A hundred years ago, a ship of lepers sank off the shore of what would become the town of Antonio Bay. Now a strange fog is rolling into town and citizens are dying.
Part ghost story, part slasher, part curse flick, The Fog is an atmospheric tale that puts multi-dimensional, everyday people into a horrific situation. Director John Carpenter sidesteps all the clichés, presenting something original while sticking close to the standard ghost story. Yes, there is the pretty young girl who is quick to have sex (Jamie Lee Curtis), but unlike in so many horror films, she doesn’t die, she isn’t stupid or bitchy, and she isn’t weak. Finding such a sexually liberated character in modern horror is a good enough reason to watch The Fog.
The cast is as good as I’ve seen in any horror film; in addition to Curtis, there is Adrienne Barbeau, Janet Leigh, John Houseman, Tom Atkins, and Hal Holbrook. Each has their moment as The Fog tells several different stories of people trying to survive and figure out the mystery of what the ghosts want. It’s all tied together by Barbeau’s Stevie Wayne, the town’s late night radio DJ. As the other characters listen to her broadcast, it feels like she is part of each story, even though she interacts with few of the other characters. The Fog was the first in a line of memorable thrillers John Carpenter made in the ’80s. He went on to make Escape from New York (1981), The Thing (1982), Big Trouble in Little China (1986), Prince of Darkness (1987), and They Live (1988). He has since lost his way, but for that decade he ruled several of the fantasy genres.