The Fog
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''The Fog'' is a 1980 American
independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in Pennsylvania, United States * Independentes (English: Independents), a Portuguese artist ...
supernatural horror film Supernatural horror film is a film genre that combines aspects of supernatural film and horror film. Supernatural occurrences in such films often include ghosts and demons, and many supernatural horror films have elements of religion. Common them ...
directed by
John Carpenter John Howard Carpenter (born January 16, 1948) is an American filmmaker, composer, and actor. Most commonly associated with horror film, horror, action film, action, and science fiction film, science fiction films of the 1970s and 1980s, he is ...
, who also co-wrote the screenplay and created the music for the film. It stars
Adrienne Barbeau Adrienne Jo Barbeau (born June 11, 1945) is an American actress and author. She came to prominence in the 1970s as Broadway's original Rizzo in the musical ''Grease (musical), Grease'', and as Carol Traynor, the divorced daughter of Maude Findl ...
,
Jamie Lee Curtis Jamie Lee Curtis (born November 22, 1958) is an American actress, producer, and children's author. Known for List of Jamie Lee Curtis performances, her performances in the horror and slasher film, slasher genres, she is regarded as a scream qu ...
, Tom Atkins,
Janet Leigh Jeanette Helen Morrison (July 6, 1927 – October 3, 2004), known professionally as Janet Leigh, was an American actress. Raised in Stockton, California, by working-class parents, Leigh was discovered at 18 by actress Norma Shearer, who helped he ...
and
Hal Holbrook Harold Rowe Holbrook Jr. (February 17, 1925 – January 23, 2021) was an American actor. He first received critical acclaim in 1954 for a one-man stage show that he developed called ''Mark Twain Tonight!'' while studying at Denison University. H ...
. It tells the story of a strange, glowing fog that sweeps over a small coastal town in
Northern California Northern California (commonly shortened to NorCal) is a geocultural region that comprises the northern portion of the U.S. state of California, spanning the northernmost 48 of the state's List of counties in California, 58 counties. Northern Ca ...
. Filmed in the spring of 1979, ''The Fog'' was scheduled to be released at
Christmas Christmas is an annual festival commemorating Nativity of Jesus, the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a Religion, religious and Culture, cultural celebration among billions of people Observance of Christmas by coun ...
that year by AVCO Embassy Pictures, but its release date was delayed to February 1, 1980. The film divided critics upon release, receiving praise for its visuals and acting, and criticism for its structure and screenplay. Despite mixed reviews, the film grossed $21.3 million domestically. ''The Fog'' contains themes of
revenge Revenge is defined as committing a harmful action against a person or group in response to a grievance, be it real or perceived. Vengeful forms of justice, such as primitive justice or retributive justice, are often differentiated from more fo ...
and repressed corrupt historical events resurfacing in contemporary small-town America. In the years since its original release, it has established a
cult following A cult following is a group of fans who are highly dedicated to a person, idea, object, movement, or work, often an artist, in particular a performing artist, or an artwork in some medium. The latter is often called a cult classic. A film, boo ...
. A remake was released in 2005.


