The Fog (1980)

Film: The Fog (1980)

Stars: Adrienne Barbeau, Jamie Lee Curtis, John Houseman, Janet Leigh, Hal Holbrook

Director: John Carpenter

Oscar History: No nominations

Snap Judgment Ranking: 3/5 stars

All October long, The Many Rantings of John is running a marathon dedicated to the Horror classics of the 1960's-00's that I'm seeing for the first time this month.  If you want to take a look at past titles from previous horror marathons (both this and other seasons) check out the links at the bottom of this article.

John Carpenter has come up twice before in these horror retrospectives, and in both cases, he kind of knocked it out of the park.  Halloween is a classic of the slasher genre, in many ways it invented the modern slasher genre, but it also is a titillating look at one of the most iconic horror villains.  The Thing is a quintessential alien thriller, one that features great work from Kurt Russell & Keith David, and one of the best endings I've ever seen from a horror movie.  So as I finished off this trilogy of Horror Movies from the 1970's-90's, I needed to find a way to pay homage to my favorite director discovery of the project, and in this case it was a third film that is generally regarded as another horror classic, The Fog.  One of only two movies to unite "scream queens"/mother-and-daughter Janet Leigh & Jamie Lee Curtis, the movie was initially dismissed by critics as middling, but has since been saved by a cult of devotees (horror fans will eventually find quality if it's there), and after watching it-I think the modern critics have it right.  The Fog is a really fun (and spooky) ride.

(Spoilers Ahead) The movie takes place in a California bay community, one where 100 years earlier, a ship crashed on the rocks.  It turns out this was done on purpose, the goal being to kill those onboard, as they were afflicted with leprosy and the town founders didn't want a leper colony nearby.  The centennial has brought a mysterious fog to the town, and with it, the ghostly crew of that ship are coming for revenge.  We alternate as we learn this between a few different locales.  First there's Father Malone (Holbrook), who discovers the revenge plot, and is a descendant of the town founders.  We have Elizabeth Solley (Curtis), who is a hitchhiker just passing through town who comes across the fog by accident.  There's Mayor Kathy Williams (Leigh), who is trying to keep the town safe...while also prioritizing the importance of the centennial celebration.  And best of the bunch is Stevie Wayne (Barbeau), a disc jockey who, from the lighthouse, is in real time trying to help the people of the city from the fog.

This element of the film, Barbeau's disc jockey, is easily the best part of the film and what makes it special.  In a lot of ways The Fog feels akin to the old Orson Welles' War of the Worlds broadcast, as we are hearing warnings to the town in real time.  In an era before smart phones or even cable news, this is a realistic way that people might get the news, and it's chilling because frequently the movie makes a point of Stevie's warnings coming too late, her getting the news after a death or after the fog has moved to another area of the town.  That unreliability (not even the hero can save you) is good movie-making, and something that more horror films should employ without having to underline it (you'd usually see a lot of regret from the hero if they couldn't save someone...here, that's not the case).

The movie isn't as succinct or well-scripted as Halloween or The Thing.  The film isn't entirely logical, particularly muddling the reasons for the fog itself and the revenge plot feels convoluted, but if you look past that, Carpenter makes it genuinely creepy.  One of the realities that three years of doing this has taught me is that horror movies aren't always scary (this month there's maybe 1-2 that have actually had me nervous in the way, say, The Blair Witch Project did the first time I saw it), but The Fog has true elements of horror, particularly a late killing that feels like a nasty coda to the film, and the way that it plays with the mistakes we make when we panic.

1920's: The Golem, The Phantom of the Opera

1930's: The Black Cat, The Bride of Frankenstein, Dracula, Dracula's Daughter, Frankenstein, Freaks, The Invisible Man, Mad Love, The Mummy, The Old Dark House, The Raven, Son of Frankenstein, Werewolf of London

1940's: Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, Cat People, Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man, House of Dracula, The House of Frankenstein, The Invisible Man Returns, The Invisible Man's Revenge, The Invisible Woman, The Ghost of Frankenstein, Invisible Agent, The Mummy's Curse, The Mummy's Ghost, The Mummy's Hand, The Mummy's Tomb, Phantom of the Opera, She-Wolf of London, Son of Dracula, The Uninvited, The Wolf Man

1950's: Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man, Abbott & Costello Meet the Mummy, Attack of the 50-Foot Woman, The Blob, Creature from the Black Lagoon, The Creature Walks Among Us, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, It Came from Outer Space, Revenge of the Creature

1960's: The Devil Rides Out, The Innocents, The Masque of the Red Death, Night of the Living Dead,Village of the Damned

1970's: The Amityville Horror, Black Christmas, Carrie, Dawn of the Dead, Don't Look Now, Halloween, The Hills Have Eyes, The Omen, Phantom of the Paradise, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, When a Stranger Calls, The Wicker Man

1980's: Altered States, Child's Play, The Evil Dead, The Fly, Friday the 13th, Gremlins, Hellraiser, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Poltergeist, The Thing

1990's-Present: Arachnophobia, The Blair Witch Project, Bram Stoker's Dracula, Candyman, I Know What You Did Last Summer, Paranormal Activity, Scary Movie, Scream