The Fog, 1980 - DVD

I'm a huge Carpenter fan, but this film is not one my top five list of his films. In fact, it's pretty much at the bottom. I suppose one film has to be at the bottom, when it comes to one of your favorite directors. There are some things in this film that are pretty great... but they aren't anywhere near the level of Carpenter magic that I'm used to.

I find this movie to be one thing, and one thing only. This was Carpenter having to make a follow-up to one of the biggest independent money making films of all time. That's all. A $1 million dollar budget, certainly more than what he had with Halloween or Assault on Precinct Thirteen but still low budget... and the movie grossed over $21 million, and that's 1980 dollars. So, all in all I think he succeeded.

The film worked for 1980, but this film is the most dated of his films, with the scares being strictly for a 1980's audience.

With such a simple story, there isn't a huge amount of character development, which is fine. We get to meet the characters, we get to see them in their everyday lives and then they're thrust into this mystery... it's well written, but it's simple, which is understandable. I think the best thing about the film is the atmosphere that is created. It holds steady throughout the entire film.

Also, this film doesn't have any of the trademarks of a slasher film. There's hardly any gore at all, most of the violence is implied through the fog. And we've got two beautiful women, one of whom had, pardon me but its true, world class breasts... and there was nothing, not even close to skin being shown.

A bit disappointing when Barbeau is in the film and we don't see anything vaguely resembling her chest. We do get to see more of it in Carpenter's next film, Escape From New York. Curtis, I suppose, was too young... and not a big enough star. She needed to wait for Trading Places to really show off anything.

Ok, enough about breasts. Sorry... I knew there wasn't any nudity in the film. In fact, it's rare in Carpenter films almost as a rule, which I respect.

We get good acting out of everyone. We get Nancy Loomis (Kyes) in the film, who was in Carpenter's earlier films and Halloween II and III. Atkins would go on to play a character in Escape. Charles Cyphers was in Assault, Halloween and Escape... and Darwin Joston who plays Wilson in Assault got a part in this film, as well. It's pretty cool that all these people stuck together for a few films.

Something pretty cool to add, there are three characters whose names are those of real people who worked on and in the film. Atkins plays Nick Castle, who helped Carpenter pen Escape from NY, also played The Shape (Myers) in Halloween, along with directing The Last Starfighter. Charles Cypher plays Dan O'Bannon, who helped Carpenter write Dark Star (among other great sci-fi films like Alien). And finally, George Flower plays a character named Tommy Wallace, who is Tommy Lee Wallace, the production designer and editor of The Fog, art director on Dark Star and Assault on Precinct 13, editor of Halloween, director of Halloween III, second unit director of Big Trouble in Little China and writer/director of Vampires: Los Muertos, the sequel to Carpenter's Vampires.

Pretty cool, huh?

This was also one of Rob Bottin's first features working the special makeup effects. He played the main ghost in the film, Blake, as well. He would go on to produce some of the greatest effects in movie history, starting with The Howling. From there he would go on to do The Thing, Explorers, Legend, Innerspace, RoboCop (and the sequels), Total Recall, Se7en, Mission: Impossible, Mimic, Deep Rising, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Fight Club... I mean, Jesus! That is some list of credits. He's one of my heroes, specifically for his work on The Thing.

Another one of my heroes is cinematographer Dean Cundey, who has shot the majority of Carpenter's work. He first worked on Halloween and perfected the steadi-cam, in my opinion. The Fog came next, and the Escape from NY, The Thing (where he re-invented the steadi-cam shot), Big Trouble in Little China... and then he went haywire. Back to the Future (and the two sequels), Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Hook, Jurassic Park, Apollo 13, Deep Rising (second unit director)... I'm a huge fan. He's shot a ton of stuff, those are just some of my favorites of his.

Ok, I think I'm being overly critical when I say it's at the bottom. The film has its merits, but it is certainly outshined by the majority of Carpenter's other films.

What I find interesting is that it would take Carpenter five films before he would go back and try to recreate the atmosphere that he did with Halloween and, to some extent, The Fog. In 1987 he would shoot the low budget film Prince of Darkness, definitely one of my favorites of his. The budget was $3 million, which was certainly less than what he was used to working with by that time. I think that the technology had advanced, along with him having more experience as a filmmaker, that helped them create a much more complex horror film.

This film would also mark the first time that Carpenter and producer John Franco would work together. Franco, in this film, would serve as first assistant director. He would go on to continue as first AD, as well as produce Escape from NY, The Thing, Christine, Starman, Big Trouble in Little China, Prince of Darkness and They Live. Franco would go on to Executive Produce The Rocketeer, produce Batman Returns, EP for Jumanji, produce Mars Attacks!, October Sky, Jurassic Park 3 and The Hulk. Not bad... at all.

Carpenter surrounded himself with talented people, there's no doubt about that... and they helped to create a ton of incredible films. Carpenter is by far one of the best cult directors out there, and I hope he gets back into the directing saddle again.