The Fog
Encyclopedia
The Fog is a 1980 horror film
Horror film
Horror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres...

 directed by John Carpenter
John Carpenter
John Howard Carpenter is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, editor, composer, and occasional actor. Although Carpenter has worked in numerous film genres in his four-decade career, his name is most commonly associated with horror and science fiction.- Early life :Carpenter was born...

, who also co-wrote the screenplay and composed the music for the film. It stars Adrienne Barbeau
Adrienne Barbeau
Adrienne Jo Barbeau is an American actress and the author of three books. Barbeau came to prominence in the 1970s as Broadway's original Rizzo in the musical Grease, and as Carol Traynor, the divorced daughter of Maude Findlay in the sitcom Maude...

, Jamie Lee Curtis
Jamie Lee Curtis
Jamie Lee Curtis is an American actress and author. Although she was initially known as a "scream queen" because of her starring roles in several horror films early in her career, such as Halloween, The Fog, Prom Night and Terror Train, Curtis has since compiled a body of work that spans many...

, Tom Atkins
Tom Atkins (actor)
Tom Atkins is an American television and film actor. He is primarily known for his work in the horror film genre, having worked with writers and directors such as John Carpenter, Stephen King, and George A. Romero...

 and Janet Leigh
Janet Leigh
Janet Leigh , born Jeanette Helen Morrison, was an American actress. She was the wife of actor Tony Curtis from June 1951 to September 1962 and the mother of Kelly Curtis and Jamie Lee Curtis....

. It tells the story of a strange, glowing fog that sweeps in over a small coastal town in California, bringing with it the vengeful ghosts of mariners who were killed in a shipwreck there exactly 100 years earlier.

The Fog was Carpenter's first feature film
Feature film
In the film industry, a feature film is a film production made for initial distribution in theaters and being the main attraction of the screening, rather than a short film screened before it; a full length movie...

 after the success of his 1978 horror Halloween
Halloween (1978 film)
Halloween is a 1978 American independent horror film directed, produced, and scored by John Carpenter, co-written with Debra Hill, and starring Donald Pleasence and Jamie Lee Curtis in her film debut and the first installment in the Halloween franchise. The film is set in the fictional midwestern...

, which also starred Jamie Lee Curtis. Though not as big a success as Halloween, the film received some good reviews (with a 69% positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...

) and was also a commercial success. A remake
The Fog (2005 film)
The Fog is a 2005 horror film directed by Rupert Wainwright and starring Tom Welling, Selma Blair and Maggie Grace. It is a remake of John Carpenter's 1980 film of the same name, but this time made more in the vein of a "teen horror film" .Both Carpenter and Debra Hill The Fog is a 2005 horror film...

 of the film was made in 2005.

Plot

The fishing town of Antonio Bay in California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

 is about to celebrate its centennial. With preparations for the celebration underway, the centennial is also marked by a series of ominous events; as the witching hour
Witching hour
The witching hour is a the time of day when supernatural creatures such as witches, demons and ghosts are thought to appear and be at their most powerful, and black magic at its most effective...

 strikes and the date of the town's centennial begins, various odd phenomena begin to happen all over the sleeping town (objects move by themselves, television sets turn themselves on, gas stations seemingly come to life, and all the public payphones ring simultaneously).

That same night, Father Malone, (the town's priest) is in his study in the church when a large piece of stone falls from the wall revealing a cavity. Inside is an old journal, his grandfather's diary from a hundred years earlier. Father Malone removes the book from the wall and begins to read. The diary reveals that in 1880, six of the founders of Antonio Bay (including Malone's grandfather) deliberately sank and plundered a clipper ship named the Elizabeth Dane. The ship was owned by Blake, a wealthy man with leprosy
Leprosy
Leprosy or Hansen's disease is a chronic disease caused by the bacteria Mycobacterium leprae and Mycobacterium lepromatosis. Named after physician Gerhard Armauer Hansen, leprosy is primarily a granulomatous disease of the peripheral nerves and mucosa of the upper respiratory tract; skin lesions...

 who wanted to establish a colony
Leper colony
A leper colony, leprosarium, or lazar house is a place to quarantine leprous people.-History:Leper colonies or houses became widespread in the Middle Ages, particularly in Europe and India, and often run by monastic orders...

 near Antonio Bay. During a foggy night, the six conspirators lit a fire on the beach near treacherous rocks, and the crew of the ship, deceived by the false beacon, crashed into them. Everyone aboard the ship perished. The six conspirators were motivated both by greed and disgust at the notion of having a leper colony
Leper colony
A leper colony, leprosarium, or lazar house is a place to quarantine leprous people.-History:Leper colonies or houses became widespread in the Middle Ages, particularly in Europe and India, and often run by monastic orders...

 nearby. Antonio Bay and its church were then founded with the gold plundered from the ship.

