The Fog (1980)

User Rating:

6.8/10   

Director:

John Carpenter

Writers:

John Carpenter (written by) and
Debra Hill (written by)

Release Date:

8 February 1980 (USA)

Genre:

Horror | Mystery | Thriller

Tagline:

What you can't see won't hurt you... it'll kill you!

Plot:

A Northern California fishing town, built 100 years ago over an old leper colony, is the target for revenge by a killer fog containing zombie-like ghosts seeking revenge for their deaths.

Plot Keywords:

Fog | Leper | Bay | Revenge | Ghost

Awards:

1 win & 2 nominations

Cast

Adrienne Barbeau	...	Stevie Wayne
Jamie Lee Curtis	...	Elizabeth Solley
Janet Leigh	...	Kathy Williams
John Houseman	...	Mr. Machen
Tom Atkins	...	Nick Castle
James Canning	...	Dick Baxter
Charles Cyphers	...	Dan O'Bannon
Nancy Kyes	...	Sandy Fadel (as Nancy Loomis)
Ty Mitchell	...	Andy
Hal Holbrook	...	Father Malone
John F. Goff	...	Al Williams (as John Goff)
George 'Buck' Flower	...	Tommy Wallace
Regina Waldon	...	Mrs. Kobritz
Jim Haynie	...	Dockmaster
Darrow Igus	...	Mel

Also Known As:

John Carpenter's The Fog (USA) (complete title)

Runtime:

89 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Metrocolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Canada:13+ (Quebec) | Canada:AA (Ontario) (original rating) | Canada:PG (Ontario) (re-rating) (2002) | Iceland:16 | West Germany:16 (f) | Denmark:15 | USA:R (Approved No. 25792) | Netherlands:16 | Italy:T | Australia:M | Finland:K-16 | France:-12 | Norway:16 | Singapore:PG | Sweden:15 | UK:15 | Canada:PG (Ontario)

Filming Locations:

Altadena, California, USA

Company:

AVCO Embassy Pictures

Trivia:

Kurt Russell was offered a role.

Goofs:

Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): As Stevie is describing the movement of Fog, at first she says it is moving southeast along the coast, but then in the next sentence she says it is moving southwest.

Quotes:

[a tape recording of K-A-B promos has just slowed down]
Blake's Voice: Something that one lives with like an albatross round the neck. No, more like a millstone. A plumbing stone, by God! Damn them all!

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Saturday Night Live: Jamie Lee Curtis/James Brown/Ellen Shipley (#6.4)" (1980)

A film that is truly terrifying?!? …It exists and it's named `the Fog'

A solid, powerful story…slowly developing and photographed with a unique sense for tension. THAT is `The Fog'. This story will leave a big impression on you and it's easily John Carpenter's best and most effective horror film. His most underrated as well, since people always refer to `Halloween' and `The Thing' when listing his best accomplishments as a director. Personally, I think The Fog is much more haunting and fascinating than these two, and it's one of the very few films that still scares me after all these years. Uniquely set in a small coast-town called Antonio Bay, where the inhabitants are preparing the celebrations for the town's hundredth anniversary. Only, they do not know that the genesis of their town went together with a devilish conspiracy, resulting in the unfortunate death of many seamen. These doomed victims rise again now, suddenly appearing from mysterious fogbanks that come from the ocean. If you're – like me - a sucker for ghostly myths set in abandoned surrounding, The Fog will be one of your most satisfying purchases ever. Carpenter brilliantly builds up an unbearable tension through simple methods, like long shots of an isolated countryside and a chilling musical score (not as famous as his `Halloween' score but equally effective). The bloodshed and images of cold-hearted monsters are kept to a minimum in order to leave it up to your own imagination. And for once, this actually works! The detailed sequences in which the town gets surrounded by an inescapable fog is more than horrific enough. Forget about all the overblown, big-budgeted and so-called `horrifying' films… This little, overlooked production scares the hell out of people since more than 20 years already. And it'll keep on doing so for yet another very long time!