Review #256: The Fog (1980)


This review was originally written in October 2023.

Gabe's Horror Movie October Review #10 - The Fog (1980)

The Fog is a movie about a small coastal town that is beset upon by a mysterious glowing fog on the eve of its centennial, and with the fog comes ghostly figures intent on taking revenge for a long-forgotten theft. I'd never seen this movie, but when it got remade in the 2000s I heard a lot of people dismissively say, "Oh, it's about ghost pirates" which like... isn't entirely inaccurate, but that's quite a reductive way to refer to this film (and I presume the remake as well).

This isn't a particularly deep or complex movie, but I really enjoyed it. I thought the setting was spooky and atmospheric, the music really set the tone (even if it sounded more than a little bit like the music from the Halloween series, which makes sense considering the director), the cast members each did a fine job, and the effects were good if a bit understated (apparently John Carpenter made the entire movie almost entirely bloodless in the hopes of getting a PG rating, but it ended up with an R anyway).

I don't really have a ton to say about this one; just that it was well-made, had a really good vibe to it, and now I want to go check out the remake to see if it did anything interesting with the story. Apparently there was an intention of starting off an anthology series with this film (with each entry having the fog arrive in a different town and causing different types of supernatural effects) which would have been really interesting to see, but unfortunately that fell through.

So check out this movie if you want a chill, entertaining, spooky experience!

Overall Rating: 8/10 Stolen Sips of Juice

Freeze-Frame Easter Egg: Near the beginning of the film, the priest character finds an old journal that presages the events to come. However, if you pause it while he's flipping through the pages, it looks like someone in the prop department had some fun writing out a page that is plainly visible (if partially covered up): ".... my college education to work writing dumb shit in this fucking movies props, Being one. It's time to bring in the the words guide or the big tits, tattoos and shaved beavers. I know horny .....s would go .... some of that."

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