When the name John Carpenter comes up, people usually think of his most well-known films - Halloween and The Thing. This is for good reason; both were revolutionary for their time and took the genre of horror in directions it hadn’t seen before, and influenced the plethora of horror creators that came after. However, Carpenter has a filmography that extends far beyond the few films that he’s most known for, and he directed a number of other really interesting and provocative films.
One of these is The Fog (1980), which was actually the next movie he made post-Halloween. The Fog is a brilliantly atmospheric movie that doesn't need to rely on jumpscares for its spookiness, opting to instead build tension slowly and have the viewer vaguely unsettled for the whole film, until things really come to a head in the third act. Plus, this movie’s plot involves a town cursed by a group of undead sailors who have come back to take revenge. What’s not to love?
Antonio Bay is a small coastal town in California that’s about to celebrate its 100th anniversary and is a fairly peaceful and uneventful place. That is until a thick fog starts rolling into town, bringing death with it. The story begins with Father Malone discovering his grandfather's diary hidden in the walls of the church. The diary reveals that in 1880, the six founders of Antonio Bay (one of whom was Father Malone's grandfather) intentionally sank a clipper ship named the Elizabeth Dane in order to ensure that its wealthy but leprosy-afflicted owner (Blake) would not start a leper colony near the town. They then plundered gold from the ship and used it to found the town.
Back in the present, a fishing boat out at sea is enveloped in a strange, glowing fog. The fishermen are attacked and killed by the reanimated corpses of Blake and his crew, who have come to take revenge on the town for what was done to them. While this is happening, a man named Nick picks up a hitchhiker named Elizabeth, and the windows of his truck shatter on their way to town. This is an occurrence that continues to happen all over town during the next few nights; the fog often brings with it the shattering of glass, signaling the arrival of the sailors.
The town radio DJ, Stevie, has a young son named Andy, who is out playing near the water when he spots a piece of gold on the rocks. When he gets closer, the coin turns into a piece of wood with the word "DANE" written on it. Andy gives this to his mother, who doesn't believe his story of the transformation, but takes it with her to the town lighthouse where the radio station is set up. She sets it on a tape player, and the wood mysteriously begins to seep water, causing the player to short circuit. The words "6 must die" appear on the wood before it bursts into flames. When Stevie puts out the fire, the wood once again reads "DANE", and the tape player begins to work as usual once again.
All of these events set up the tone of the film, which is paced slowly in the beginning to create mystery and tension. The audience knows that the incoming fog is a threat, and is able to put together why the sailors are taking revenge, but the characters are at first unaware of the danger that the fog causes, which creates an eerie atmosphere where the characters can be caught unaware.
The spookiness of the film also comes from the fact that the sailors themselves are barely seen until the final climactic fight. Before that point, all the audience sees is an arm with a hook raised in the air before killing someone, or a dark shape dragging someone into the fog. This air of mystery keeps the undead sailors feeling unreachable and cryptic. In one particularly tense sequence that feels like a precursor to The Shining, Stevie's son Andy is in his room, trapped as the fog envelops the house and the sailors enter. He is frozen on his bed with fear as the sailors begin banging on his door trying to get through, until Blake's hook smashes through the door one piece at a time. The focus on that door as the hook emerges from it is a chilling image, and makes the viewer fear even more for Andy.
Another memorable element of the film is Stevie's radio broadcast. As the host of a radio show that is housed in the lighthouse on the edge of town, she is able to monitor the fog as it creeps towards Antonio Bay. She tries to warn the residents of the town and succeeds in getting the attention of Elizabeth and Nick, leading them away from the danger. When the fog surrounds her own home in the aforementioned scene where her son is trapped in the house, she screams frantically into the microphone for someone to go to the house and save her son, desperately trying to get anyone's attention. Again, since Elizabeth and Nick are listening, they are able to get to the house just in time, but there is something incredibly creepy about the situation Stevie is put in, where she is able to monitor the danger headed for the town but is, in her own way, trapped and unable to do anything about it other than warn people.
The final sequence involves the main characters holing up at the church as the undead sailors approach. They are still seeking revenge for their murders, and still crave more death from the town. The characters essentially have to fight off a bloodthirsty zombie sailor horde, and some of the sailors even surround Stevie at the radio station, who is forced to climb onto the roof of the lighthouse in order to escape them. It's a fantastic, tense sequence that was actually added in reshoots because John Carpenter worried that the film wasn't scary enough without it. Just as the characters think they might be safe, as they note that only 5 people have died at the hands of the sailors who wanted 6, the film ends on a final twist that really brings the whole thing together.
What makes The Fog so good, and especially perfect for the upcoming Halloween season, is the atmosphere that it creates. It's about a small town that is essentially being haunted. It has old curses, a thick, creepy fog, and murderous zombie pirates. It's not always fast-paced, but that works well to make the story more tense. It's not overly terrifying or gory and is just a good watch on a chilly fall night if you're in the mood to be mildly creeped out, and still enjoy a well-made film that definitely seems aware of its own occasional camp.