The Fog [Blu-ray] [2018]

I grew up seeing this movie on shelves the tape stores but only watched it for the first time last year. What a treat! It has just the right amount of Carpenter slasher action, but a most of it is slow and creepy with a great spooky atmosphere. A lot of moving silhouettes, living mist and dark shadows. Very fun. Supposedly he was inspired by old Universal monster - esque horror movies, and for those familiar with the classics, you can see it in this movie. There are also moments where you can see his style from ‘Christine’. The music in this, written by Carpenter himself (of course), is my favorite of his films. The original ‘the shape’ from ‘Halloween’ is one of the sailor ghosts in this, too… which is great fun! The ending was satisfying too. If you’ve seen it, you’ll know what I mean. One of my favorites!The disc itself came in the condition as shown in the photos… simple blu ray box. Nothing special. Fun cover art, even though I prefer the original from the movie poster featuring Jamie Lee Curtis.

Cool movie at a great price. A classic??? No..., but I loved it!

Ok, for some strange reason I like this movie. Even though The Fog had a relatively small budget of around 900,000 that was increased to about 1.2 million after some additional shots and alterations, I think it turned out ok. John Carpenter directed, his former girlfriend Debra Hill (sadly died of cancer in 05) produced it. Carpenter was riding the wave from his movie Halloween (done in collaboration with Hill) which had a ridiculously low budget of 300,000 but turned into a cult classic and reaped somewhere around 50 million which brought him and Hill notoriety and some breathing room in the movie world. The Fog wasn't the financial killer that Halloween turned out to be but it did ok at the box office. The Fog is about a town called Antonio Bay that was founded one hundred years in the past by some unscrupulous town fathers that tricked a ship full of leppers and their rich benefactor to their demise. The treachery was aided by a fog which came out of nowhere. The cast included Janet Leigh, Jamie Lee Curtiss, Tom Atkins, Adrienne Barbeau, John Houseman and Hal Holbrook. I really liked Hal Holbrook's performance as Father Malone the slightly alcoholic town priest and descendant of one of the original conspirators. Mayhem ensues as the fog rolls into town on its 100th anniversary and starts picking off the descendants of the six original conspirators. Carpenters new wife at the time Adrienne Barbeau plays Stevie Wayne the local radio dj. I liked the movie cause it had a simple but effective story line. It was well casted and not overacted by the actors. The special effects were minimal, the locations and sets were not lavish but they got the job done. The blu-ray has lots of cast commentary and a relatively new interview with Jamie Lee Curtiss from 2013. She states that she doesn't think too much of this movie but was very happy to have done it and appreciates the work Carpenter and Hill gave her. There's even a section in the features that goes to the movie locations to see what they look like now. Debra Hill produced a not very good remake (sorry Deb) of The Fog in 2005 but sadly didn't live long after that. To me the blu-ray of The Fog was worth the price.

I love the way The Fog is made. It is not one of Carpenter's best films, The Thing is problaly that one, but it is a very professionally done film. Time out, most films are professionally done, I mean the way Carpenter uses music, story, and editing is exeptional in this film. The Fog was not very popular film when it came out, but the public was expecting gore and killers from the man who made Halloween. The Fog is just a ghost story, It use stock characters, stock plot devices, and uses the most common of story lines[coming back from the dead for revenge].That is why critics of the day hated this movie. They said it was not original, just a rehash.I teach fillm studies at my high school and I use The Fog as example of technical film making at its best. This where The Fog shines. There are only two ways a movie can maniputlate the audience, sight and sound. Carpenter uses these two senses ways that make one scream and jump even though we know what will happen next.The openning is good example of setting up the audience. The camp fire and the telling of a ghost story puts us in a comfortable space where we are willing to belive the following story. Carpenter uses kids huddled around a campfire listening to an old man to begin to make us nervous. We know the basics of the old man's story because we have heard it many times before, but.....we still find ourselves getting caught up in it.Carpenter uses old ladies, children. and beautiful women in danger to makes us squirm in our seats. Carpenter never really shows the ghost and lets our imagination create far more scarier creatures. If you are looking for blood and violence they are here but not shown. No that is a movie trick that is far harder to do, lead you up to the blood and the gore and stop, letting your mind finish it.However for me, it is Carpenter's use of music that I find the most interesting. Carpenter, for the most part, wrote his own music for his films. Now remember I stated that sight and sound are the two ways to manipulate a person with film. Carpenter here uses up to 3or 4 "music" sound tracks. One track is the music which is usually only 4 or 5 note melody played over and over AND slightlly out of tune enough to bother the ear. There will be another track of one continous sound low in the background to kee[ our ear out of balance. Then there will be a third or fourth track where there will be a loud repeating sound for a short time. Put all of these together and the viewer never gets comfortable.Finally there is the "gotta ya" scene. In The Fog there is a scene in boat and another one at the doctor's office where the viewer says to himselves the body will come out and scare them. You know it will happen and you wait for it and you say now, now, now and it doesn't happen. The you start to relax and bang gotta ya! The Fog,if one will watch for it is a technical fillm making, will be reward, or hell just watch and jump.