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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.

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Recent Reviews

  • 3.5 Stars
    MCT:
    August 8, 2008
    Infinitely better than the shiteous 2005 remake, no contest there. And explained a lot better than the remake is.

    Undoubtedly some movies just shouldn;t be remade. Or maybe they shouldn;t involve Tom Welling. Oh ya, I said it, suck it, Smallville fans!

    Pretty good, and I got excited when I saw Debra "Halloween" Hill's name in the credits.

    Good stuff.
  • 4.0 Stars
    MCT:
    July 27, 2008
    I saw this movie time ago..and this is one of my few favorite horror movies..this movie is original, scary, i has great suspense scenes and dialogues...A piece of art
  • 3.5 Stars
    MCT:
    July 23, 2008
    Carpenter's first movie after "Halloween" has gotten a bad rap, but I think it's pretty good. Maybe the villains are a little nondescript for some, but this movie still has some scary atmosphere. Plus Jaime Lee Curtis in a horror movie is always good (except when she slept with some one who looks 30 years older than her).
  • 3.5 Stars
    MCT:
    July 21, 2008
    Good movie. Getting pretty dated now, but certainly still worth a watch if you like ghost stories. Much, much better than the remake, although that isn't saying much.
  • 4.0 Stars
    MCT:
    July 16, 2008
    Classic creepy horror movie - the storyline is a little strange but worth seeing if you haven't already.
  • 3.0 Stars
    MCT:
    June 16, 2008
    The Fog is a erie ghost story takes place on the 100 year anniversary of the town of antonio bay. Ghosts start comming out of the fog and attacking the towns folk. I think that this film had a few good scares, But it what what is truly frightening is the Score by John Carpenter. This is a good example of how a good score can save a movie. Take that out and you have a pretty flat horror film.
  • 5.0 Stars
    MCT:
    June 4, 2008
    The small oceanside community of Antonio Bay is celebrating its 100th birthday. However, the foundation of the community in 1880 was based on murder and deception, and now the ghosts of some long-dead mariners are back to exact bloody vengeance.

    I would advise any lover of good ghost stories to check out this early John Carpenter gem.

    It's absolutely atmospheric and chilling with a minimum of gore and effects and a thick, glowing fog that is as much a star of the movie as the human actors.

    I loved the settings in this film - Antonio Bay is well played by Inverness, California, and the actual working lighthouse is impressive to behold. All sights are excellently photographed by the always reliable Dean Cundey. I've always liked the fact that Carpenter's movies are shot in Panavision because you get that nice wide shot.

    The other ingredients are here, too - I've never heard a Carpenter music score I didn't like - including a superb ensemble cast (real-life mother and daughter Janet Leigh and Jamie Lee Curtis co-star, although they don't actually play mother and daughter, and share very few scenes); in particular, Oscar-winner John Houseman makes the opening sequence mesmerizing. Adrienne Barbeau, who was once actually married to Carpenter, makes her film debut here and looks great in addition to giving a solid performance. There's also Tom Atkins, Hal Holbrook, Nancy Loomis of "Halloween", and Darwin Joston of "Assault on Precinct 13".

    "The Fog" is subtle, intriguing, and spooky - just a great little ghost story, which was also written by Carpenter and Debra Hill

    Rob Bottin, the man behind much of the creature effects for "The Thing", had his first association with Carpenter here - providing the film with one brief makeup effect as well as playing the red-eyed phantom Blake.

    This is one of Carpenter's very best, right up there with the likes of "Halloween", and "The Thing". If you haven't seen it, check it out and avoid the awful remake.
  • 4.0 Stars
    MCT:
    May 16, 2008
    this film it a gurrd film bt it is a one see film if u get mi wtch it once n u reli enjoy it wtch it agen its nt hlf as gurrd
  • 3.5 Stars
    MCT:
    May 7, 2008
    Far better than the remake. Using physical actors instead of computer animation makes it far scarier.
  • 3.0 Stars
    MCT:
    April 15, 2008
    A very unconventional horror movie, you can tell a mile away that it's a John Carpenter film.

    He's the only man that can make a shitty special effects budget look intentional.
  • 4.0 Stars
    MCT:
    April 10, 2008
    John Carpenter had a way about things. The story was original, the setting near where I live, and the hack who did the remake could have learned a few things from the original if they ever actually watched it past the first thirty minutes...
  • 5.0 Stars
    MCT:
    March 23, 2008
    Blood-curdiling horror is to the max in this superb horror film. As usuel in a John Carpenter film, great camera angles and a brilliant score merge in to make one great, unforgettable horror film.
  • 3.0 Stars
    MCT:
    March 18, 2008
    I don't really see what all the hype is about. My newest quest is to complete the 501 Must See movie book and I'm going section by section, choosing one movie and moving forward. My first selection was John Carpenter's The Fog.

