The Fog (1980) - film review

Antonio Bay, a small Californian fishing town, is about to mark its one hundredth anniversary.  On the eve of the centennial celebrations, the town’s pastor, Father Malone, finds an old diary in which he uncovers a terrible secret.  One hundred years ago, Malone’s grandfather conspired with five other men to sink a passing ship so that they could plunder the gold it was carrying.  The ship’s crew were lepers who were planning to establish a colony further up the coast.   At midnight, an eerie glowing fog rolls in from the sea and envelops a trawler ship.  The three fishermen aboard are attacked and mercilessly slain by ghostly apparitions.  Three deaths are not enough.  The fog must claim three more victims before the ancient debt is settled...

Although it is something of a horror potpourri - picking and mixing elements from zombie, ghost and slasher movies - The Fog sustains its aura of menace and dread anticipation brilliantly and stands as one of John Carpenter’s slickest and darkest horror offerings.  Having scored a notable success with Halloween (1978), Carpenter was under great pressure to deliver an equally effective horror film whilst avoiding the trap that has claimed many directors of the genre, which is simply to repeat what went before.  With its depiction of a small close-knit community under threat from evil murderous intent,  The Fog certainly evokes something of the sinister, doom-laden atmosphere of Halloween, and offers just as many visceral shocks, but it is more a ghost story in the M.R. James tradition - a spine-chilling supernatural fantasy in a present day setting.

Unlike Halloween, which won instant approval, The Fog was not universally well received on its first release and has taken almost two decades to achieve its present status as a minor classic of the horror genre.  Admittedly, the film does have one or two flaws - the design of the ghostly killers (complete with silly red demonic eyes) is amateurish and the ending feels needlessly rushed.  But when you consider how effectively The Fog builds the tension to its dramatic climax, how brutally horrific are the killings (the spectator imagines far more than he is actually shown) and how masterfully Carpenter makes the fantastic appear plausible, you can easily see why it is so well regarded today.  The casting of Janet Leigh as a potential slasher victim (alongside her daughter Jamie Lee Curtis) is an inspired touch - her famous carve-up in Hitchcock’s Psycho (1960) is after all what set the gore-drenched ball rolling.  Forget the inexecrably bad 2005 remake.  If you want to be afraid, really afraid, stick with original.   As the eerily glowing bank of fog rolls in from the sea and surges inland in search of victims, you can almost feel the icy coldness of its touch on your skin.  You will then discover the meaning of the word nebulaphobia...

© Steve Chandler 2010

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