A supernaturally glowing fog appears, spreading over the sea and moving against the wind. Three local fishermen are out at sea getting drunk when the fog covers their trawler. When two of them go on deck to investigate, they see a ghostly looking clipper ship pulling alongside their trawler. The mysterious fog contains the vengeful ghosts of Blake and the clipper ship's crew, who have come back on the hundredth anniversary of the shipwreck and the founding of the town to take the lives of six people (symbolic substitutes for the six conspirators). Two of the fishermen are attacked and slaughtered on deck, while the third is killed in the wheelhouse.

At the same time, town resident Nick Castle drives down a country road and picks up a young female hitchhiker named Elizabeth Solley. While the two drive towards town, the radio and headlights of Nick's truck start to fail and all the windows inexplicably shatter.

The following morning, local radio DJ Stevie Wayne is given a piece of driftwood, part of a board, that was found on the beach by her young son Andy. The wood is inscribed with the word "DANE". Intrigued by the object, Stevie keeps it and takes it with her to the lighthouse where she broadcasts her radio show from. Stevie sets the board down on top of a tape player that is playing, and while she is momentarily distracted, the board inexplicably begins to seep water. The water spreads and causes the tape player to short out. Suddenly, a mysterious man's voice emerges from the tape player swearing revenge, and the words "6 Must Die" appear on the wood before it bursts into flames. A shocked Stevie quickly extinguishes the fire, but then she sees that the board once again reads "DANE" and the tape player begins working normally again.

After locating the missing trawler, Nick and Elizabeth find the corpse of Dick Baxter with his eyes gouged out. The other two fishermen are nowhere to be found. The body is taken to the local coroner's office to be examined by Dr. Phibes, who is perplexed by the body's advanced state of decomposition considering Baxter died only hours earlier. Whilst Elizabeth is alone in the autopsy room with Baxter's corpse, the body becomes momentarily re-animated. It rises from the autopsy table and grabs Elizabeth. As Elizabeth screams, Nick and Phibes rush back into the autopsy room, where they see the corpse lifeless again on the floor. However, it appears to have scratched the number "3" into the floor with the scalpel. Baxter was the third victim to die.

While this is happening, Kathy Williams (the wife of one of the missing fishermen and one of the driving forces behind the town's centennial) and her assistant Sandy Fadel visit Father Malone to ask him to give the benediction at that night's ceremony. He reads to them from the journal and reveals to them how the town was founded on murder and their celebration would be honoring murderers (something the two women do not want to hear).

That evening, the Antonio Bay centennial celebration begins in the center of town. Kathy is told by the sheriff and Nick about her husband's disappearance, but insists on going on with her part in the ceremonies. At the same time, Dan, the local weatherman, calls Stevie at the radio station to tell her that another fog bank has appeared and is moving towards town. As they are talking, the fog gathers outside the weather station and Dan hears a knock at the door. Leaving Stevie on the phone while he goes to answer it, Dan is killed by the ghosts as Stevie listens in horror.

As Stevie continues her radio broadcast, the fog begins moving inland and neutralizes the town's phone and electricity lines. Using a back-up generator, Stevie begs her listeners to go to her house and save her son when she sees the fog closing in from her lighthouse vantage point. Nick and Elizabeth hear this on the car radio and go to help. Meanwhile, at Stevie's home, her son's babysitter, Mrs. Kobritz, is killed by the ghosts as the fog envelops the house. The ghosts then pursue Andy, but Nick arrives just in time to save him and they escape.

As the town's celebration comes to an end, Kathy and Sandy are driving home when they turn on the car radio and hear Stevie warning people about the dangerous fog that is sweeping through the town. Stevie advises everyone to go to the local church, which appears to be the only safe place. Nick, Elizabeth and Andy hear the same message and the group gather at the church. Once inside, they and Father Malone take refuge in a small back room as the fog begins to roll outside. Inside the room, Nick and Father Malone find a huge gold cross buried in the walls. The cross is made of the gold that was stolen from Blake and his people a hundred years earlier. As the ghosts of Blake and his crew begin to attack the church, Father Malone takes the gold cross out into the chapel. Knowing he is the offspring of one of the conspirators, Malone confronts Blake in an attempt to sacrifice himself and save everyone else.

Back at the lighthouse, two of the ghosts try to attack Stevie. She climbs onto the roof, but the ghosts follow and trap her.

