Review

The seaside community of Antonio Bay is about to celebrate the centennial of its foundation. Unfortunately a dark secret rests uneasy in the town’s pass and it’s about to get a hell of a lot more active. DJ Stevie Wayne from her isolated lighthouse radio station reports on a strange glowing fog bank rolling in from the sea, but it doesn’t help the crew of the fishing boat “The Seagrass”. Stevie will be “our eye in the sky” the following night when the fog really hits the fan, and is about as useless as she was on the opening night truth be told.

A group of survivors will hole up in a church just outside the township, and they will uncover the truth about a leper colony, the shipwrecked Elizabeth Dane, and the revenge seeking Blake and crew. An intense, often times moody movie ensues. Ready to melt down some gold?

At it’s heart The Fog is simply a kick arse ghost story with some background layered on to give the story some depth. John Carpenter informs us of this right from the get go where he has a crusty old seadog telling a group of kids ghost stories around a campfire. And yes we just have time for one more story, roll the fog machine, and let’s get down and dirty.

The Fog was made over two decades ago and helps to point out where horror has gone off the rails recently via mucho CGI and crap Directors. Carpenter goes for simple scare tactics, and they work a hell of a lot better than the overly choreographed schlock being dished up recently. You want atmosphere, JC is pounding that puppy with a mullet, you want “don’t open the door” moments, you’ll get it in spades. The Director is on fire with this movie and doesn’t miss a trick in sending that chill up your spine. Something as simple as a piece of driftwood dripping water becomes sinister in the hands of John Carpenter. The Fog was Carpenter’s follow up to the critically acclaimed Halloween, and with his fog bound zombies the Director shows he knows exactly what tiger he has by the tail.

At the basic level a good ghost story, whether visualized or written, should do three things well. Firstly there has to be a mystery from the past that will come back to haunt anyone at hand in the present. During the movie Carpenter has the audience along with his major characters unraveling the past as The Fog seeps onto the screen. Secondly there should be an otherworldly almost surreal atmosphere to the work in question. The Director achieves this by his use of a fog as almost a physical character. And finally a good ghost story should unnerve the audience before delivering some knock out punches. Depending on your ability to suspend belief and get that imagination flowing, Carpenter while not delivering a knock out blow will slip a right under your defenses.

John Carpenter delivers one hell of a ghost story that will have you handing the sharp implements to the spectres in your house.

Carpenter pitches this movie at a slow pace. The build up is almost glacial in execution, while throwing in the obligatory early beeps on your horror radar. It’s all about atmosphere and foreboding, Carpenter will get to the good bits late in the movie but is taking his time getting there. Throughout the movie Carpenter has characters isolated in wind swept locations adding to your feeling of unease. Whether this is Stevie at her lighthouse radio station, the Priest going steadily downhill in the out of town church, or indeed Stevie’s son fishing on a deserted beach. It all adds up to a pretty enticing entrée. You are primed for the main course and Carpenter unleashes this via the fog to devastating effect. If you can’t get behind Carpenter’s protagonists during the final act then you really shouldn’t be dialing into horror, try something by Eli Roth instead. This is horror movie making at it’s best, and Carpenter is delivering like the master he is.

Naturally I had a couple of issues with this fog bank hence why we don’t have a 10 out of 10 on the rating. After an hour and ten minutes of build up Carpenter faulted somewhat on the delivery stride as he aimed to send a bouncer at my head. Revenge seeking zombies, hell yes, but where was the out right devastation to support actors? The fog bound ghosts seemed more mildly pissed off than out right angry at their fate. What was with Blake just wanting his gold back? Okay taking into account the uncivil dead wanted six victims to atone for “the sins of the fathers” the actual victims seem pretty hit and miss on the selection side of the hook with a single exception. Speaking of that exception, one hell of a plot hole right there, Carpenter needed to flesh that one out slightly. Sorry for being obtuse but not wanting to give away spoilers over here. If you can’t pick the plot hole, then post up on the forums and I’ll happily provide the details.

The other aspect to the movie that didn’t have me jumping up and down on the sofa with delight was the character of Elizabeth Solley. Why the hell this character was in the movie at all was beyond me, though it’s always a pleasure to see Jamie Lee in a genre flick. Liz implausibly nails Nick and then follows him around for the rest of the movie, say what? Unnecessary character and Carpenter does exactly zero with adding anything there. Padding out running time came to mind, and I was hoping Liz would be our doubting Scully to every other character’s Mulder like belief in what was going down.

For those who like to nit pick there’s a classic scene in The Fog that just has to be mentioned as it’s high on the unintentional humor stakes. Nick goes for the phone to call in reinforcements or something, and the fog awake to his wily plan naturally shorts the phone lines out. That’s funny enough in itself in a sort of trite development way, but even better is the fact that the “phone lines” are clearly power cables. Got to love that sort of thing in a movie, sorry for bringing it up Mr. Carpenter.

Top billing in the movie went to Adrienne Barbeau (Stevie) who delivers a pretty good performance. Notably Adrienne has one scene with her son, a couple of phone conversations, and then is on her own for the rest of the movie. Ms Barbeau delivers on her screen time. Jamie Lee Curtis (Elizabeth) is always a nice touch to a horror flick, and although her character is surplus to requirements here, Jamie Lee nails it. Tom Atkins (Nick) gets in amongst the gals, and the dude is watchable in about anything he does. The original scream queen and Jamie Lee’s mom Janet Leigh (Kathy Williams) delivers yet another professional outing, and deserves to bank her pay cheque.

On a slight down note Nancy Kyes (Sandy Fadel) was forcing it somewhat, and didn’t help her rep here following a stellar performance in Carpenter’s Halloween.

A couple of cameos of note, JC himself gets an early scene, and Dan O'Bannon pops up unexpectedly and shows he can not only write and direct, but is pretty good in front of the camera as well.

Tie me up tie me down, T&A must have got obscured by the fog or Carpenter didn’t include any that I can remember. Sorry gals nary a boob in sight anywhere in this movie. In one scene Jamie Lee keeps her modesty intact via the strategic use of a blanket. Woo, cross off number 57 of the 101 terms I want to use in movie reviews. “Modesty intact” done and dusted. Editors simply love me kids, it keeps them well employed.

As usual John Carpenter delivered his own score for The Fog. Quite the experience with Carpenter again layering on the simple developments, eerie atmosphere, and generally putting one out of the ballpark. Well worth dialing into, Carpenter has the knock of amping things up via the soundtrack.

I’m right partial to a John Carpenter flick, and the big fella didn’t disappoint me with The Fog. A good story line, stunning atmosphere, and outright tension had me happier than Michael Myers discovering a long lost family member. I found a couple of issues with the movie, but they weren’t enough to have me throwing empty tinnies at the screen at any stage. In terms of John Carpenter’s filmography I would place The Fog just behind the big three of Halloween, Prince of Darkness, and In the Mouth of Madness.

For the purposes of this review I watched the R4 triple Carpenter release pack containing The Fog, Village of the Damned (totally underrated in my opinion), and . Unfortunately the package wasn’t exactly jammed pack with special features, but with three Carpenter movies for around $20 is good value. The Fog is also available as a single release package from most online stores, and if wanting lots of extra goodness go with that release for around $14.

Full recommendation on The Fog for readers who like classic slow moving ghost stories rather than fifty frame a second rampages. While not as good as say The Changeling, Carpenter proves in his movie he can tell a good campfire yarn that will keep your interest. There’s always time for another story at midnight, let Carpenter enshroud you with his Fog.