The Fog, 1980 (89 Minutes)

These are some motivated ghosts!

It’s finally scary movie season and I couldn’t be more thrilled. At this point the internet has written off anyone who loves a particular season (women who like fall are basic, hot girl summer = basic, winter snow bunnies are basic… like we get it, you hate women), but I am proud to say that I stan scary movie season. It is my time. So buckle up, this month is about to be fun, goofy, and spooky AF. 

Yes, I like John Carpenter movies. But I LOVE John Carpenter movies co-written by Debra Hill. And my god The Fog (1980) doesn’t disappoint. Coastal AND scary? Sign me up. If you’ve never seen The Fog, I urge you to watch it before going any further. Yes, I love that you’re here, but I’m going to “spoil” a couple of things and I want you to have a good time in the process. Of course, if you’re someone with crippling movie anxiety and you’d rather know more before going in, by all means stick around. 

The Fog is set in the fictional town of Antonio Bay in Northern California, and opens on the eve of the small town’s 100th anniversary. Our heroine, Stevie Wayne (Adriene Barbeau) sits on the outskirts of town at the top of a lighthouse where she broadcasts from her radio station. A mysterious fog rolls in and as it does, it sets the town on edge. Car alarms go off, furniture moves, and the windshield of Nick Castle’s (Tom Atkins) car explodes while he gives a lift to hitchhiker Elizabeth Solley (Jamie Lee Curtis). A fishing trawler goes missing and the next day it’s discovered under mysterious circumstances as the town preps for its big anniversary party. As the audience, we know it was boarded by ghostly figures, but the townspeople will have to wait to discover that phenomenon first hand… 

As a New Englander I appreciate a good coastal ghost story because I grew up with them. Family vacations were often spent visiting haunted lighthouses, old houses with tragic backstories, and reading the names of lost fishermen off a plaque by the sea in Gloucester. And don’t forget Salem is a coastal town. By nature, we’re a ghoulish group of people surrounded by tragic history. And even though The Fog is set on the West Coast, it still very much gives off a vibe I can appreciate. Antonio Bay is small and rural and set against a beautiful backdrop of cliffs that drop sharply in the roiling sea. And the paranormal beings in the fog itself? Perhaps one of the coolest movie monsters of all time. 

What I love the most about these sea specters is that they are ghosts with motivation. Often in horror we lose the “why”. This isn’t always a bad thing, and there are many great horror movies without a strong “why” or motive for the movie’s villain/monster/ghost etc. For instance, in Halloween (also written by Carpenter and Hill) Michael doesn’t have a strong reason for why he kills. He is just evil incarnate. And for Michael, it absolutely works. We believe it. I think we can all agree, however, that a lot of horror movies use this as a crutch for lazy writing when plots really need them. The Fog gets it right. The ghosts are given a specific and time sensitive motivation to haunt (and hunt) the town. 

Over the course of the movie it’s revealed that Antonio Bay was founded under some very despicable circumstances. The town’s priest, Father Malone (Hal Holbrook) discovers his grandfather’s journal that details how the town’s leaders purposely sink a ship belonging to a wealthy leper named Blake so that he cannot establish a leper colony nearby and so that they can nab his gold onboard. What’s worse is the only reason all the lepers are on the ship to begin with is because these leaders murderers told them to come on over. (Yikes.) 100 years later to the date, Blake and his friends arrive to seek the revenge that they rightly deserve. So like I said, these are some motivated ghosts! 

What’s even better is that the townspeople’s motivations are in opposition to Blake’s. Stevie Wayne is a single mom and recent transplant, who wants to stay secluded and anonymous, but is ultimately forced to become a guiding voice for the entire town as the fog rolls in. Kathy Williams (Janet Leigh), who is in charge of the town’s 100th birthday celebrations, wants nothing but to honor the men who founded the town and for her event to go off without a hitch. This is disrupted of course by her missing husband (from the fishing trawler mentioned earlier) and the inevitable fog rolling in. Nick is trying to show hitchhiker Elizabeth a good time in his town, and instead she witnesses ghosts, the supernatural, dead bodies, missing kids, and bad weather. “I’m ready to go to Vancouver now” she says when she realizes it is not the kind of excitement she signed up for. These stories are simple, but when lined up next to one another, they tell a horrifying story of colonization that could really be the story for any town in the United States. 

I try and watch this one every October and this year was special. We watched it in 4K and what a difference it made for me. I have to admit that I am not a very technical gal when it comes to movies, I am and will always be more story driven, however seeing my beloved Fog this way was really quite thrilling. The colors are absolutely gorgeous and the lighting is especially captivating. It should come as no surprise to a lot of you that the Director of Cinematography was none other than Dean Cundey. He’s a man who needs no introductions, really. While the movie was shot on an indie budget, Carpenter still shot it in 2.35:1 making it look like the blockbuster it is. (I’m going to drop in some stunning stills below so you can see what I mean. If these images don’t inspire you to break out your cozy blankets, flannel PJs, and start a horror movie marathon, I don’t know what will.) 

The movie is atmospheric. Frothy white fog is cut with bright reds, deep blues, and mossy greens. We’re often lost in the fog ourselves but not without our footing, it never becomes so messy or disorienting that we don’t know where we are going or who we are with. We’re reminded often of the ocean’s close proximity with sweeping shots of the coast, water reflected against skin, and the damp mist that drifts at night somehow captured on film. Shadows are important to the energy and plot of the story, where they are used to both create tension and reveal new information. A lot of these subtleties were not as evident to me as they were watching the movie in 4K. It was like I was seeing it for the first time all over again. I’ve watched a lot of 4Ks lately and this truly my first experience like this (so far). 

So we have this film that is beautifully shot, with a simple plot, that also has a palpable tension running throughout all 89 minutes. From the start to end we are never given a break from the feeling of impending doom that drifts over Antonio Bay. Every moment is serving to drive the story forward but to also make us worry. A child alone on a beach finds a mysterious gold coin that, in the blink of an eye, becomes a piece of a shipwreck. The men missing at sea are never forgotten for long and we wonder: where are their bodies? Bricks fall. Windows break. And we’re afraid to look away just as the townspeople are afraid to rest because we could all be missing something. The Fog is a classic ghost story that I feel has been overlooked in more mainstream circles and should rank higher in everyone’s Halloween movie lists. 

And now a question for my cinephile friends. Have you ever seen the The Fog remake from 2005? Is it as horrible as I am expecting? Drop me a note in the comments… I am *dying* to know. (Sorry, couldn’t resist). 

Image Sources:
https://bloody-disgusting.com/movie/3514516/first-look-4k-restoration-john-carpenters-fog/

https://fathersonholygore.com/2015/10/31/the-fog-1980-review/