Inside the church, Blake seizes the golden cross, which begins to emit an eerie glow. The church rumbles as the light emanating from the cross becomes brighter and brighter. Nick manages to pull Father Malone away from the cross only seconds before it disappears, along with Blake and his crew, in a blinding flash of light. The ghosts attacking Stevie on the roof of the lighthouse disappear as well, and the fog vanishes. Stevie gets back on air and warns the boats out at sea to watch out for the fog. Later that evening, Father Malone is alone in the church pondering why Blake did not kill him and thus take six lives. At that moment, the fog reappears inside the church along with Blake and his crew. As Father Malone turns to face him, Blake swings his sword at Father Malone's neck, decapitating him.

Development

John Carpenter has stated that the inspiration for the story was partly drawn from the British film The Trollenberg Terror
The Trollenberg Terror
The Trollenberg Terror is the title of both a 1956 "Saturday Serial" ITV UK television programme and a better-known 1958 black and white science fiction film. The latter is also known as The Crawling Eye, Creature from Another World, The Creeping Eye, and The Flying Eye...

(1958), which dealt with monsters hiding in the clouds. He has also said that he was inspired by a visit to Stonehenge
Stonehenge
Stonehenge is a prehistoric monument located in the English county of Wiltshire, about west of Amesbury and north of Salisbury. One of the most famous sites in the world, Stonehenge is composed of a circular setting of large standing stones set within earthworks...

 with his co-writer/producer (and then-girlfriend), Debra Hill. While in England promoting Assault on Precinct 13
Assault on Precinct 13 (1976 film)
Assault on Precinct 13 is a 1976 American action-thriller film written and directed by John Carpenter. It stars Austin Stoker as a police officer who defends a defunct precinct against an attack by a relentless criminal gang, along with Darwin Joston as a convicted murderer who helps him. Laurie...

, Carpenter and Hill visited the site in the late afternoon one day and saw an eerie fog in the distance. In the DVD audio commentary for the film, Carpenter noted that the story of the deliberate wreckage of a ship and its subsequent plundering was based on an actual event that took place in the 19th century near Goleta, California
Goleta, California
Goleta is a city in southern Santa Barbara County, California, USA. It was incorporated as a city in 2002, after a long period as the largest unincorporated, populated area in the county. As of the 2000 census, the Census-designated place had a total population of 55,204, however, a significant...

.

The Fog was part of a two-picture deal with AVCO-Embassy, along with Escape from New York
Escape from New York
Escape from New York is a 1981 American science fiction action film directed and scored by John Carpenter. He co-wrote the screenplay with Nick Castle. The film is set in the near future in a crime-ridden United States that has converted Manhattan Island in New York City into a maximum security...

(1981), and was shot on a reported budget of $1 million. Although this was essentially a low budget independent film, Carpenter chose to shoot the movie in the anamorphic 2.35:1 format, which gave the film a grander look so it did not seem like a low budget horror film. The picture was filmed from April 1979 to May 1979 at Raleigh Studios in Hollywood, California (interior scenes) and on location at Point Reyes, California, Bolinas, California
Bolinas, California
Bolinas formerly Juggville is a coastal unincorporated community in Marin County, California in the San Francisco Bay Area. Bolinas is located west-southwest of San Rafael, at an elevation of 36 feet...

, Inverness, California
Inverness, California
Inverness is an unincorporated community and census-designated place located in western Marin County, California. Inverness is located on the southwest shore of Tomales Bay northwest of Point Reyes Station, at an elevation of 43 feet . In the 2010 census, the population was 1,304...

, and the Episcopal Church of the Ascension in Sierra Madre, California
Sierra Madre, California
The city of Sierra Madre is a municipality in Los Angeles County, California whose population was 10,917 at the 2010 census, up from 10,580 at the time of the 2000 census. The city is located in the Foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains below the southern edge of the Angeles National Forest. ...

).

After viewing a rough cut of the film, Carpenter was dissatisfied with the results. Recalling the experience, Carpenter commented "It was terrible. I had a movie that didn't work, and I knew it in my heart". Carpenter subsequently added the prologue with Mr. Machen (John Houseman
John Houseman
John Houseman was a Romanian-born British-American actor and film producer who became known for his highly publicized collaboration with director Orson Welles from their days in the Federal Theatre Project through to the production of Citizen Kane...

) telling ghost stories to fascinated children by a campfire. The name "Machen" is a reference to British horror fantasist Arthur Machen
Arthur Machen
Arthur Machen was a Welsh author and mystic of the 1890s and early 20th century. He is best known for his influential supernatural, fantasy, and horror fiction. His novella The Great God Pan has garnered a reputation as a classic of horror...

