The Fog (1980) - Retrospective / Review

11:55 almost midnight enough time for one more story one more story before twelve I'm hidin ID in the kab lighthouse on Spivey point and in case you've forgotten it's April 21st and a happy birthday for Eddie and there's a celebration Blandford tonight so if you're so excited about you can't sleep well stay up with me and I'll figure out some way to keep you occupied hello baby hi Dan what have you got you want something to talk about I've got a position on a trawler about 15 miles out seagrass and I've got something on my scope appears to be a fog bank that's about 25 miles up moving in their direction I have something to show you hey there's a boat back out there April 20 the six of us met tonight from midnight until one o'clock we planned the death of Blake his comrades please I tell myself that Blake's gold will allow the church to be built and our small settlement to become a Township but it does not soothe the Hara that I feel being an accomplice to murder someone's at the front door sweetheart playing a stupid joke Dan stay away from the door her celebration tonight is travesty fog is sweeping inland Antonio Bay has a cursor yeah my god damn them all the fog arrived in the United States on the 1st of February 1980 and made its way to the UK nine months later on the 6th of November produce on a very small budget of just over 1 million dollars it proved a financial success making 21 million in the USA alone and a further 7.2 million on rentals when it arrived on home video despite a strong box office the film didn't prove successful with critics many were mixed on his qualities and John Carpenter felt it was one of his weaker efforts over the years it started to gain more attention from film lovers and critics who reevaluated it and found many qualities people overlooked at the time which further cemented it as a cult favorite 1978 John Carpenter was now a big name in Hollywood the success of Halloween made him a hot property Halloween was produced for 325 thousand dollars and made 70 million making it one of the most successful independent movies ever made john was offered a to picture deal with the independent distributor fqo embassy Pictures which gave him creative control and allowed him to have his name about the film's title the two movies would be the fog and escape from New York how the foal came about was when John and his producing partner Deborah Hill were on a trip to England where they were promoting assault on precinct 13 they were at Stonehenge enjoying some vacation time and John looked into the distance to see an eerie fog approaching he in Deborah felt their next film should be a ghostly revenge tale going with something classic instead of following up Halloween with another gory slasher film John enjoyed reading comics such as tales on the Crypt which had these zombies rising from the grave to seek revenge this would serve as the evil that lurks in the fog the events of Blake and his ship crash against the rocks and having his gold plundered was in part inspired by true events on the 19th century when a ship was deliberately sunk and plundered in galleta California all of the production crew from Halloween came to work on the fog and filming started in April 1979 using many locations around California in Bolinas Inverness and Sierra Madre the initial shooting finished a month later after they had finished filming the initial script carpenter viewed a rough cut of the movie and thought it was terrible he felt the film didn't work at all it had a runtime of about 18 minutes which was far too short for what he wanted many scenes had no payoff loads of build-up to essentially nothing the scenes didn't flow together making transitions seeming awkward he decided then to add more to make the film more comprehensible more frightening and gorya carpenter said the necessary reshoots became especially clear to them after they realized that the fog would have to compete with horror films that had a high level of gore they spent an additional month shooting the extra scenes the scenes John included was expanding the beginning by shooting shots of the town being affected by paranormal activity which really helped build up the atmosphere after the opening ghost story when the Pirates attacked for the first time they included more close-ups of them attacking the crew and shots of them looming on the ship to create some tension they included an extra scene of a pirate making an attempt to attack Tom Atkins at his house when Tom and Jamie investigate the ship in search for the missing crew they included interior shots the hospital scene was added and Adrianna getting attacked at a radio station and having a climb on the roof was included to increase the horror many of the characters in the folk take their names from many of John Carpenter's friends for example writers Nick Cassell and Dan O'Bannon and editor and director Tommy Wallace the cast of the fog we have Adrianna Bobo as Stevie Wayne this was Adriana's first feature film her character