Reviewed by Geno McGahee
“Antonio Bay is cursed.” – Father Malone (Hal Holbrook)
In 1978, John Carpenter released the horror sensation “HALLOWEEN” and followed up with another great horror film called “THE FOG.” It’s nice to see that Carpenter brought back many of the actors that he used in HALLOWEEN for this film like Jamie Lee Curtis, Nancy Kyes, and even brought in a future star of HALLOWEEN III, Tom Atkins. Despite the fact that Jamie Lee Curtis (reportedly) at one time had a penis, there is chemistry between her and Atkins. I am a very big fan of Tom Atkins. The guy can act and overact upon occasion as he did in the third Halloween movie, screaming like a madman from time to time. I like overacting in films. There’s not enough of it.
Antonio Bay is a pleasant community that has a deadly secret…and don’t you just love towns with secrets? This community is dealing with a curse due to some misdeeds by the church and we all know about misdeeds with the church now don’t we? At least former altar boys or relatives of former altar boys know about those crazy priests and their happy hands. Now, before you protest this movie, let me assure you that the priests in this film are not child molesters and the curse is not brought on because of molester priests. It was brought on by greed and the church wanting money. This must be based on a true story.
Father Malone (Hal Holbrook) stumbles across a book that tells the tale of the church members robbing gold from some visitors and killing them. The gold built the town of Antonio Bay but now they are going to pay for it as the fog rolls in, first noticed by radio disc jockey, Stevie Wayne (Adrienne Barbeau). Now you have to remember Adrienne Barbeua from SWAMP THING where she got many accolades for showing off her boobies. She was a sex symbol of the 1980s for sure but I just don’t see it. Sure she had a nice pair of knockers but she doesn’t do it for me. I would take her for a night as opposed to bending over for Swamp Thing though. I would never want to be near Swamp Thing’s thing.
Stevie not only notices the fog rolling in but she also notices that it’s very odd. The fog is approaching the town against the wind and is glowing. It is soon revealed that the curse on the town is in that fog and we now have a zombie movie on our hands. John Carpenter is much better than Stephen King. Carpenter has zombies in his fog…scary. King has big bugs traveling through his mist…good job there King. What’s next, a scary butterfly? I will say that I did enjoy THE MIST…so don’t take it personal King. Bugs can be scary, but I would rather deal with a bug rather than a zombie.
Elizabeth Solley (Jamie Lee Curtis), a hitcher, comes to Antonio Bay with Nick Castle (Tom Atkins) and make no mistake, man or not, Castle wants to hit that and Solley seems interested. Nick Castle is a pretty cool name too. I wish that my parents named me that. These two are the first ones to stumble across the carnage that the fog leaves behind and are on the case. Castle is the hero of this movie and Atkins plays it well. Atkins is a great actor and Carpenter realized that and employed him and I’m glad that he did. This entire cast works well and the dialogue is fantastic.
From start to finish THE FOG delivers, gradually picking up the pace until the memorable conclusion. Carpenter is mostly known for HALLOWEEN, but THE FOG is a quality horror film that I consider to be a classic as well. I highly recommend this one.
Scared Stiff Rating: 8/10. Another John Carpenter Classic.