The second annual Mystery, Murder, Monsters and Mayhem Film Festival continued with a Saturday night double feature. After Horror Hotel we screened John Carpenter's The Fog.
Carpenter made The Fog after the enormous success of Halloween. He attempted to capture the same suspense and atmosphere in this tale of murderous ghosts haunting the seaside town of Antonio Bay, California. The movie opens with John Houseman playing an old salt who relates a legendary ghost story to a group of kids huddled around a campfire. Then the town clock strikes midnight and strange things begin to happen. Lights fail, windows break and a strange glowing fog rolls in from the ocean, moving against the wind. These ghostly happenings continue until the clock strikes one and the witching hour is over. But that is not the end of these ghostly terrors. the town of Antonio bay is celebrating it's 100th Birthday. But the town was founded on murder and theft and the ghosts are returning to claim what's theirs.
The film features Jamie Lee Curtis in her second film with Carpenter, her mom Janet Leigh as one of the leading citizens of Antonio Bay. Adrienne Barbeau stars as a owner of the town's radio station, which broadcasts out of an old lighthouse. Also featured is Hal Holbrook as the town priest and one of the descendants of the town's founding fathers.
The film has the familiar Carpenter touches, including a score he composed himself. It is heavy on special effects and lacks some of the believable touches that made Halloween such a scare fest. Things happen in The Fog for no real rhyme or reason. The first night the ghost come and go only during the witching hour, but the next day they come as soon as the sun sets. A corpse gets up and walks for no apparent reason and the ending seems added on for one extra scare.
The movie has some scary moments and a few thrills, but is hampered by some over used special effects. Carpenter himself was not pleased with the film when originally completed. He re-cut and re-shot much of it. One third of the film is new footage added after he completed final shooting. The film has aged well and is now a minor horror classic from the 1980's. the movie was remade without much success in 2005.
At the Movie House rating **1/2 stars
Other Films of Interest:
Halloween
Ghost Story
The Haunting
Dark Night of The Scarecrow
The Lady In White
1 comment:
I never saw this movie except in bits and pices but it was never able ot grab me. Other than that, I am enjoying the Festival. Latewr on I will recommend my favorite Scaries and Spookies
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