owns the popular radio station which is located at the lighthouse where she tortures her listeners with some awful jazz music at the time Adrianna had just married John Carpenter to avoid the crew thinking he would show favoritism special treatment towards her they decided they would share separate hotels John had just separated from producer Deborah Hill and the crew were good friends with both of them and it made it a little difficult for some not to get upset Tom Atkins plays Nick Cassell a resident of the town and picks up hitchhiker Elizabeth on the night of the paranormal events they become close very quickly and investigate the disappearance of the ship that went missing the night before when a large bulk bank arrived near the coast the fog was Atkins first appearance on a carpenter film he would also go on to appear in carpenters next movie Escape from New York and Halloween 3 season of the witch which was produced and scored by carpenter veteran actor Hal Holbrook plays father Malone who discovers a secret curse on the town and how it was funded by plundering a ship of his gold as the curse unfolds he realizes the fog has returned to kill the six conspirators who plotted against Blake and his men Jamie Lee Curtis who at the time was known as the scream queen plays Elizabeth her character is hitchhiking and is picked up by Nick Castle she surprisingly falls for him and sleeps with him very quickly and she tags along with him in his investigation Jamie Lee hadn't done much after Halloween and John Carpenter felt bad and wrote the character of Elizabeth for her despite not being the lead she was used to promote the fault with its advertising Jamie Lee Curtis tried to distance herself from the horror genre in the early 80s and got a career boost in 1983 with Trading Places later in life she didn't really think much of the film she was surprised it had a following because she also liked John didn't think it was a good film Janet Lee plays Kathy Williams who was organizing the celebrations and is informed by Father Malone about the town's past and tries to keep calm with what is going on and goes ahead with a celebration despite being at odds with the event Janet is the real mother or Jamie Lee Curtis Nancy Loomis who also starred in Halloween with Jamie but also turned up an assault on precinct 13 play sandy she appears to be the assistant of Kathy Williams who was organizing Antonio Bay's celebrations Nancy's one the first to witnessed a spooky activity in the town but she doesn't really take it seriously to be honest I think Nancy looks very bored throughout the film or maybe the character she is trying to create just seems uninterested with everything around her we have Charles ciphers as Dan O'Bannon his captor Dan monitors to weather and keeps Stevie Wayne informed to keep her listeners updated dan has a big crush on Stevie and will make any excuse to talk to her Charles worked on Halloween one and two and escaped from New York we have a few cameos with George buck flowers as Tommy Wallis he and his colleagues become the first victims of the fog George made many appearances in John's films he went on to star an escape from New York star man and they live and Village of the Damned classic actor John Houseman plays the old man at the beginning who tells the children of the town in its history and the ship that crashed against the coast a hundred years ago Darwin Joe Stern who starred in assault on precinct 13 makes a surprise cameo as a doctor who investigates the body at the hospital makeup effects legend a robo teen who also provides to make up for the film plays Blake rob took on the role due to being very tall and the director John Carpenter himself plays Bennett father Malone's assistant the movie opens with a ghostly tale being told of a ship that crashed against the coast of Antonio Bay a hundred years ago at the same time in the town bizarre disturbances start to occur at the stroke of midnight the town's priest father Malone is in his church when a piece of masonry falls from the wall revealing an old journal which he discovers his his grandfather's diary from a century ago meanwhile town resident Nick Castle is driving home and picks up a young hitchhiker named Elizabeth as they drive towards town all the trucks windows suddenly shatter Antonio Bay's DJ Stevie wangus a message about a band of fog coming into the area and is pulling close to three fishermen out at sea she warns them in advance so they can get back safely but one of the fishermen notices a strange glow emanating from the fog the fog approaches and covers the ship and breaks to power causing the lights to go out and the engine to fail the fishermen go on deck and see a giant pirate ship approaching which is the Elizabeth Dane they are suddenly attacked and killed instantly by a group of pirates the next morning Kathy Williams who is overseeing the town's 100-year celebration is informed of the priests findings a Dory left eye's grandfather reveals that in 1886 of the founders of Antonio Bay deliberately