    I'm one of the people who did the movies backwards. I saw the Tom Welling version of this movie first, simply because I'm a huge Smallville nerd. I can't deny that. It's who I am and what I do. That movie sucked. But I still wanted to give this movie a try a) because it was in the book and b) it's got a huge fan base. I will say this for the movie. It is significantly better than its remake.

    This is a story that really deserves an R-Rating. That R-Rating is a good idea because the scariness doesn't come from the supernatural element, but more of the people that come from the fog. Heck, there's little supernatural about this movie. I mean, the leper ghosts kill people with knives and scythes. That seems plum grounded compared to what they tried in the PG-13 version.

    Yes, there are some scares. I won't say they are great. Either that or I'm really desensitized. (I'd really stake my bet somewhere between the two.) The visuals are cool, but the movie does kind of drag. Like most high concept horror movies, most of the horror doesn't happen until the last part of the movie. Unfortunately, when it comes to The Fog, that means the last twenty minutes of the film. The rest of the time, you have to droll through needless, wasted exposition just for a ho-hum pay-off.

    The best part of this movie is the Janet Leigh / Jamie Lee Curtis combo. Knowing the relationship in real life really carries a lot more weight, so I do appreciate that in this film. Both actresses do their job, but there's not much to do in this film.

    Yeah, it's a decent time, but don't get too hung up about getting scared. Maybe it's that whole Stephen King setting that bothers me. His stories never scared me because water ghosts do nothing for me.
  • 2.5 Stars
    MCT:
    March 17, 2008
    Some very cool visuals help make this horror film extremely atmospheric. It definitely creates a mood and sets a creepy tone. However, the rest remains contrived and fairly lame.
  • 4.0 Stars
    MCT:
    March 16, 2008
    I've been on a campaign to watch all the Carpenter I haven't seen, and all the Carpenter I saw when I was little but it scared the crap out of me and I haven't watched it since. This movie falls in the later category.
    Watching it today, I have a much higher "scare threshold" but an advanced and more informed method of analyzing film, in particular story, to compensate for that first inadequacy.
    Simply put, Carpenter is a director who knows how to set pace perfectly, he rarely includes impertinent details, and he acheives scary visuals without gore or even seeing the menacing figures. The editing really makes this movie move (it takes alot to make a ghost movie really move like that) at a perfectly escalating pace. This is a classic horror film, but gorehounds won't find much here. On the other hand, if you appreciate horror literature, you will find this to be a worthwhile investment of your time.
  • 3.0 Stars
    MCT:
    March 11, 2008
    Good, fun horror film. Not the best thing you'll ever see, but it will keep you entertained for a while. However, I saw this when I was younger and always thought that there were loads more zombies than there actually is!
  • 3.5 Stars
    MCT:
    March 10, 2008
    I could not see what was happening in this movie because of all the fog! Seriously, this is an atmospheric ghost story with a few good shocks and suspenseful moments.
  • 3.0 Stars
    MCT:
    March 9, 2008
    It's fairly good but maybe a bit slow moving. I'd have liked to have seen more zombies and I expected the fog to appear a lot earlier..
  • 4.0 Stars
    MCT:
    March 1, 2008
    The Fog is a very creepy, atmospheric ghost movie that never lets up. It really doesn't get as much love as it should. Jamie Lee Curtis is great as always, but she also has a terrific supporting cast of Adrienne Barbeau, Hal Holbrook, Tom Atkins, Janet Leigh, and Charles Cyphers.
  • 4.0 Stars
    MCT:
    February 24, 2008
    I watch it every Halloween.
    Love the Adrienne Barbeau radio station scenes. You can't beat ghost pirates!
  • 4.0 Stars
    MCT:
    February 15, 2008
    This movie scared the CRAP out of me when I was a little munchkin. I still don't ever want to watch it!
  • 4.5 Stars
    MCT:
    January 18, 2008
    I loved this movie, thought it was much better than the remake version. Just makes me look at fog in a whole new light lol
  • 3.0 Stars
    MCT:
    January 9, 2008
    i thought the fog was the killer itself. The bunch of zombie sailors isn't scary. Good atmosphere and actors, though.
  • 3.5 Stars
    MCT:
    December 18, 2007
    Synopsis: 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.
    Starring: Adrienne Barbeau, Jamie Lee Curtis, Hal Holbrook, Tom Atkins, Ty Mitchell, George 'Buck' Flower, Charles Cyphers, Janet Leigh
    Directed by: John Carpenter

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Comments

  • orcahock
    TERRIFIC SUSPENSE/THRILLER/SCAREY TALE. JAMIE LEE AND A. BARBEAU TRULY KNOW HOW TO MAKE A HORROR FILM BELIEVABLE J. CARPENTER IS A WONDERFUL DIRECTOR. i CAN WATCH THIS MOVIE AGAIN AND AGAIN. GREAT MOVIE FOR HALLOWEEN NIGHT OR 2:00AM.

    posted 574 days ago

Details

  • Rated: (R)
  • Directed by: John Carpenter
  • Genres: Horror
  • Released: June 1, 1979
  • DVD Released: August 27, 2002

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