When it comes to Halloween and watching horror movies I always seem to favour the older ones. As much as I like some of the more recent horror films, the older movies tend to have an originality that the newer ones often lack.
This is one of my all time favourites!
The Fog (1980)
John Carpenter (the writer and director of this film) was on fire in the late 70s and 80s! Films like Halloween (1978), Escape from New York (1981), The Thing (1982), Christine (1983) and Big Trouble in Little China (1986) made him a horror legend! Literally everything he touched was either instantly successful or went on to gain cult status thanks to hoards of devoted fans.
Please don’t confuse this film with the atrocious 2005 remake starring Tom Welling (Smallville) though. If you liked that movie, feel free to move along on your Facebook journey and never come back here again. I’m afraid we can’t be friends. It’s also not to be confused with the 1975 novel of the same name by James Herbert. They’re two completely different stories.
If you’re still interested and haven’t seen this far superior movie, the film stars Jamie Lee Curtis (Halloween), Tom Atkins (Lethal Weapon), Adrienne Barbeau (Escape from New York), Janet Leigh (Psycho) and Hal Holbrook (Magnum Force) among many others.
This is what it’s about:
As the coastal town of Antonio Bay prepares to celebrate its centennial, a strange, glowing fog sweeps in from the sea bringing with it the vengeful ghosts of mariners who were killed in a shipwreck there 100 years before.
I absolutely love this film!
It has next to no blood and gore but it’s one of the scariest horror movies I remember watching growing up. I’ve actually seen it so many times now that it’s become a bit of a comfort movie and has sadly lost a lot of its scare factor. There are still some scenes that give me the heebie jeebies though.
Right from the beginning the film grabs you with John Carpenter’s creepy and ominous score, and the late John Houseman scaring the crap out of a bunch of little kids on the beach with ghost stories.
I love the tone of the movie and how it takes its time to introduce and establish each of the characters. It also cleverly makes the town itself feel like a character, especially with its shady history and its impending centennial being at the centre of the story.
Jamie Lee Curtis reunites with Carpenter in this after working with him on Halloween, and even stars alongside her mum and original scream queen Janet Leigh. She actually plays more of a supporting role in this while the gorgeous Adrienne Barbeau takes one of the leads as Stevie Wayne, a lighthouse keeping, late night radio DJ with a sexy voice and a terrible taste in music.
This is John Carpenter at his best and if you somehow haven’t seen it, treat yourself this weekend and watch one of the best horror films ever made.
Seen it? Share your thoughts below.
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