Beware of the fog ...
We can keep this pretty short and simple. I love this movie. Love it, love it, love it. Directed by John Carpenter, and written by him and producer Debra Hill, "The Fog" was released in 1980, just a few years after the release of their now classic, "Halloween." Coming off the surprising commercial success that "Halloween" became, expectations for this film - as expectations often are - were a little over the top. As such, the film was looked at critically as a bit of a sophomore slump for Carpenter (despite actually being his fourth feature). And while I would agree that, yes, technically, "Halloween" is the better made film, there's just something about "The Fog" that I find more entertaining, at least as a repeat viewing experience.
Here we have a classically styled tale of a town cursed by a past injustice, and the ghosts who come back seeking vengeance. The tone of the film is established beautifully in an opening scene featuring the late John Housman telling ghost stories to a group of kids on the beach, perfectly setting up the campfire-tale flavor of the film's plot. Of course there's a bit of a modern spin to the tale. Well, 80's modern. These aren't your simple haunting-type ghosts. To put it simply, these are pissed off, sailor ghosts with swords and big-ass hooks, and they fuck people up.
Look, I could go on about the "The Fog" for a while, but I said I'd keep this one short. Just trust me here. "The Fog" is straight-up creepy, Halloween fun.
Oh, and if you need more convincing, "The Fog" sports an outstanding 80's horror movie cast including Jamie Lee Curtis, her real life mom, Janet Leigh (Psycho), Hal Holbrook, Adrienne Barbeau, and, making his second appearance in my Halloween Marathon, Tom Atkins, this time sans mustache.
Beware of the fog. No, seriously. Beware.
If you are out looking for a copy of "The Fog" to watch this Halloween, please be careful that you don't accidentally pick up this 2005 remake. This movie is bad on so many levels one scarcely knows where to begin in bashing it.
Firstly, let me state categorically that I am not anti-remakes, so that's not where this is coming from. Yes, I sometimes scoff and don't see the point, but look, I'm always happy to see a good movie, so if someone has a great idea for a remake and they make it work, awesome. And if I don't like it, hey, they didn't do anything that changes the original. At least not unless they're George Lucas. But that's a different discussion.
So anyway, I heard they were remaking "The Fog" and I thought, okay, whatever. Obviously I love the original, so I didn't see the point, but fine, whatever. I mean hey, earlier that same year I'd been entertained by another remake of an early John Carpenter film, "Assault on Precinct 13," so why not give "The Fog" a chance. Well, the movie comes out and I go see it just hoping to be entertained. What I was, though, was insulted for about an hour and a half in almost every way a movie can insult you. Now, I must confess; in the theater in 2005 is the one and only time I've ever seen this film, so I can't talk about too many specifics. I just remember hurting. But I do recall exactly the point when the pain began. It was the introduction of the most insultingly racially stereotyped "comic-relief" black-man character to appear on screen this side of Amos and Andy.
From there it's all a blur.
Just do yourself a favor. Stay away. If you're looking for the original, it's available on Netflix streaming, and it's still available for purchase on DVD. But if you come across a DVD and the stars of the film are that guy who played Superman in the TV show "Smallville" and the 30 year-old actress who played Liam Neeson's 17 year-old daughter in "Taken" you've got the wrong one.
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