The inevitable backlash from creating an iconic genre film such as Halloween is that the bar is set so high that it is nearly impossible to surpass. John Carpenter learned this lesson on The Fog because although it is an entertaining ghost story, it failed to achieve the legendary status of its predecessor. While Carpenter did manage to match (and in my opinion surpass) Halloween with 1982's The Thing, The Fog is the awkward film in between that tends to sometimes be overlooked when thinking of Carpenter's filmography. This is not without good reason because although the film is fairly solid in it's delivery, it is not at the same level as the rest of Carpenter's golden years.

Adrienne Barbeau (Swamp Thing) stars as Stevie Wayne, a radio DJ in the town of Antonio Bay who acts as an anchor in the story of shipload of ghost lepers who come back from the dead on the hundred-year anniversary of their murder. They arrive with the help of a glowing fog that causes electronics to malfunction and things to move on their own. The fog slowly covers the town and give the spectres the opportunity to take the six lives that they need to even the score. The film also features Tom Atkins (Night of the Creeps, Maniac Cop) as a fisherman who is trying to figure out why people are dying, Jamie Lee Curtis as a hitchhiker who hooks up with Atkins, Hal Holbrook (Creepshow) as the town priest with a dark secret, Curtis' mom Janet Leigh (Psycho) as a woman who is hosting a celebration of the town's first century, and Nancy Loomis as Leigh's assistant.

Carpenter did a good job of establishing the characters and the legend behind The Fog but I found that he failed a little in establishing a threat. With only six people on the body count board, the countdown was very quick and it felt as though the menace should affect more people than the handful it did. I was expecting some Humanoids From The Deep style mayhem at the centennial celebration that just didn't happen. Instead, there were a few smaller sieges that were mildly frightening for what they were but could have been much more intense considering the nature of the monsters and the types of weapons that they had. I am not trying to knock the film as it is still a classic of the 80's because it has a few good moments and the idea is great. I just feel that with Carpenter's emerging style, this movie should have been so much more suspenseful and exciting. If the predetermined body count was not limited, you would have been a lot more worried about who was going to live and who was going to die. By the time the climax of the film came and went, things were somewhat anticlimactic. If you are a fan of old creature features, you will appreciate what Carpenter was trying to do but if you are looking for another Halloween or The Thing, you will instead find the awkward middle child who will always be overshadowed by it's superior siblings.

Carpenter fans will recognize a number of actors from his other movies. Barbeau was married to Carpenter at the time of filming and was also in Escape From New York. Curtis and Loomis were both in Halloween and Loomis was also in Assault on Precinct 13. Atkins was in Escape From New York. Also making appearances are Charles Cyphers (Halloween, Escape From New York) as the weatherman, Darwin Jostin (Assault on Precinct 13) as a mortician, cult icon Buck Flower as one of the guys on the boat, and Carpenter himself as the priest's assistant at the beginning of the film. The ghost make-ups were done by Rob Bottin and Steve Johnson with Bottin himself playing the part of Blake, the lead ghost. The Fog was remade in 2005 with Selma Blair and Tom Welling. (Josh Pasnak, 12/2/07)

Directed By: John Carpenter.
Written By: John Carpenter, Debra Hill.

Starring: Adrienne Barbeau, Tom Atkins, Jamie Lee Curtis, Janet Leigh.