sunk and plundered a ship named the Elizabeth Dane a wealthy businessman Blake who was suffering from leprosy owned the ship Blake wanted to establish a leper konley nearby but a thought of them living nearby disgusted the priest and the others wants to ship crashed they stole the gold from the ship and used it to build Antonio Bay in his church father Mallone believes the celebration is a travesty and a curse has been put on the town Stevie Wayne is given a piece of driftwood inscribed with the word Dane that washed up on the beach and was found by her son Andy Stevie tells a need to stay away from the beach and takes a driftwood with her to the lighthouse to prepare for her a radio show she sets two wood down on top of a tape player but the wood begins to seep water causing the tape player to short-out a mysterious man's voice emerges from the tape player swearing revenge and the word six must die appear on the wood before it bursts into flames cv quickly puts out the fire but then sees the wood once again we'd stain and the tape player begins working normally again Nick and Elizabeth find the missing ship and find the corpse of dick Baxter with his eyes gouged out the other two fishermen are still missing while Elizabeth is alone in the autopsy room Baxter's corpse rises from the autopsy table and approaches her as Elizabeth screams Nick and the coroner rush back into the room where they see the corpse lifeless again and has carved the number three on the floor that evening as a town celebrations begin local weatherman Dan called Stevie at the radio station to tell her that another fog bank has appeared and is moving towards the town as they are talking the folk gathers outside Downs office and Dan his a knock at his door Stevie warns him to stay away from the door and she fears the fog is bringing something evil into the town Dan doesn't seem afraid and he answers it and is suddenly slaughtered by a pirate as Stevie listens in horror the fog begins to strengthen as it starts to engulf the town as Blake and his men hunt down the last two remaining descendants the fault doesn't really employ that many visual effects because of its tight budget they try to do all of it within camera and the only effect is the fog which can be easily created with smoke machines a difficult aspect is making it cooperate if you want it to go down a road or move in a particular way it's going to be time-consuming to get the right shots needed sometimes they reverse the film to make the fog achieve what they wanted it to do for the long cinematic vistas or the fog creeping into the town they had to use optical effects to achieve those shots for the shots of the trawler and close-ups of power lines being damaged as the fog passes through they used miniatures and some clever foreground effects for the opening of the film as the camera pans up over the hill to reveal the town nothing spectacular but all the shots work in selling the idea that the fog has taken over Antonio Bay John Carpenter returns to compose the score to his own film he demonstrated his talents on assault on precinct 13 and Halloween creating simple but memorable themes his scores were all taking advantage of synthesizers which in the late 70s and early 80s was very contemporary and was the driving force of pop music especially me UK the main theme does sound a little like John's work on Halloween and the end titles of a familiar tubular bells ring to it the best stuff really in my opinion is the opening act the music is simple and slow but very unnerving I love the cues when the folk charges into the town and Nick and Elizabeth struggled to avoid it it's a very atmospheric score it's well-crafted music to serve the visuals and keeps the sense of mystery and suspense throughout the film if you listen to it by itself it does have some repetition and I found myself skipping some tracks to listen to ones with a bit more character and stronger themes but all the music works wonders for the film but as a separate piece some tracks are more memorable than others and get more play time the school is one of John's better efforts he totally scrapped the original score he wrote for the rough cut and created this new piece to wash out the bad taste of the original edit with the hasty changes he did a fantastic job the score didn't arrive till 1985 when it finally arrived on LP it was later reissued on CD in 1989 and later again in 2005 but with more tracks included the complete score made its way to CD in 2012 and is easy to get hold of and there is also a digital release with the rising popularity of LPS the last couple of years they issued the expanded score on vinyl but in limited numbers and is very expensive to get hold of now as they sold out very quickly it's far easier and affordable to purchase a CD or digital release now before I get to my final opinions on the film let's discuss the remake John Carpenter and Deborah Hill had expressed an interest in remaking the fog and the opportunity arose in 2005 also that year saw the remake of assault