The Fog

Residents of a northern California coastal town find themselves under siege from a mysterious fog and the angry ghosts within.

The Fog is yet another example of a horror film ruined by an overabundance of plot and explanation.

Despite the similarities with The Birds (sleepy northern California coastal town attacked by an otherwise normal element of nature), the script by director John Carpenter and producer Debra Hill is leaden with a clunky plot involving members of a leper colony seeking revenge for a past injustice. Can you imagine how silly The Birds would have seemed if we discovered the reason they were attacking was because years ago the town’s ancestors had murdered a group of outcast seagulls?

That aside, The Fog has its moments. The lived-in, small-town atmosphere, and great Panavision photography highlight the production. Further, the cast is solid, featuring Jamie Lee Curtis and her mother, Janet Leigh, as well as Hal Holbrook, who shines as the town clergyman. Top-billed Adrienne Barbeau is fine for most of the film, but overplays her part toward the finale.

In the end, Carpenter had all the ingredients here to make something special, but simply missed where other creators hit. Besides Hitchcock, Stephen King mined similar material for his short story “The Mist”, which also made a point of not being too concerned with explanations. At least Carpenter learned from these mistakes for his next thriller, a remake of The Thing From Another World, a film he references with the closing lines of The Fog.