The Fog (John Carpenter, 1980, USA)

The follow-up to his breakout 1978 success, Halloween, John Carpenter’s 1980 The Fog feels like the film of a director finding his voice. Many of the staples of a Carpenter film were already on display in his earlier works, and these are present here as well, including one of his most iconic synthesized scores. The film also presents a number of actors who have now come to be associated with Carpenter due to their appearances in more than one of his films, most notably Jamie Lee Curtis, but also Adrienne Barbeau (Carpenter’s then-wife) and Tom Atkins.

Leaving the visceral slasher fare of Halloween, The Fog is a far more atmospheric and slow-burn ghost story, set in a quiet seaside town. The Lovecraftian dread that Carpenter would become known for in later films was truly established in The Fog. The film had a mixed reception at the time, with contemporary critics including Vincent Canby and Roger Ebert ultimately finding it unsatisfying. While it is perhaps not Carpenter at his most peak form, it is still a highly successful ghost story, and the film’s critical reappraisal is no doubt a sign of this.

Carpenter’s knack for casting is on full display in The Fog, with not only the solid list of aforementioned players, but some legendary actors as well. Scream queen Janet Leigh (Curtis’s mother) has a role, as well as Hal Holbrook, who was on a bit of a horror streak at this time in his career (he would soon after appear in George A. Romero’s Creepshow). The Fog is one of Carpenter’s quintessential films, and one of the quintessential 80s horror films for good reason. The creatures at the film’s finale are only a small part of the film’s overall appeal, which largely lies with the atmosphere, music, and Cundy’s cinematography.

8/10