Plot

On the eve of the
centennial A centennial, or centenary in British English, is a 100th anniversary or otherwise relates to a century. Notable events Notable centennial events at a national or world-level include: * Centennial Exhibition, 1876, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. ...
of the small coastal town Antonio Bay in
Northern California Northern California (commonly shortened to NorCal) is a geocultural region that comprises the northern portion of the U.S. state of California, spanning the northernmost 48 of the state's List of counties in California, 58 counties. Northern Ca ...
, old Mr. Machen tells ghost stories to children by a campfire on the beach. One story is about a
clipper ship A clipper was a type of mid-19th-century Merchant ship, merchant Sailing ship, sailing vessel, designed for speed. The term was also retrospectively applied to the Baltimore clipper, which originated in the late 18th century. Clippers were gen ...
that crashed against the rocks nearby, causing all of its crew to drown after mistaking a campfire for a lighthouse while sailing through an unearthly fog. Machen finishes the story as midnight strikes and paranormal activity begins occurring around the town. Town priest, Father Malone, discovers his grandfather's diary when a stone spontaneously falls from a wall in the church, revealing a hidden cavity behind. The journal reveals that a century earlier, on April 21st 1880, the 6 founders of Antonio Bay (including Malone's grandfather) deliberately wrecked a clipper ship named the ''Elizabeth Dane'', so that its wealthy,
leprosy Leprosy, also known as Hansen's disease (HD), is a Chronic condition, long-term infection by the bacteria ''Mycobacterium leprae'' or ''Mycobacterium lepromatosis''. Infection can lead to damage of the Peripheral nervous system, nerves, respir ...
-afflicted owner Blake would not establish a
leper colony A leper colony, also known by many other names, is an isolated community for the quarantining and treatment of lepers, people suffering from leprosy. '' M. leprae'', the bacterium responsible for leprosy, is believed to have spread from East ...
nearby. The conspirators used the gold plundered from the ship to establish the town. Meanwhile, out at sea, a strange, glowing fog envelops a fishermen's trawler. The fog brings with it the ''Elizabeth Dane'', carrying the vengeful
ghost In folklore, a ghost is the soul or Spirit (supernatural entity), spirit of a dead Human, person or non-human animal that is believed by some people to be able to appear to the living. In ghostlore, descriptions of ghosts vary widely, from a ...
s of Blake and his crew, who kill the fishermen. The following morning, local radio DJ Stevie Wayne is given a piece of driftwood by her son Andy, who found it on the beach. It is inscribed with the word "DANE". Stevie carries it with her to the
lighthouse A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of physical structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lens (optics), lenses and to serve as a beacon for navigational aid for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways. Ligh ...
where she broadcasts her radio show. As she is listening to music on a cassette, the driftwood begins seeping water. As the water touches her cassette player, a man's voice is inexplicably heard on the tape, vowing revenge, and the words "6 must die" appear on the wood before it bursts into flames. Stevie extinguishes the fire and sees that the wood once again reads "DANE", and the tape is once again playing normally. Town resident Nick and hitchhiker Elizabeth find the lost fishing trawler adrift and the corpse of one of the fishermen. Later, while Elizabeth is in the
autopsy An autopsy (also referred to as post-mortem examination, obduction, necropsy, or autopsia cadaverum) is a surgical procedure that consists of a thorough examination of a corpse by dissection to determine the cause, mode, and manner of deat ...
room alone, the fisherman's corpse briefly comes to life and accosts her before collapsing. Nick and coroner Dr. Phibes see the now-lifeless corpse has carved the number 3 on the floor with a scalpel. That evening, as the town begins its celebrations, local weatherman Dan is killed by the ghosts at the weather station. The fog has returned and starts moving inland, disrupting the town's telephone and power lines. Using a backup generator, Stevie begs her listeners to go to her house and save her son. The ghosts kill her son's babysitter but Nick and Elizabeth rescue Andy. Stevie advises her listeners to head to the town's church, but then finds herself trapped and under siege by the ghosts when the fog envelops her lighthouse. Seeking refuge inside the church, a group of townsfolk finds a large gold cross in the wall cavity, made from the rest of the stolen gold from the ''Elizabeth Dane'', just as the fog begins enveloping the church and the ghosts begin their attack. Malone, knowing that the ghosts have returned to take 6 lives to match the 6 original conspirators, offers the gold and himself to spare the others. The ghost of Blake himself seizes the gold cross and he and his crew disappear in a blinding flash of light as the fog miraculously vanishes. Stevie, now alone again at the lighthouse, warns her listeners that the fog could come again and instructs any ships that can hear her to keep an eye out for it. After everyone leaves the church, Malone remains inside and wonders why he was spared given that there were five deaths. The fog then reappears along with the ghosts, and Blake decapitates Malone, making six.


