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After Halloween went on to become a smash hit, John Carpenter became a hot commodity. To capitalize on his success, AVCO Embassy Pictures signed him to a two picture deal. The first film, which is the one that is being reviewed, was 1980 horror movie, The Fog… the other one was the always awesome, Escape from New York (which is going to be reviewed later on down the road).

In the film, the small fishing town of Antonio Bay is about to celebrate its centennial. But on this joyous of days, a mysterious glowing fog rolls through the town; bringing with it some unexplainable events like windows being blown out, car alarms going off for no reason and some murders. As it turns out, these unexplainable events are occurring because the town’s founding fathers tainted the souls of a wealthy man named Blake and the lepers on his ship, the Elizabeth Dane, by tricking them into crashing into some rocks. The ship sinks and kills every person on board. To add to the bullshit, the founding fathers even stole Blake’s gold and it was with this gold that the town was able to establish itself. So, essentially, The Fog is a ghost story/revenge flick.

This is a very odd little movie that suffers from some various problems. One of the oddest problems with the movie is that it appears to start right in the middle of the movie. Instead of having some form of build up, the movie just gets right into the strange occurrences and lasts for the remainder of the 90 minute movie. It’s odd because it’s actually pretty decently written; it’s just that it feels like it’s only two-thirds of a story.

The acting also hurts the movie; which is surprising in itself because boasts a great cast. The movie features people like Adrienne Barbeau, Jamie Lee Curtis (who was just coming off of the success of Halloween), Janet Leigh (Jamie Lee Curtis’ mother), John Houseman, Hal Holbrook and Tom Atkins. Usually, every one in the cast are solid actors, but, for some reason, in this movie they decided to half-ass their performances. In some cases, the performances are laughable; and that’s just something you don’t want in a movie that is attempting to be serious.

The last problem is that The Fog just isn’t scary. Most of the jump scares in the movie are predictable… but then there are the few that are hilarious. Why are these moments hilarious? Well, it could be because the ghosts actually knock on the person’s door and wait for them to answer it before they kill them. Who knew there were murderous ghosts that are polite in the world?

The Fog isn’t my favorite John Carpenter film; hell, it isn’t even his favorite film, but that isn’t saying that the movie isn’t entertaining. The movie has its flaws, but it does have some redeeming qualities to it… and no matter what, it’s still 100 times better than that piece of shit remake that was released back in 2005.

Final Synopsis: This isn’t Carpenter’s best film, but it is still pretty entertaining. Give it a rent.

Points Lost: -1 for feeling like we were just tossed into the middle of the story, -1 for half-assed performances from a solid cast, -1 for the jump scares not being scary, -1 for a being a horror film that is actually funny instead of scary.

Lesson Learned: Some killer ghosts are polite enough to knock before they kill you.

Burning Question: How come the ghosts have to wait for some people to answer the door, but they can materialize in the church at the end of the movie?

John Carpenter’s The Fog
6/10

Tags: 1980, adrienne barbeau, ghost story, hal holbrook, horror, jamie lee curtis, janet leigh, john carpenter, John Houseman, latest movie reviews, recent3, revenge, tom atkins