on precinct 13 revolution Studios greenlit the production despite the script not being finished and setup the shoot in Canada despite the story sitting on an island off the coast of Oregon it starred Tom Welling who took on the role of Nick Castle he did the film between the shoots of season four of Smallville which was also filmed in Canada making it easier for Tom to put time into both John Carpenter had little involvement in the film and would just walk on set and say hello and walk off he just enjoyed getting a huge paycheck for agreeing to have the film remade Deborah Hill took on a bigger role on the production and the movie sadly was one of her final projects before her death from cancer the same year the film was panned on release and hated by the fans of the original I totally avoided it when it came out because of the reviews and only watched it in preparation for this retrospective the film is loaded with annoying characters selma blair is terrible as Stevie Wayne totally the wrong performance and she just sounds stoned throughout all of the performances from the younger actors just feel like they come from your typical horror film the whole film just seems aimed at teenagers it's very TV like with its execution it's not scary in the slightest as well it's certainly not as good-looking as the original with its photography making use of that grungy green look which I cannot stand it's an overused photographic style that's used in his recent horror films with the 1980 film employing a lot of smoke machines to create the fog the movie just uses CGI even for simple scenes you'd think it will be far more cheaper to employ a smoke machine CGI never makes anything look scary or even slightly creepy what did I like about it well Tom Welling is alright and Graeme Revell score is passable but don't waste your time with it massive stinker if you had to pick one of these remakes of carpenter's classics I'd go with assault on precinct 13 not bad but certainly not amazing but far better than the fog the fog is definitely one of carpenters movies that gets overlooked or you could say is underrated in his catalogue of films I didn't see the fog till maybe 2002 when I picked up these special edition laser discs I knew of it before I bought it but didn't look into it for a while so I saw it going for a cheap price when I was younger I was first made aware of John Carpenter and his work with Big Trouble in Little China the thing and escape from la the folk was just another one of his films I hadn't had a chance to see I didn't know what to expect with the fog on my first viewing I knew it had to be scary judging by its cover but had no idea it involved pirates arriving and emerging from the fog the setup with the old man telling a ghost story is brilliant and totally captures what the film is trying to do and how it goes about with its narrative it's simple with its execution and its story of how the pirates died and how their gold was plundered by the church and the leaders of the town it seemed kind of plausible like there was a ring of truth to it but also seemed familiar to old stories you've heard or read about in the past as a kid it's like something scooby-doo and the gang would have to solve it just had this perfect setup that doesn't quite deliver though as a result of its simple but effective ghostly tale and how it comes back to haunt the town it becomes problematic for its runtime as discussed earlier John was unhappy with the film and went back and added more footage to flesh it out but he's not really adding story just more atmosphere and to help the scenes flow better this has always been a bit of an issue for me when I've gone back to re-watch it it's a story that would best serve a short movie or say an episode from the Twilight Zone or Tales from the Crypt it's only 90 minutes long so it's certainly not a chore to sit through but you can tell it's a 60 minute movie that's been padded out with long establishing scenes and edits it moves along at a slow pace which does benefit its visual style which really helps in building atmosphere and a sense of threat that is looming over the town but as you look at it from a critical perspective it can be seen as a bit baggy in areas the film's major problem is that it isn't really scary there is Yod effective jump scare that aren't overused or used as the only way to make the film scary to be class find as a horror it does have the gory scenes they threw into making compete with other movies of the time but I don't think that is enough Halloween in 1978 kick-started the slasher genre and now we've John trying to do something else he had to hastily fall back on and copy something that he had created the fog unfortunately doesn't deliver on its genre expectations for 1980 I think it feels a bit dated with its use of attempts to create horror it's creepy and that works well for the film but that's all it does it's hard to get super scared by fog as well the film nicely creates a sense of the unknown in the fog and visibility is greatly