Cast


Themes and interpretations

''The Fog''s central themes are
revenge Revenge is defined as committing a harmful action against a person or group in response to a grievance, be it real or perceived. Vengeful forms of justice, such as primitive justice or retributive justice, are often differentiated from more fo ...
and the resurfacing of "repressed past events" in small-town America, as it focuses on the supernatural vengeance inflicted on the residents of a community that has prospered from looted salvage. William Fischer of ''
Collider A collider is a type of particle accelerator that brings two opposing particle beams together such that the particles collide. Compared to other particle accelerators in which the moving particles collide with a stationary matter target, collid ...
'' describes the film as one preoccupied with "an all-American town getting ready to celebrate its founding, a founding marred by a dark crime. When Father Patrick Malone discovers the horrible truth and brings it to the attention of Mayor Kathy Williams, she shrugs it off and dismisses any impact or introspection it might cast over the centennial. It was so long ago, she reasons, and what is there to do about it? And she has a point; there’s no changing the past, and at a certain distance, there’s no rectifying it." Writer Peter Hutchings notes that, while the film contains these implicit themes, that Carpenter is "more interested in conjuring up a sinister atmosphere than he is in exploring some of the social ramifications of such a story".


Production


Development

The initial inspiration for ''The Fog'' came to Carpenter when he and his collaborator and then-girlfriend, Debra Hill, were promoting their film '' Assault on Precinct 13'' (1976) in England; the two visited
Stonehenge Stonehenge is a prehistoric Megalith, megalithic structure on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, England, west of Amesbury. It consists of an outer ring of vertical sarsen standing stones, each around high, wide, and weighing around 25 tons, to ...
during the trip, where they witnessed an eerie fog rolling over the landscape from a distance. Carpenter stated that he drew additional inspiration for the story from the British film '' The Trollenberg Terror'' (1958), which dealt with monsters hiding in the clouds. In the DVD audio commentary for the film, Carpenter noted that the story of the deliberate wreckage of a ship and its subsequent plundering was based on an actual event (the wrecking of the ''Frolic'') that took place in the 19th century near
Goleta, California Goleta ( ; ; Spanish for "schooner") is a city in southern Santa Barbara County, California, United States. It was incorporated as a city in 2002, after a long period as the largest unincorporated populated area in the county. As of the 200 ...
(this event was portrayed more directly in the 1975 Tom Laughlin film, '' The Master Gunfighter''). The premise also bears strong resemblances to Massimo Pupillo's 1965 '' Terror-Creatures from the Grave'' as well as the
John Greenleaf Whittier John Greenleaf Whittier (December 17, 1807 – September 7, 1892) was an American Quaker poet and advocate of the abolition of slavery in the United States. Frequently listed as one of the fireside poets, he was influenced by the Scottish poet ...
poem ''The Wreck of the Palatine'' which appeared in ''
The Atlantic Monthly ''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher based in Washington, D.C. It features articles on politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science. It was founded in 1857 ...
'' in 1867, about the wreck of the ship ''Princess Augusta'' in 1738, at
Block Island Block Island is an island of the Outer Lands coastal archipelago in New England, located approximately south of mainland Rhode Island and east of Long Island's Montauk Point. The island is coterminous with the town of New Shoreham, Rhode Isl ...
, within
Rhode Island Rhode Island ( ) is a state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Connecticut to its west; Massachusetts to its north and east; and the Atlantic Ocean to its south via Rhode Island Sound and Block Is ...
. Carpenter named characters in the screenplay after people with whom he had collaborated on previous projects. Among them are
Dan O'Bannon Daniel Thomas O'Bannon (September 30, 1946 – December 17, 2009) was an American film screenwriter, film director, director and visual effects supervisor, most closely associated with the science fiction and Horror fiction, horror genres. O'B ...
, a screenwriter who worked with Carpenter on '' Dark Star'' (1974);
Nick Castle Nicholas Castle (born September 21, 1947 in Kingsport, Tennessee) is an American screenwriter, film director, and actor. He is known for playing Michael Myers (Halloween), Michael Myers in John Carpenter's horror film ''Halloween (1978 film), H ...
, who portrayed Michael Myers in ''Halloween''; Tommy Wallace, an editor, sound designer and art designer who worked on ''Dark Star'' and '' Assault on Precinct 13'', as well as several other subsequent projects. The babysitter in the film, Mrs. Kobritz, is named after Richard Kobritz, who produced Carpenter's 1978 television film ''
Someone's Watching Me! ''Someone's Watching Me!'' is a 1978 American made-for-television horror film written and directed by John Carpenter and starring Lauren Hutton, David Birney and Adrienne Barbeau. The film was made immediately prior to Carpenter's theatrical h ...
''. Other references that are interwoven into the film include the name of the
John Houseman John Houseman (born Jacques Haussmann; September 22, 1902 – October 31, 1988) was a Romanians, Romanian-born British Americans, British-American theatre and film producer, actor, director, and teacher. He became known for his highly publ ...
character "Mr. Machen" (a reference to Welsh horror fantasist
Arthur Machen Arthur Machen ( or ; 3 March 1863 – 15 December 1947) was the pen-name of Arthur Llewellyn Jones, a Welsh people, Welsh author and mysticism, mystic of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He is best known for his influential supernatural ...
); a radio report that mentions Arkham Reef; and the town's coroner Dr. Phibes was named after the titular character of the horror films starring
Vincent Price Vincent Leonard Price Jr. (May 27, 1911 – October 25, 1993) was an American actor. He was known for his work in the horror film genre, mostly portraying villains. He appeared on stage, television, and radio, and in more than 100 films. Price ...
from the early 1970s. ''The Fog'' was part of a two-picture deal with AVCO Embassy Pictures, along with ''
Escape from New York ''Escape from New York'' is a 1981 American Independent film, independent science fiction film, science fiction action film co-written, co-scored and directed by John Carpenter, and starring Kurt Russell, Lee Van Cleef, Ernest Borgnine, Donald ...
'' (1981).


