Against the backdrop of spine-chilling stories of drowned mariners and a 100-year-old shipwreck lying on the bottom of the sea, the peaceful coastal town of Antonio Bay, California, is making preparations to celebrate its centennial. However, as strange supernatural occurrences blemish the festivities a dense fog starts to shroud the seaside town, leading to unaccountable disappearances. A century ago, the townsfolk committed a heinous crime that now sees the undead victims rise from the sea to claim retribution. Under cover of the ominous glowing fog, they carry out their vicious attacks, seeking revenge and searching for what is rightly theirs. John Carpenter's The Fog is an eerie, suspense-filled horror that is a true 80s cult classic for the genre. I thoroughly enjoyed the mysterious tone set that slowly unravels as the movie progresses as we see the townsfolk being taken out, one by one. Although having a low budget, John Carpenter chose to shoot the movie in anamorphic widescreen Panavision, which aided the film by giving it a much grander appearance of having a much bigger budget than in reality and it worked surprisingly well. This film looks amazing visually and managed to work around the lack of money to bring us one of the best suspense-filled horrors I've ever seen. From a simple shot of a young boy walking along the beach uncovering a broken segment of an old shipwreck (later discovered as part of the ghost's ship) is displayed magnificently as it lays down some curiosity that later unfoldes as the situation becomes darker, even lending to the growing fear felt by us viewers. This is especially seen when the wood sets aflame of its own accord with no explanation available. One of the highlights from this flick was every scene with the undead, ghostly pirates that lurked in the mystical fog. Even though we don't see much of them, they look so cool, most notably in the scene where they enter the church towards the end. The Captain himself begins to move through the glowing fog whilst the others remain standing, rooted in the background. As he gradually approaches Father Malone, his eyes start to glow increasingly red becoming the focal point in one of the most visually stunning moments in the whole feature, in my opinion, as he begins to draw his sword. The fact we don't see them all that much actually does this story some favours. It increases the fear factor by leaving us frantically wondering where they could spring from whilst keeping them a mystery for the narrative. When we see the fog, which in itself is supernatural with how it moves against the wind and has a strange glow to it, we the audience know that the pirates are there but, like the characters, we can't see them and don't know where they could manifest from. The undead seafarers become even more deadly as they brandish swords and hooks, which they use without mercy or remorse on their victims in some truly brutal imagery. Carpenter is most known for his tremendous horror productions, creating so many memorable thrillers from
Halloween (1978), Christine (1983) to
The Thing (1982). One of the actresses in The Fog, Jamie Lee Curtis, is very well known for her roles in the horror genre, being one of, if not the biggest, 'scream queen' who starred in plenty of other Carpenter movies, such as the equally frightening Halloween (mentioned above). It is also very interesting to note that her mother, Janet Leigh, starred in another popular horror movie:
Psycho (1960). The music composed for this film is surprisingly spine-chilling and racks up the unnerving aesthetic creating a dread-filled atmosphere. What makes the theme all the better is that Carpenter composed the music himself, which easily displays his many incredible skills being able not only to create and direct this but also lend to the musical areas too. Overall, I extremely enjoyed this classic horror, which brought ghostly zombie pirates to the big screen and is executed magnificently, making them a formidable force to reckon with. Despite the film having no blood, it doesn't shy away from its horrific murderous imagery and some gruesome kills throughout. The Fog is an underrated classic that certainly shouldn't be missed.
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