The Fog

Antonio Bay is one of the many scenic towns that dot the West Coast of America. Today, it celebrates the hundredth year of its founding, and preparations are afoot to honour its founding fathers. But unknown to its inhabitants, Antonio Bay holds a dreadful secret – a secret that is as old as the town itself and will destroy the town on this day. One hundred years ago, six of the town’s founders had deliberately sunk and plundered the “Elizabeth Dane”, a ship owned by the wealthy leper Blake, who wanted to establish a leper colony near the town. By lighting a fire on the rocks, they had lured the ship and everyone aboard to their doom. The gold plundered from the ship was later used to build the town church. As if like an act of God, an unearthly fog had come in from the sea, aiding them in their ghastly act.

As the town gears up for the celebrations, Stevie Wayne, who runs the local radio station from her lighthouse, spots a strange glowing fog moving in from the sea. She is convinced that there is something in the fog. Something or someone that wants revenge for the wrongs done in the past…

John Carpenter’s “The Fog”, starring Adrienne Barbeau, Jamie Lee Curtis and Janet Leigh was released in 1980 to big commercial success, but mixed reviews from the critics (A remake was released in 2005). Coming on the heels of his highly successful “Halloween”, “The Fog” is another quintessential horror flick that you would love to watch on a restless night with dogs howling outside your window (as was the case with me). Inspired from the real life event of the sinking and plundering of a ship in the 19th century near Goleta, California, "The Fog" is mercifully short, with only an hour-and-a-half of running time, which perhaps works much in its favour of scaring the viewer. The short duration of the film makes the plot move at a good pace thus ensuring that the viewer is not detached from what happens on the screen.

There are no great performances on screen, since this is just a low budget horror flick and does not provide ample screen space for the actors. However, “The Fog” has its moments of spook, which still manages to raise the hair on your arms. The phosphorescent fog moving in from the ocean with the dead sailors silhouetted against the white twirls, are memorable shots. Thankfully, the movie spares us of the gory facial features that accompany the horror movies of the present. “The Fog” never rises to the levels of spook and scare that Carpenter dished out for us in “The Halloween”, but what is now considered as one of the better horror movies ever made (501 Must See Movies: Bounty Books) is a definite watch for people who love that old style of horror where the movie-goer is made to imagine his/her darkest fears come alive.