Casting

Cast as the female lead was
Adrienne Barbeau Adrienne Jo Barbeau (born June 11, 1945) is an American actress and author. She came to prominence in the 1970s as Broadway's original Rizzo in the musical ''Grease (musical), Grease'', and as Carol Traynor, the divorced daughter of Maude Findl ...
, Carpenter's wife, who had appeared in Carpenter's TV movie ''
Someone's Watching Me! ''Someone's Watching Me!'' is a 1978 American made-for-television horror film written and directed by John Carpenter and starring Lauren Hutton, David Birney and Adrienne Barbeau. The film was made immediately prior to Carpenter's theatrical h ...
'' in 1978. This was her first feature film. Barbeau also appeared in Carpenter's next film, ''
Escape from New York ''Escape from New York'' is a 1981 American Independent film, independent science fiction film, science fiction action film co-written, co-scored and directed by John Carpenter, and starring Kurt Russell, Lee Van Cleef, Ernest Borgnine, Donald ...
'' (1981). Tom Atkins, a friend of Barbeau's, was cast as Nick Castle. ''The Fog'' was Atkins' first appearance in a Carpenter film, and he also appeared in Carpenter's next film, ''Escape from New York'' (1981) as well as '' Halloween III: Season of the Witch'' (1982), which was produced and scored by Carpenter.
Jamie Lee Curtis Jamie Lee Curtis (born November 22, 1958) is an American actress, producer, and children's author. Known for List of Jamie Lee Curtis performances, her performances in the horror and slasher film, slasher genres, she is regarded as a scream qu ...
, who was the main star of Carpenter's 1978 hit ''
Halloween Halloween, or Hallowe'en (less commonly known as Allhalloween, All Hallows' Eve, or All Saints' Eve), is a celebration geography of Halloween, observed in many countries on 31 October, the eve of the Western Christianity, Western Christian f ...
'', appeared as Elizabeth. Commenting on the role and on appearing in another of Carpenter's films, she said: "That's what I love about John. He's letting me explore different aspects of myself. I'm spoiled rotten now. My next director is going to be almost a letdown." In a retrospective interview, Curtis stated that her part was written into the film by Carpenter, who felt sympathy for her after the success of ''Halloween'' had failed to lead to her obtaining other roles. This was the first collaboration between Carpenter and character actor
George Buck Flower George Albert "Buck" Flower (October 28, 1937 – June 18, 2004) was an American actor, writer, producer, assistant director, production manager, and casting director. He was sometimes credited as Ernest Wall, Buck Flower, George "Buck" Flower ...
, who would go on to appear in four more films directed by Carpenter: ''
Escape from New York ''Escape from New York'' is a 1981 American Independent film, independent science fiction film, science fiction action film co-written, co-scored and directed by John Carpenter, and starring Kurt Russell, Lee Van Cleef, Ernest Borgnine, Donald ...
'' (1981), '' Starman'' (1984), ''
They Live ''They Live'' is a 1988 American science fiction action horror film written and directed by John Carpenter, based on the 1963 short story " Eight O'Clock in the Morning" by Ray Nelson. Starring Roddy Piper, Keith David, and Meg Foster, the ...
'' (1988) and '' Village of the Damned'' (1995).


