The Fog (1980).

Review #2312: The Fog (1980).

Cast: 

Adrienne Barbeau (Stevie Wayne), Tom Atkins (Nicholas "Nick" Castle), Jamie Lee Curtis (Elizabeth Solley), Hal Holbrook (Father Patrick Malone), Janet Leigh (Kathy Williams), Nancy Loomis (Sandy Fadel), Ty Mitchell (Andrew "Andy" Wayne), Charles Cyphers (Dan O'Bannon / Dan the Weather Man), James Canning (Dick Baxter), John F. Goff (Al Williams), George Buck Flower (Tommy Wallace), Regina Waldon (Mrs. Kobritz), Darwin Joston (Dr. Phibes), Rob Bottin (Blake), and John Houseman (Mr. Machen) 

Directed by John Carpenter (#068 - Halloween (1978), #634 - Escape from New York, #712 - The Thing (1982), #732 - Escape from L.A., #1221 - Dark Star, #1298 - They Live, #1479 - Big Trouble in Little China, #1605 - Starman, #1874 - Assault on Precinct 13, #2130 - Vampires)

Review: 

"I think the primary reason I'm making movies is to get a response from the audience, is to get the audience to go with me down on whatever path I'm trying to take them with, whether it's to make them laugh or make them jump."

Admittedly, it does feel nice to inquire further into the works of John Carpenter. The Fog was the fourth feature film of his after the broadcast of Someone's Watching Me! (1978) and Elvis (1979). Of course, the genesis for what became The Fog came a few years prior around the time of Assault on Precinct 13 (1976), which had featured Debra Hill as a script supervisor and assistant editor in her first collaboration with Carpenter (with whom he wrote Halloween [1978] with). Apparently, the inspiration came when the two were promoting Assault in England and saw Stonehenge in the mist. This would collide with inspirations such as Val Lewton's films such as Isle of the Dead or I Walked with a Zombie to go along with the 1958 film The Trollenberg Terror, the Tales from the Crypt books, and the wreck of a ship called the Frollic. The Fog was written by Carpenter and Hill, who produced the film as part of a two-movie deal with AVCO Embassy Pictures, which was then followed the following year with Escape from New York (1981). The manner in which Embassy did a deal with Carpenter and Hill irritated Irwin Yablans, who apparently had a verbal agreement to produce the film and did a lawsuit. The result of this was that Carpenter and Hill wound up on working with an eager Yablans for Halloween II (1981). Prior to release of The Fog, Carpenter oversaw reshoots of the film because the original version apparently didn't work in his eyes to go along with needing to compete with horror films that would be released around the same time (with their levels of gore). The prologue alongside certain moments of gore to go with tinkering with the nature of the climax (such as showing the top of the lighthouse) are the most significant things that were done in these re-shoots. The movie was made for roughly $1.1 million and was a relative success with audiences. A remake was directed by Rupert Wainwright in 2005 (with Carpenter and Hill being producers) to tremendous failure.

 

It's interesting that the movie starts with a quote from Edgar Allan Poe’s poem “A Dream Within a Dream" ("Is all that we see or seem/But a dream within a dream?"). The faceless horror that arises from a strange ghost story (well, aside from the climax that sort of feels like a zombie film when they try to board up the church), complete with Houseman being the perfect voice to sell the opening in gentlemanly fashion. A. & A. Special Effects (as operated by Dick Albain Jr) were behind the fog effects, which they did on soundstages with fog machines that combined with various uses of dry ice, fog juice and optical effects (in one instance, a miniature of rocks, black velvet and dry ice to combine later) for what you see here. Barbeau had considerable television experience (most notably on Maude) but this was her film debut, one in which her character doesn't even share a scene physically on-screen with anybody other than her on-screen son. She still manages to pull off a strong performance here, charming and strong enough to carry the tension for sights and sounds. Holbrook is the logical choice for sobering truth in such carefully curated time on screen, one wracked with unnerving energy at seeing cracks form in his faith at the hands of a terrifying discovery (namely coordinating death). Curtis and Atkins are as familiar to us as bread with their warm presences, but (to me, anyway) that is a fun thing to have when seeing people get wrapped in terror. You do get your moments of slashing every now and then, but it mostly is a film trying to roll along with atmosphere (such as an expected on-point music score from Carpenter) and a threat of fog that can in some ways work out for suspense, by the time it gets most of its characters in line for the climax. The 90-minute runtime does end a bit abruptly, but it is still strange but enduring horror experience in which one gets bit of shock and gore at the revenge-plot play out ("six must die", as one sees). As a whole, Carpenter's fourth effort as a filmmaker managed to make an old-fashioned ghost story work out with eerie enjoyment and a solid cast that makes for a pretty good time to see play out all the way to its end. A neat little gem that ranks firmly in the second tier of Carpenter films, you won't miss with this one when it comes to calmly-built terror. 

Overall, I give it 8 out of 10 stars.

Well, that is a wrap on Halloween: The Week After VI. We had plenty of fun going through a historic October (45 reviews, because I just had to look for as many "different" films as possible) to go along with some useful loose ends fulfilled for this first week of November. Anyway, here is the list of candidates that just missed out on the cut of October 1 - November 7:

The Monster, The Man Who Changed His Mind, The Collector, The Gorgon, The Last Broadcast, Torture Garden, The Wolfman (2010), Quatermass 2, The Bride, The Thing That Wouldn't Die, Vampire in Brooklyn, Amazing Mr. X, Underworld 2, Friday the 13th Part 3, Frankenstein 1970, Alraune, The Plague of Florence, The Student of Prague (1926), The Bat, One Exciting Night, Wizard of Gore, Mary Reilly, Color out of Space, The Invasion, I Know What You Did Last Summer, Final Destination 3, The People Under the Stairs,  The Fly II, Van Helsing, Candyman: Farewell to the Flesh, Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night II, It's Alive, Martin, Monkey Shines, I Vampiri, The Abominable Snowman, The Aztec Mummy, From Hell It Came, The House on Sorority Row, Vampire in Venice, Blood for Dracula, Scream Blacula Scream, Planet of the Vampires, Ravenous, The Grudge, Hellraiser II, 

Death Line, Squirm,...

