The Fog (1980)
After finding success with “Halloween”, John Carpenter delivers this fairly creepy and atmospheric ghost story of vengeful spooks attacking a small seaside community. Just as the town of Antonio Bay is gearing up for it’s one-hundredth anniversary celebration, a local priest discovers an ancient journal that depicts the towns forefathers to be a little less than honorable gentlemen. Apparently leprosy was a much bigger problem for Antonio Bay back in the old days, as a small group of lepers paid off the town leaders in gold so they could establish a leper colony off the coast. Greedy backstabbing bastards that they were, Antonio Bay’s forefathers created a false signal fire that caused the lepers to crash to their deaths on the rocky coast. Lepers’ dead, gold in Antonio Bay’s hands, end of story. Well, not exactly. Flash ahead to modern day as right on the cusp of the anniversary of their deaths, the ghostly lepers show up at the stroke of midnight, engulfed in a creepy ass fog and armed to the teeth with hooks and swords to wreak a little vengeance. While many plot holes abound and the overall story is somewhat weak, Carpenter creates a solid little ghost picture with tons of atmosphere and one or two genuine chills. The scenes of the vengeful lepers engulfed in the swirling, threatening fog is truly top-notch stuff, and the photography here is excellent. The fog is the main character in the film, and truly has a presence all to it’s own. The ghosts themselves are fairly nifty, you never really get a good look at them, they’re just sorta spooky silhouettes in the fog. I also dug how they knocked on your door prior to gutting you with a sword…at least they have manners, huh? The films main downfall is it’s various continuity problems and ideas that are introduced then never explained, though since Carpenter went back and re-shot plenty of footage to spice up gore quotient, this is to be expected. As it is, “The Fog” is a minor classic and good stuff for a dreary rainy (or foggy) day.