America’s favourite old fart” John Houseman (great quote from Bill Murray!!!) which serves a dual purpose. Not only does it set the scene for the film by filling us in with the back story but it also tells us precisely what type of film we’re about to see. This is a ghost story, pure and simple and as such sets itself up as a departure from his earlier box office smash and changes our expectations.

The way Carpenter draws us into his world is masterful. We hear the church bells chime midnight, at which point a number of ghostly goings on such as lights switching on and off, car horns blaring out (I could have done without the chair moving on its own though!) and then moves the plot further by introducing us to the drunk Father Malone and the role the church played in the tragedy that befell the Elizabeth Dane all those years ago. Watch out for a cameo by Carpenter himself as the church janitor and a fantastic turn by movie stalwart Hal Holbrook, nailing his role as the troubled church leader who bears the guilt of his forefathers.

That brings us on to one of the little surprises which is the casting of Jamie Leigh Curtis once again. She played the part of the dowdy, whiter than white final girl Laurie Strode to perfection yet within about ten minutes of hitchhiking with Tom Atkins’ Nick she’s flogging her artwork in a post-coital conversation! Again, the early expectation that she will be another typical final girl is turned on its head and once again Curtis is sensational as the confident Elizabeth. Yet is the star turn of Adrienne Barbeau (pictured) as the sassy, sexy, silk-voiced jazz radio DJ Stevie Wayne who steals the show. She is magnificent, strong and independent in her role as a radio DJ and completely believable as a single mother desperately trying to rescue the town from her vantage point at the top of the lighthouse from where she can see the fog, desperately trying to direct the townsfolk to safety.

This brings us along very nicely to the tension which Carpenter brings to the boil very nicely. There are several standout scenes but for me it’s the attack on Stevie Wayne’s son, Andy, which is edited to perfection. Barbeau’s on air pleas for help, Andy trapped behind his locked bedroom door as the ghosts attack and Nick’s ‘will he or won’t he get there in time?’ attempts to save him are complemented by Carpenter’s rhythmic, pulsating, perfectly timed electronic score that captures the vibe of the film in musical form, for me his best score and even better than the iconic ‘Halloween’. It displays Carpenter’s blistering ability to build a scene up to crescendo through editing, direction of his actors and music, something he constructed to devastating effect with a bigger budget in ‘The Thing’.

The ghosts originally took more of a back seat in Carpenter’s first cut, much to his own dissatisfaction. Upon viewing his first cut of the movie he was so unimpressed with his own creation that he recut and reshot around a third of the film including most of the violence that we see on screen, particularly the deaths of the three fishermen on the Sea Grass. Despite this there is still nothing particularly graphic and Carpenter continues to play off the fact that much is hidden within the fog. There are a lot of very squishy sound effects and we do see a few, brief, very green looking close ups of the ghosts faces (let’s not forget that they’re supposed to have been under water for 100 years and suffered from Leprosy so they were never going to be pretty!). I’m not sure this really works too well, other than a lovely shot of an arm covered in seaweed in the aforementioned escape from Andy’s house but it does give us a glimpse of what we’re dealing with.

What Carpenter ultimately serves up is a fantastic, very taut little ghost story that was born out of an urban legend that could have originated from any sleep little fishing village. Apparently he and his, then girlfriend, co-scriptwriter and long term collaborator Debra Hill got the idea at Stonehenge when they saw a very strange glowing fog and the idea that monsters could be harboured within. This idea was taken further in a more literal fashion in the entirely unconnected but equally effective ‘The Mist’ by Frank Darabont.

What about the bad?

It’s highly entertaining and has become a cult favourite, well-loved within Carpenter’s impressive canon of work, but it’s far from perfect. The violent deaths, though far from graphic, do seem a little out of place within the chilling ghost story setting and more in keeping with his previous dabble in horror. Of course we weren’t privy to Carpenter’s first cut and his description of an anaemic horror devoid of scares and threat doesn’t sound enticing. That the film still works despite this jarring of genre styles is more down to the tension created by Carpenter’s direction and score than the reshoots.

There are a few plot elements that I don’t think work too well. Why do the ghosts not just attack the procession (which seems to fizzle out all too quickly), they’d have had no trouble finding six victims there, why the relentless pursuit, Michael Myers style, of Nick, Elizabeth and Stevie? I understand that the final payoff had to be Father Malone as the direct ancestor of one of the original conspirators but it took a huge leap of faith, if you’ll pardon the expression.

Any themes?