reduced but that can't be the only thing to make it scary dink undies choice of lighting and how he and Jon used a frame to make the idea of the fog being a threat far more plausible but the Pirates who arrive in the fog are essentially lumbering zombies who slowly approach you and kill you if you get caught in a horrific way if you are fast sprinter you can easily avoid them the film focuses on a large number of characters and they all get equal screen time but there was not one character that is the main centerpiece of the story you could say Stevie Wayne and father Malone have their importance to the narrative but I think it's a little unfocused Jamie Lee Curtis his character feels totally shoehorned in she turns up sleeps with Tom Atkins then tags along with him and doesn't really have much to do or say many of them don't feel that developed and are there to only serve the story as it unfolds and it's hard to be fully invested in them the parks are after the original six conspirators but they go after Stevie Wayne and want to kill her I guess because she's assisting the town's folk with avoiding the fog but killing her doesn't solve their problem she is not part of the cursed has no relatives there so it seems to go against its own rules in creating this ghostly tale of revenge despite the issues I've raised I still believe there was a lot going for the fog it's certainly great to look at and has a solid ghost story that for the most part keeps you intrigued and the music keeps the creepy atmosphere going I would put the movie into the same camp as Prince of Darkness they both have their interesting aspects to their stories and both have strong visuals and music but don't fully deliver on what you expect from carpenter I know people who adore both those films but when you put them next to the thing Halloween escape from New York and Big Trouble in Little China they can't quite compete the fog was comptes first hiccup for him personally he has never been happy with it but it still got plenty of interesting stuff to warrant watching the best version to own of the fog is the most recent screen factory release you will need a multi regional blu-ray player to watch it if you live outside the states it's stuffed full of special features some ported over from the old laserdisc release and includes a good picture transfer even though there is some visible film damage which they haven't repaired on the transfer probably because it's too costly to do the fog is very watchable and is something you should add to your collection if you haven't had a chance to see it over the years or possibly avoided it because of its lukewarm reception despite its problems it still works for the most part don't expect it to scare the hell out of you though it might make you jump once or twice but the visuals will keep you invested in its simple tale it's not carpetas best work but certainly not his worst the problems he encountered was a learning experience for him the film demonstrated however he works wonders with the sonar scope format and he is a good storyteller on a visual level it's just what he set out to do didn't meet his own expectations and even the public at the time which felt it lacked the qualities of Halloween but if you put those issues aside you do have a very competently made film that tries to go back to a more classic tale of horror with an enjoyable ghost story you father where did you find this grandfather hid his sins in walls and when did you find last night just after midnight what difference does it that's the same time the rest of the town fell apart what the hell happened out there there was a breast all over everything it's like the boat had been out there a long time taking on water he was down below near the bus dick his wounds are covered with algae his lungs are full and her silk under his fingernails and I saw dick baxter three days ago in Salinas now he's lying in there on the table looking like he's been underwater for a month the whole body would take a year to decompose longer it feels down far enough cold but he was on the boat he was below decks dick Baxter died in the ocean get inside and lock your doors close your windows there's something in the fall and you can get out of town get to the old church it's the only place left to go we're is right behind us in a driveway inside six must die that was on the freemen on the seagrass and the weatherman is for kuving's yep I in what about Thursday that's what they want they've come back for the six originals conspiracy you're going black I stole it from you if you enjoyed the video you can find more on my youtube channel and 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Channel: Oliver Harper

Views: 243,670

Keywords: the fog review, the fog movie review, the fog, ollyh82, tom aktins, horror, oliver harper, john carpenter, jamie lee curtis, oliver harper commentary, retrospective, retrospective review, review, oliver harper retrospective

Id: fyLzufchH74

Length: 27min 3sec (1623 seconds)

Published: Sat Oct 29 2016