Filming

Filming took place from April to May 1979 at Raleigh Studios in
Hollywood, California Hollywood, sometimes informally called Tinseltown, is a List of districts and neighborhoods in Los Angeles, neighborhood and district in the Central Los Angeles, central region of Los Angeles County, California, within the city of Los Angeles. ...
(interior scenes) and on location at several other cities in California, including
Point Reyes Point Reyes ( , meaning 'Cape of the Kings') is a prominent landform and popular tourist destination on the Pacific coast of Marin County in Northern California. It is approximately west-northwest of San Francisco. The term is often applied ...
; Bolinas;
Inverness Inverness (; ; from the , meaning "Mouth of the River Ness") is a city in the Scottish Highlands, having been granted city status in 2000. It is the administrative centre for The Highland Council and is regarded as the capital of the Highland ...
; and the Episcopal Church of the Ascension in Sierra Madre. The original production budget was approximately $900,000. The film was shot by cinematographer
Dean Cundey Dean Raymond Cundey, A.S.C. (born March 12, 1946) is an American cinematographer and film director. He is known for his collaborations with directors like John Carpenter and Robert Zemeckis, with an extensive work in the horror genre, as well a ...
, and Carpenter stated the appearance of the film was inspired by the
Val Lewton Val Lewton (May 7, 1904 – March 14, 1951) was a Russian-American novelist, film producer, and screenwriter best known for a string of low-budget horror films he produced for RKO Pictures in the 1940s. His son, also named Val Lewton, was a pai ...
-produced horror films ''
I Walked with a Zombie ''I Walked with a Zombie'' is a 1943 American horror film directed by Jacques Tourneur and produced by Val Lewton for RKO Pictures. It stars James Ellison, Frances Dee, and Tom Conway, and follows a Canadian nurse who travels to care for th ...
'' (1943) and '' Isle of the Dead'' (1945), which he described as "very shadowy, all suggestion, and he has all sorts of melodrama going. I was a real fan of that sort of thing." Although a lower-budget independent film, Carpenter chose to shoot in the
anamorphic Anamorphic format is a cinematography technique that captures widescreen images using recording media with narrower native Aspect ratio (image), aspect ratios. Originally developed for 35 mm movie film, 35 mm film to create widescreen pres ...
2.35:1 format to elevate its visual appearance.


