The Fog
Premise – 3/5
John Carpenter, fresh off the surprising-to-everyone success of “Halloween,” suddenly became the king of cool indy horror film creators. I don’t know who else was in the running, but it’s obvious who the winner is, and has been for the last almost 25 years. I may not have seen all his movies, but he’s left an imprint that you just can’t escape in the world of horror flicks.
You know this can't be good for anyone. Looks pretty badass, though, doesn't it?
So, this here’s Carpenter’s fourth movie, and the copyright tells me it, too, was made in 1979, though it probably wasn’t released until 1980. Looks like he cooked this up almost right after the first Halloween, and again it’s got Jamie Lee Curtis in it. But, the coolest thing about this movie is that it’s not trying to be “Halloween, again.” It’s got far more in common with old ghost stories than the slasher genre. It’s kind of like M.R. James with a bodycount. And it’s damn solid for that, too.
I’m not spoiling anything that watching the first five minutes of the movie wouldn’t tell you anyways, so here’s the story: one hundred years ago, there was a leper colony offshore of Antonio Bay (the California town which is the setting for the movie). Somehow, one of the lepers by the name of Blake had a bit of a fortune, and he had been wheeling and dealing with the local priest whereby the lepers would get a spot on the mainland a mile north of town, in return, Blake would part with a good chunk of his fortune to rebuild the church, revitalize the town, and help it get recognized and officially chartered. As keen as the prominent locals are to get at Blake’s fortune and buy some prestige, they’re noticeably less keen on the idea of these lepers living only a mile north of them. They concoct a plan to lure the leper’s ships off track by dousing the lighthouse and using big bonfires instead, and so the ship breaks up on the rocks, the lepers all drown, and the next day the conniving townsfolk dive in to get the treasure. On the eve of the town’s hundredth birthday, massive bouts of poltergeist-like activity starts occurring all over town, and things go downhill for Antonio Bay from there.
Cast – 3/5
There’s a few top-notch standouts in the ensemble. Janet Leigh does a great job of playing the sympathetic and smart mayor; Jamie Lee Curtis comes in, not as Laurie Strode, but as an almost vagabond hitchiker, trying to make it up to Vancouver where she can sell her art; Adrienne Barbeau plays an apparently single mother who owns the lighthouse and also the local radio station based from it, she’s one of the first to figure out that there’s some very, very bad going on here; and finally, Hal Holbrook (the first to figure out what’s really going on) owns the role of the alcoholic priest, Father Malone—and surprisingly, the “alcoholic priest” isn’t played for laughs, you really feel bad for him and sense there’s a lot of deep sorrow and shame under the surface. There’s also a lot of clunkers in some roles, but they’re not horrible, and usually only play bit parts here and there.
But, here’s also where my biggest complaint comes in. Obviously, Carpenter really liked these characters, and he got good actors and actresses (for the most part) to play in these roles. But, at the end of the day, we really don’t end up knowing much about them, because it seemed as if Carpenter was desparate to make every scene progress the plot, with not much time left for developing the characters. It’s too bad, because there was some definite potential that just about went to waste. However, Jamie Lee Curtis and Adrienne Barbeau were definitely what the kids might call “bootylicious,” so at least there was still that.
Cinematography & Design – 3/5
This is the official “mixed bag” category of this movie. For every beautifully set-up shot, there was a tiny shaky-cam problem. For every brilliant panorama, there was an odd gaffe like in one scene, where a character is walking along a coastal vista, the sea is perfectly still, even, dare I say, photographed. But overall the C&D hit more than they miss, and when you’re working on a tiny budget, that’s a definite plus. There’s a great use of space in almost every shot, and to that end, it’s remarkably well done.
The movie has a veneer of somewhat-leisurely pacing building up to the climax, but you’d be surprised at just how much gets fit into 90 minutes.
Special Effects – 3/5
I think they must have been pretty damn good for the time, and they’re really not all that bad now (especially compared to other, more-recent, low-budget movies—see Howling 7). I’m just not a fan of the biggest and most often used special effect in the film, the fog itself. I know it can’t have been easy getting the sheer volume of fog moving around, and I understand that they were trying to make it look as if it had a life of its own by making it “glow.” The problem is, I think too many times, the way the colored lighting is beamed into the fog just looks stupid. I’ve been to rock concerts with fog machines and cigarette smoke, and I’ve never been scared by the lighting. Unfortunately, this is the same effect I see when they personify the fog, and that makes it just kind of fall flat.
The ghosts, though, look really damn cool, in my opinion. Most of the time they appear only as silhouettes in the fog, and even when they’re standing in a relatively clear area, it’s still very dark, so they’re almost always obscured somehow, and it’s just brilliant. The slow, purposeful stride they walk with, and their ability to suddenly appear out of the fog (without displacing any of it) is done with incredible adeptness. Good, good stuff on the ghosts.
What puzzles me about this movie is the relative bloodlessness of it. Several people, in the course of the film, receive nasty stabbing deaths or other wounds, and we don’t see a drop of red. I wish I could understand that, but the closest I can get to an explanation is that many of those scenes were shot and put into the movie just before its release date, when it wasn’t quite achieving the effect Carpenter intended for the audience. Still, it’s really quite odd.
Popcorn Factor – 3/5
I’m not sure how to rate popcorn factors when piling corpses plays distant second-fiddle to atmosphere, it’s kind of like asking someone to award a popcorn factor to, say, Poe. I’ll tell you what, though, if you’re looking for a horror flick with a well-written script, classic kind of story, and interesting “monster,” this oughta take care of you nice and neat. It may not be as good as Halloween or The Thing, but is still certainly worth checking out if you get a chance. Good choice for a dark autumn night and a change of pace.