...As for what might be next, well, I do have one surprise up my sleeve.

Assault on Precinct 13.

Review #1874: Assault on Precinct 13.

Cast: 

Austin Stoker (Lieutenant Ethan Bishop), Darwin Joston (Napoleon Wilson), Laurie Zimmer (Leigh), Martin West (Mr. Lawson), Tony Burton (Wells), Charles Cyphers (Special Officer Starker), Nancy Loomis (Julie), Peter Bruni (Ice Cream Man), John J. Fox (Warden), and Marc Ross (Patrolman Tramer) Written and Directed by John Carpenter (#068 - Halloween (1978), #634 - Escape from New York, #712 - The Thing (1982), #732 - Escape from L.A., #1221 - Dark Star, #1298 - They Live, and #1479 - Big Trouble in Little China, #1605 - Starman)

Review: 

I'm sure that hearing me say that John Carpenter is a vastly underrated director sounds like repetition, but there is one little caveat to make: John Carpenter is a vastly underrated great director. If you remember, Dark Star (1974) was the first movie that John Carpenter brought onto the screen. Granted, it wasn't particularly great, but it serves as a low-budget curiosity for those who are into that sort of thing with loose sci-fi comedy. After the movie was done, Carpenter had two scripts he wanted to do for himself: this film and "Eyes", with the latter being sold to Jon Peters and eventually grounded and spit up into what you know as Eyes of Laura Mars (1978), but Assault did attract attention for financing that Carpenter could make, provided that he could do it for $100,000; Carpenter had a friend named J. Stein Kaplan from USC that served as producer, joining in tandem with Joseph Kaufman to produce. The budget restraints meant that Carpenter would have to change his idea of making a Western in the style of Howard Hawks' El Dorado or Rio Lobo into basically an urban rendition of Rio Bravo (1959). Given that Hawks is Carpenter's favorite director, this is an ideal pairing to make a movie that would basically serve as his coming out party to bigger and better things. Carpenter shot it over the course of three weeks and says it is his most enjoyable film experience, one where he also served as editor and cinematographer (he used a pseudonym for one of the roles, referring back to Rio Bravo). One certain scene in the movie would have possibly given the movie an X rating, if not for Carpenter cutting the scene in the copy given to the MPAA and then distributing the movie with the scene put back (he later regretted shooting the scene in that fashion). The success of the film led to Carpenter being approached about making a movie about a killer stalking a babysitter on Halloween night...and you get the idea.

What we have here is an ideal main trio of characters packed in a wonderfully captured movie that is wrapped up in tension with distinct characteristics in an endless cycle of violence. It is a grimy, wonderful movie. It is the most famous film for each of its main actors: Stoker, born in Trinidad and Tobago, had done stage work and a handful of blaxploitation films before this feature, while Joston and his characteristics when living in the same apartment as Carpenter while also having his own share of stage and TV work. Zimmer had three further film roles before retiring in 1979 to teach. Stoker does his best with the role here, packed in steely-laced patience and charm that makes a quality rendition of the hero seen from stuff like Rio Bravo. It is the stoic loyalty shown by Joston that proves the most striking for the film, one that takes in all of the sensibilities seen in Westerns such as Once Upon a Time in the West (1968) to worthy effect in sardonic charm. It comes through despite the background of the character, which means one really did a wonderful job in acting. The two make for a quality tandem when they meet in the film, one that isn't quite a buddy film but a useful collaboration that rewards both actors, complete with their final scene together. Zimmer matches them in screen presence that is self-assured and ready at the helm for action and tension, one with an unspoken rapport against Joston that keeps the movie fresh. Burton and Cyphers don't have as much to do, but they are nice character actors to see make an impression early in their careers (each started appearing in movies in the 1970s). One could maybe talk about the fact that there are very few lines for the threat presented in the relentless criminal gang that is shown cutting their hands to put blood in a bowl. Others would say: who gives a crap? You are here to watch a movie that is basically Rio Bravo meets Night of the Living Dead (1968), and it accomplishes all it sets out to do as an action thriller that utilizes its surroundings for a wonderfully built ride, one that rolls in tension the narrower and narrower things get within 91 minutes. Carpenter balances the three initial plot threads handily with no weak link before it eventually segues into moments of action that Carpenter stages with good timing and framing. There are movies that have come out in its wake that seemed their villains as obstacles to be taken down by the hero in a blaze of effects or perhaps doesn't take itself too seriously. This is not the case here, shown most strikingly with the scene most remembered: a scene in an ice-cream truck where someone is shot at point-blank range in the chest. Regardless how shocked one is at the scene, it certainly is a striking sequence fitting for its decade in grimy realism, and that is all that matters. Carpenter's music score also proves quite effective in setting the tone for the film in its tone and pace. As a whole, this is Carpenter's first big accomplishment as a director, one that shows him make an urban rendition of Rio Bravo with his resourceful methods of direction that would have him grow further in his subsequent career.

Overall, I give it 9 out of 10 stars.