Post-production

After viewing a
rough cut In filmmaking, the rough cut (also known as the first cut or editor's cut) is the second of three stages of offline editing. The term originates from the early days of filmmaking when film stock was physically cut and reassembled, but is still ...
of the film, Carpenter was dissatisfied with the results. Recalling the experience, Carpenter commented: "It was terrible. I had a movie that didn't work, and I knew it in my heart". Carpenter subsequently added the prologue with Mr. Machen (
John Houseman John Houseman (born Jacques Haussmann; September 22, 1902 – October 31, 1988) was a Romanians, Romanian-born British Americans, British-American theatre and film producer, actor, director, and teacher. He became known for his highly publ ...
) telling ghost stories to fascinated children by a campfire (Houseman played a similar role in the opening of the 1981 film ''
Ghost Story A ghost story is any piece of fiction, or drama, that includes a ghost, or simply takes as a premise the possibility of ghosts or characters' belief in them."Ghost Stories" in Margaret Drabble (ed.), ''Oxford Companion to English Literature''. ...
''), which was filmed on a soundstage. Carpenter added several other new scenes and re-shot others in order to make the film more comprehensible, more frightening and gorier. Among the additions were the sequence in which Curtis's character is approached by a walking-dead corpse in the morgue, as well as the finale in which Barbeau's character ascends to the roof of the lighthouse to escape the mariner ghosts. Carpenter and Debra Hill said the necessity of a re-shoot became especially clear to them after they realized that ''The Fog'' would have to compete with horror films that had higher gore content. Approximately one-third of the finished film is the additional footage completed during reshoots. The reshoots increased the film's budget from $900,000 to $1.1 million.


Music

Carpenter's musical score for ''The Fog'' features prominent synthesizer and elements of
drone music Drone music, drone-based music, or simply drone, is a minimalist genre of music that emphasizes the use of sustained sounds, notes, or tone clusters called '' drones''. It is typically characterized by lengthy compositions featuring relativel ...
, and was largely composed in the key of
A minor A minor is a minor scale based on A, B, C, D, E, F, and G. Its key signature has no flats or sharps. Its relative major is C major and its parallel major is A major. The A natural minor scale is: Changes needed for the melodic ...
. As the film progresses, its score shifts to the key of
B major B major is a major scale based on B. The pitches B, C, D, E, F, G, and A are all part of the B major scale. Its key signature has five sharps. Its relative minor is G-sharp minor, its parallel minor is B minor, and its enharmonic equi ...
and features a flatter pitch. The score has been released on
compact disc The compact disc (CD) is a Digital media, digital optical disc data storage format co-developed by Philips and Sony to store and play digital audio recordings. It employs the Compact Disc Digital Audio (CD-DA) standard and was capable of hol ...
and vinyl in several different editions since the film's release.


Release


Marketing

In addition to the final $1.1 million production budget, AVCO Embassy spent over $3 million solely on advertising which included TV spots, radio spots, print ads and even the placement of fog machines (costing £350 each) in the lobbies of selected theaters where the film was showing. A further undisclosed amount was spent on 600 prints of the film, 540 of which were distributed to American cinemas. Originally, the film was set for release during
Christmas Christmas is an annual festival commemorating Nativity of Jesus, the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a Religion, religious and Culture, cultural celebration among billions of people Observance of Christmas by coun ...
1979, but AVCO Embassy president Bob Rehme opted to wait until February 1980, when there would be less major box office competition from other films and more theater screens available.


Box office

The film was given a staggered release in various cities by AVCO Embassy Pictures beginning February 1, 1980, before expanding to further locations later that month. Its theatrical run lasted a total of 152 weeks, and it ultimately grossed $21.3 million in the United States and Canada, with $11 million of that total being " rentals" (i.e. the share of the film's box office gross that goes to the film's distributors/studio).


