Fog, The (1980)

... aka: Der Nebel des Grauens (The Fog of Horror)

... aka: John Carpenter's The Fog

I've never been as enamored with this film as a lot of other people and always felt it was middling, forgettable Carpenter, especially as it's sandwiched between two of his very best genre films: Halloween (long overdue for a proper review here... maybe later this month!) and THE THING (1982). Then again, I should also point out that prior to this current viewing, I'd just seen this film twice before; once in high school and once in college. While I never hated or even disliked it, I was mostly left feeling indifferent after each viewing and never really had any desire to make it part of my annual film rotation. Seeing how this film's stock has risen somewhat in recent years (the ratings are more often than not positive - if not glowing - on genre sites and blogs), I figured it was about time for a reevaluation. Sad to say, after this re-watch my opinion remains exactly the same.

Things start out promisingly with the premise and tone established right out of the gate by the pre-credits sequence, which features John Houseman as a elder seaman telling a group of scared children ghost stories at a beach side campfire late one night. According to local legend, a hundred years earlier, a clipper ship called the Elizabeth Dane was traveling through uncommonly dense fog and, drawn inland by a campfire, crashed against the rocks in Antonio Bay. The ship was broken in two, sank and the six men onboard all died. Ever since, fishermen in the area have passed down this tale; adding a spooky epilogue... Supposedly, when the same thick, luminous fog returns on the 100 year anniversary of the crash, the dead men will return to get their revenge. Revenge for what, you say? Well, we will soon find out.

As the 100th anniversary approaches, the small, Northern California coastal town is rocked by bizarre, supernatural-tinged events. Bottles in a store start ratting and falling off shelves as if there's a minor earthquake going on. At a service station, lights and a hydraulic lift come on all by themselves and the alarm systems on cars all simultaneously go off. TVs switch on, chairs move across floors, car windshields bust out and a thick blanket of fog going against wind patterns slowly approaches the area. All are harbingers of bad things to come. Out at sea, a small fishing boat called the Sea Grass runs afoul of a larger ghost ship. All three men on board are slaughtered by shrouded phantoms brandishing swords and hooks. The ghosts will then make their way to Antonio Bay, just in time for their centennial celebration.

At a local church, Father Malone (Hal Holbrook) locates a journal from his grandfather hidden behind the rock walls, which was written in 1880 and gives a little insight into the area and the history of the Elizabeth Dane. Instead of the tale that's been told around town, the ship was actually intentionally sunk by townspeople because it had lepers on board who wanted to start their own colony nearby. As Father Malone aptly points out, that makes the entire celebration extremely inappropriate. Kinda like Columbus Day. Nevertheless, harried busybody Kathy Williams (Janet Leigh), who's in charge of putting together the celebration, plots to carry on as if nothing is wrong.

Top-billed Adrienne Barbeau (then married to the director) is Stevie Wayne, a sultry-voiced radio station owner / DJ who works out of a secluded lighthouse and is also a widowed single mother to young Andy (Ty Mitchell). After having a spooky encounter with a piece of leaky driftwood, she tries to warn locals about the fog over the radio (kind of hard to do when the power is out) and finally gets chased all the way up to the lighthouse roof when the ghosts come after her. Acting-wise, Barbeau makes a very good impression here as our heroine. On a more shallow note, I wish she'd kept this same hairstyle throughout the 80s instead of that afro-perm thing she switched to soon after this and kept for the rest of the decade.

A parallel thread follows Nick Castle (Tom Atkins), a fisherman who typically works on the Sea Grass and is investigating the disappearance of his colleagues. He teams up with free-spirited hitchhiker / artist Elizabeth, who's played by Jamie Lee Curtis right in the middle of her late 70s / early 80s Scream Queen run. While there is nothing wrong with her acting, Curtis feels underutilized and is basically just tagging along for the ride. It's also disappointing that she's in the same film as real-life mother Leigh and the two barely even interact with one another! I'd say this is probably the worst role Curtis had in her first string of genre films, though certainly not the worst movie she was in. Fellow Halloween vets Nancy Loomis and Charles Cyphers are both also here as, respectively, Kathy's assistant and Stevie's weatherman colleague. They're given even less to do than Curtis.

Great locations and vistas. Great widescreen photography from Dean Cundey. Great atmosphere. Great cast. Great score by Carpenter (with "electronic realization" by Dan Wyman). Great idea to keep the ghosts (sometimes seen with red, glowing eyes) mostly shrouded in fog and never fully seen. However, none of the above is fully able to overcome an extremely uneven (and usually bland) script. Frequent cross-cutting hampers the tension, a number of supporting characters feel unnecessary and this is very thinly and routinely plotted, lacking in surprise and more than a bit clumsy in regards to the narrative. And there may be a good reason why...

After shooting was completed, Carpenter was dissatisfied with the first edit and then went back and filmed brand new scenes to splice into the film. About 30 percent of the released film is comprised of this new footage and it appears some crucial establishing scenes and dialogue were lost along the way. Here, characters seem to know things they not only weren't around to witness but also things that were never once relayed to them by another character. A good example of this is that we're told that if the ghosts don't get their golden cross back, they'll claim six victims. Though three fishermen were killed, no one even sees the fourth and fifth victims killed and then, at the very end, the priest character notes the ghosts have only killed five of their six proposed victims. Huh?

Tommy Lee Wallace, the production manager and editor, also plays one of the ghosts, as does Rob Bottin, who was in charge of the (barely seen) make-up effects. The cast includes John F. Goff, James Canning and George 'Buck' Flower as victims, Darwin Joston (Assault on Precinct 13) as a doctor and Carpenter himself in an uncredited cameo. This was Carpenter's second collaboration with producer / co-writer Debra Hill after Halloween. The two would work together on numerous other films and also co-produced (the God awful) 2005 remake of this film.

Made on a budget of a million dollars, Avco Embassy spent three times that amount on advertising, which paid off as the film grossed over 20 million in North American theaters. While that pales in comparison to the director's prior genre hit (and also pales in comparison to the same year's FRIDAY THE 13TH, which grossed nearly double that on an even-smaller budget), this was actually Carpenter's second most financially successful genre film; behind only Halloween.