‘There’s something in the fog…’
John Carpenter is a legend of the horror genre. You could argue that he is the most successful horror director of all time. Surely only Wes Craven could rival that particularly claim. Not content with producing one horror classic in the shape of Halloween – not to mention the franchise that movie would eventually go on to spawn – Carpenter is also responsible for The Thing; perhaps the greatest horror remake ever. A CV that also contains Christine and In the Mouth of Madness is rounded off by The Fog, and it is probably the most John Carpenter movie that Carpenter ever made…
100 years following the the mysterious sinking of a ghost ship, an unearthly fog begins to settle on a small coastal town. A radio DJ (Adrienne Barbeau), a drifter (Jamie Lee Curtis) and a priest (Hal Holbrook) are amongst those attempting to fight it off.
Combining the slow build up of tension that defines Halloween with The Thing‘s claustrophobic paranoia, The Fog never quite finds parity with those two classics, whilst still being an entertaining movie in its own right. The low key ending – while satisfying – doesn’t quite pack enough of a guttural punch to justify the plodding journey to that point. That being said, The Fog is beautifully shot, has a classic Carpenter score and sees an ensemble cast working together to elevate the source material into something that almost feels like an arthouse movie.
The Fog is an old fashioned horror classic that fits snugly in Carpenter’s oeuvre alongside some of his finest work. An underrated gem.