Home media

''The Fog'' has been released on various home video formats since the early 1980s:
Magnetic Video Magnetic Video Corporation was a home video/home audio duplication service that operated between 1968 and 1982. History Magnetic Video Corporation was established by the co-founder Andre Blay, an American film producer in 1968 with Leon Nic ...
released it on
betamax Betamax (also known as Beta, and stylized as the Greek letter Beta, β in its logo) is a discontinued consumer analog Videotape, video cassette recording format developed by Sony. It was one of the main competitors in the videotape format war ag ...
and
VHS VHS (Video Home System) is a discontinued standard for consumer-level analog video recording on tape cassettes, introduced in 1976 by JVC. It was the dominant home video format throughout the tape media period of the 1980s and 1990s. Ma ...
in the fall of 1980, Embassy Home Entertainment reissued the film again on VHS in 1985.
MGM Home Entertainment MGM Home Entertainment LLC (also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Home Entertainment, d/b/a MGM Home Entertainment and formerly known as MGM Home Video, MGM/CBS Home Video and MGM/UA Home Video) is the home video distribution arm of the American med ...
released the film on VHS in 2000 before issuing a special edition DVD in August 2002. Another special edition DVD was released in Europe in 2004. Scream Factory released the film on
Blu-ray Blu-ray (Blu-ray Disc or BD) is a digital optical disc data storage format designed to supersede the DVD format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released worldwide on June 20, 2006, capable of storing several hours of high-defin ...
in July 2013, before reissuing it on 4K UHD on September 13, 2022, in both standard and limited SteelBook editions.


Reception and legacy


Contemporaneous

Upon its original release, ''The Fog'' received mixed responses from film critics. Ernest Leogrande of the ''
New York Daily News The ''Daily News'' is an American newspaper based in Jersey City, New Jersey. It was founded in 1919 by Joseph Medill Patterson in New York City as the ''Illustrated Daily News''. It was the first U.S. daily printed in Tabloid (newspaper format ...
'' gave the film a middling two out of four-star review, praising the performances but writing that "Carpenter obviously is entranced by ghost stories, but he seems willing to sacrifice story for effect." Kevin Thomas of the ''
Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...
'' similarly lauded the acting, and complimented the film as "an elegant and scary thriller of the supernatural that's far more impressive and satisfying than Carpenter's grisly and pointless (but profitable) ''Halloween''." ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
''s
Vincent Canby Vincent Canby (July 27, 1924 – October 15, 2000) was an American film and theatre critic who was the chief film critic for ''The New York Times'' from 1969 until the early 1990s, then its chief theatre critic from 1994 until his death in 2000. ...
praised the film's visual elements, but felt it ultimately paled in comparison to Carpenter's ''Halloween'', describing it as "neither a rewarding ghost story nor...  science-fiction, though it borrows freely from both genres... Unlike ''Halloween'', which was a model of straight-forward terror and carefully controlled suspense, ''The Fog'' is constructed of random diversions. There are too many story lines, which necessitate so much cross-cutting that no one sequence can ever build to a decent climax." In his 1980 review,
Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert ( ; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American Film criticism, film critic, film historian, journalist, essayist, screenwriter and author. He wrote for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. Eber ...
gave the film two out of four stars, commenting: "The movie's made with style and energy, but it needs a better villain. This isn't a great movie but it does show great promise from Carpenter." Similarly,
Leonard Maltin Leonard Michael Maltin (born December 18, 1950) is an American film critic, film historian, and author. He is known for his book of film capsule reviews, '' Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide'', published from 1969 to 2014. Maltin was the film criti ...
rated the film 2-stars-out-of-4 and called it a "well-directed but obvious ghost story."


