The Fog (1980)

☆ ☆

The Fog (1980) – J. Carpenter

It’s as ludicrous as you’d expect – the menacing fog is rolling in!  Of course, I was hoping for something a bit more kitschy from John Carpenter in 1980.  Even his typical propulsive score is mostly absent, exchanged for some jazz played by Adrienne Barbeau’s dj character or some more brooding ominous sounds.  The fog is rolling in!  More specifically, inside the fog are some gruesome zombie-like 100-year dead ghosts with nasty hooks who are looking for the descendants of those who killed them back in the day at the very founding of this California town.  But everything is too slow and the stars (including Jamie Lee Curtis, her mum Janet Leigh, Hal Holbrook, Barbeau and some relative unknowns) have to strain to look frightened.  Barbeau seems to know in advance what’s going on for no real reason (she is up in her radio station lighthouse broadcasting warnings) – so, a few plot holes too.  It looks good on blu-ray but I wouldn’t say it has much else going for it.  Carpenter has better films from which to choose.