Carpenter has made a film about paying the consequences of former wrongs, perhaps an attack on some of the wrongs committed by some of America’s forefathers? Here we have a township, Antonio Bay, created as a consequence of a massive wrong, the effective murder of a leper colony who wanted to live alongside them. To compound that, they then took their gold and used that wealth to create and enhance their own settlement. Is this an attack on some of the wrongs in America’s past? The actions of some of the early European explorers who persecuted and committed genocide of the native Americans to pave the way for the America we know today.

It’s also about the ancestors of those who committed the atrocity being forced to confront their own guilt, the outlet for that being Father Malone and his own personal cross to bear…so to speak. It also shows how monuments are created to overshadow and airbrush such moments in history. Here the procession and celebration of the birth of their town is something to be celebrated and their founders considered great men. But as Father Malone says “This celebration is a travesty…we’re honouring murderers”.

Many ghost stories, particularly those we have seen over recent years that come from the Far East, feature vengeful ghosts who return via a recognisable yet mysterious means, be it a cursed tape, electrical pulses or, in Carpenter’s film, a mysterious and unearthly fog which, as we know from the diary that Father Malone discovers, aided the forefathers in their treacherous plan. By tapping into that fear of the unknown, in this case what could be in the fog, guilt of a wrong left unresolved and not dealing with those consequences, Carpenter creates a ghost story that we can all relate to.

Release history

There have never been any censorship issues with this film with little to know blood or gore, no hint of a director’s cut and a multitude of VHS and DVD releases, including a fine 2 disc release with a wealth of bonus material. It is crying out for a decent blu-ray release in the UK, something akin to Scream Factory’s release so come on Arrow…see if you can thrash out a deal!!! I’d love to see the murky depths of The Fog in all of its atmospheric glory!

Cultural Impact

It’s a shame that it’s rarely regarded as prominent on Carpenter’s CV despite sitting very nicely within his golden period. Perhaps that’s the problem…we all like a good burger but when it’s a choice between that and a nice juicy steak there’s a preference for the latter. In most other directors’ body if work it would be a standout.

It is notable for being the only film starring scream queens Jamie Leigh Curtis and her mother Janet Leigh together (yes, they are both in ‘Halloween H2O’ but for Janet it was very much a cameo) and you have to give Carpenter and the distributers a great deal of credit for not making that a focal point of the film.

One disappointing legacy is the 2005 remake. It’s reasonably well know that ‘The Fog’, for all its good points, is not one of Carpenter’s personal favourites. In fact it was his frustration that he could have done better which led to him agreeing to allow the remake in the first place, that with the level of technical achievement possible, a better job could be done. How wrong he was and the remake just goes to highlight what a great job Carpenter did. With the possible exception of ‘A Nightmare on Elm Street’ it has to go down as the most anaemic and fright-free entry to the glut of remakes that have poisoned the silver screen lately. If you take only one thig from this blog then please, let it be that you will never go near the remake!

Final thoughts

Carpenter once again showed himself to be a master of carving out unbearable tension and atmospherics on a low budget, this time within a ghost story setting rather than a slasher, sci-fi or siege movie. It’s a point for fans to argue over precisely where this film stands in his body of work, many considering it a secondary masterpiece that sits alongside ‘Escape From New York’, ‘Assault on Precinct 13’ and ‘Prince of Darkness’, slightly below his classic features ‘Halloween’, ‘They Live’ and ‘The Thing’. It shows just what a great director Carpenter was, and probably still could be, that you can talk about so many great films there in one sentence and still miss out some genuine fan favourites. ‘The Fog’ may not be his best film but if you were channel hopping and you came across a late night screening, well, you’d watch it to the end wouldn’t you!

Memorable Quotes

Father Malone: “The celebration tonight is a travesty, we’re honouring murderers.”

Stevie Wayne: “I don’t know what happened to Antonio Bay tonight, something came out of the fog and tried to destroy us. In one moment it vanished. But if this has been anything but a nightmare, and if we don’t wake up safe inn our beds, it could come again.”

Father Malone (reading from the diary): “We were aided by an unearthly fog that rolled in, as if heaven sent, although God had no part in our actions tonight.”

Mr Machen: “When the fog returns to Antonio Bay, the men at the bottom of the sea, out in the water by Spivey Point, will rise up and search for the campfire that led them to their dark, icy death.”

You’ll like this if you enjoyed…

‘The Mist’, ‘Awakenings’, ‘The Others’, ‘The Thing’