Reassessment

In the years following its release, ''The Fog'' has amassed a
cult following A cult following is a group of fans who are highly dedicated to a person, idea, object, movement, or work, often an artist, in particular a performing artist, or an artwork in some medium. The latter is often called a cult classic. A film, boo ...
, and later came to be considered, as Carpenter opined regarding his creation, "a minor horror classic" though he also stated it was not his favorite film due to re-shoots and low production values.Audio commentary by John Carpenter and Debra Hill in ''The Fog'', 2002 special edition DVD. This is one of the reasons he agreed to the 2005 remake. In a 2002 review (for the DVD release of the film), ''Slant'' reviewer Ed Gonzalez gave the film 3.5 stars out of four, and stated that "Carpenter's use of 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen is beyond legendary and his compositions evoke a town that may as well be the last remaining one on the face of the earth." In 2018, ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...
'' called it "one of the director's most atmospheric, the shots of a wave-lashed cove and fog-choked headland making the town's impending reckoning almost poetic." In the early 2010s, '' Time Out'' conducted a poll of over 100 authors, directors, actors and critics who have worked within the horror genre to vote for their top horror films. ''The Fog'' placed at number 77 on their top 100 list. 'Fog Day', an unofficial holiday that celebrates The Fog, was started in 2020. Fog Day occurs on April 21st, the day the events of the film primarily take place. The primary Fog Day tradition is watching The Fog, but Fog Day is a holiday for the people and new traditions begin each year as Fog Day spreads to new people and cultures. ''Zombiemania: 80 Movies to Die For'' author Arnold T. Blumberg wrote that the film was "a very effective small scale chiller" and "an attempt to capture the essence of a typical spooky American folktale while simultaneously paying homage to the EC Comics of the 1950s and the then very recent Italian zombie influx."


Novelization

A
novelization A novelization (or novelisation) is a derivative novel that adapts the story of a work created for another medium, such as a film, TV series, stage play, comic book, or video game. Film novelizations were particularly popular before the advent ...
of the movie, written by Dennis Etchison, was published by
Bantam Books Bantam Books is an American publishing house owned entirely by parent company Random House, a subsidiary of Penguin Random House; it is an imprint of the Random House Publishing Group. It was formed in 1945 by Walter B. Pitkin Jr., Sidney B. K ...
in January 1980. The novel clarifies the implication in the film that the six who must die were not random but in fact descendants of the six original conspirators.


Remake

In 2005, the film was remade under the direction of
Rupert Wainwright Rupert Wainwright is an English film director, film and television director, with credits including ''Blank Check (film), Blank Check'' (1994), ''The Sadness of Sex'' (1995) and ''Stigmata (film), Stigmata'' (1999). He is also a music video prod ...
with a screenplay by Cooper Layne and starring
Tom Welling Thomas John Patrick Welling (born April 26, 1977) is an American actor, director, producer, podcaster, and model. He is best known for his role as Clark Kent in The WB (now The CW) superhero drama ''Smallville'' (2001–2011). He also co-starr ...
and Maggie Grace. Though based on Carpenter and Hill's original screenplay, the remake was made more in the vein of a "teen horror film" and given a PG-13 rating (the original film was rated R). Green-lit by
Revolution Studios Revolution Studios Distribution Company, LLC (operating as Revolution Studios) is an American independent motion picture and foreign sales company headed by Chief Executive Officer Scott Hemming, founded in 2000, and based in Los Angeles, Los Ang ...
with just eighteen pages of script written, the film was panned for its poor script and acting and has a
Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...
rating of 4%.


See also

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List of ghost films Ghost movies and shows can fall into a wide range of genres, including romance, comedy, horror, juvenile interest, and drama. History With the advent of motion pictures and television, screen depictions of ghosts became common and spanned a vari ...
*
1980 in film The following is an overview of events in 1980 in film, including the highest-grossing films, award ceremonies and festivals, a list of films released and notable deaths. Highest-grossing films (U.S.) The top ten 1980 released films by box off ...


References


Sources

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External links

* – official
John Carpenter John Howard Carpenter (born January 16, 1948) is an American filmmaker, composer, and actor. Most commonly associated with horror film, horror, action film, action, and science fiction film, science fiction films of the 1970s and 1980s, he is ...
website * * * * * at
Mubi Mubi (; stylized as MUBI; the Auteurs before 2010) is a global streaming platform, production company and film distributor. MUBI produces and theatrically distributes films by emerging and established filmmakers, which are exclusively available ...
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