. Carpenter added several other new scenes and re-shot others in order to make the film more comprehensible, more frightening, and gorier. Carpenter and Debra Hill have said the necessity of a re-shoot became especially clear to them after they realized that The Fog would have to compete with horror films that had high gore content.

Approximately one-third of the finished film is the newer footage.

Casting

Cast as the female lead was Adrienne Barbeau
Adrienne Barbeau
Adrienne Jo Barbeau is an American actress and the author of three books. Barbeau came to prominence in the 1970s as Broadway's original Rizzo in the musical Grease, and as Carol Traynor, the divorced daughter of Maude Findlay in the sitcom Maude...

, Carpenter's then-wife, who had appeared in Carpenter's TV movie Someone's Watching Me! in 1978. Barbeau would subsequently appear in Carpenter's next film, Escape From New York (1981).

Tom Atkins
Tom Atkins (actor)
Tom Atkins is an American television and film actor. He is primarily known for his work in the horror film genre, having worked with writers and directors such as John Carpenter, Stephen King, and George A. Romero...

, a friend of Barbeau's, was cast as Nick Castle. The Fog was Atkins' first appearance in a Carpenter film, though he would also go on to appear in Carpenter's next film, Escape from New York, and Halloween III: Season of the Witch
Halloween III: Season of the Witch
Halloween III: Season of the Witch is a 1982 science fiction horror film and the third installment in the Halloween film series. It is the only Halloween where the story does not revolve around Michael Myers. Directed and written by Tommy Lee Wallace, the film stars Tom Atkins as Dr. Dan Challis,...

(1982), which was produced and scored by Carpenter.

Jamie Lee Curtis
Jamie Lee Curtis
Jamie Lee Curtis is an American actress and author. Although she was initially known as a "scream queen" because of her starring roles in several horror films early in her career, such as Halloween, The Fog, Prom Night and Terror Train, Curtis has since compiled a body of work that spans many...

, who was the main star of Carpenter's 1978 hit Halloween
Halloween (1978 film)
Halloween is a 1978 American independent horror film directed, produced, and scored by John Carpenter, co-written with Debra Hill, and starring Donald Pleasence and Jamie Lee Curtis in her film debut and the first installment in the Halloween franchise. The film is set in the fictional midwestern...

, appeared as Elizabeth. Commenting on the role and on appearing in another of Carpenter's films, she said "That's what I love about John. He's letting me explore different aspects of myself. I'm spoiled rotten now. My next director is going to be almost a letdown".

Play on character names

Several characters in The Fog are named after people that Carpenter had collaborated with on previous films.
  • Dan O'Bannon
    Dan O'Bannon
    Daniel Thomas "Dan" O'Bannon was an American motion picture screenwriter, director and occasional actor, usually in the science fiction and horror genres.-Early life and career:...

     is a screenwriter who worked with Carpenter on Dark Star
    Dark Star (film)
    Dark Star is a 1974 American comedic science fiction motion picture directed by John Carpenter and co-written with Dan O'Bannon.-Backstory and plot:...

    (1974).
  • Nick Castle
    Nick Castle
    Nick Castle is an American actor, screenwriter and film director, best known for his role as Michael Myers in Halloween. He also co-wrote Escape from New York with his friend, John Carpenter.-Early life:...

     is the actor who played Michael Myers
    Michael Myers
    Michael Myers may refer to:*Michael Myers , sixth Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of New Zealand*Michael Myers , New York politician...

     in Halloween
    Halloween (1978 film)
    Halloween is a 1978 American independent horror film directed, produced, and scored by John Carpenter, co-written with Debra Hill, and starring Donald Pleasence and Jamie Lee Curtis in her film debut and the first installment in the Halloween franchise. The film is set in the fictional midwestern...

    (1978).
  • Tommy Wallace has worked with Carpenter as an editor, art designer, and sound designer on several of his films in the 1970s and 1980s.
  • Richard Kobritz inspired the name of the character Mrs. Kobritz, and was the producer of Carpenter's 1978 TV film Someone's Watching Me!


Although not named after a real person, Dr Phibes was named after the titular character in the horror films starring Vincent Price
Vincent Price
Vincent Leonard Price, Jr. was an American actor, well known for his distinctive voice and serio-comic attitude in a series of horror films made in the latter part of his career.-Early life and career:Price was born in St...

 from the early 1970s.

Reception

The film was greeted with mixed reviews when it was initially released, but was a commercial success. Roger Ebert commented in his review that "This isn't a great movie but it does show great promise from Carpenter". Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...

 gave the movie a 67% "Fresh" rating. It is now generally considered to be, as Carpenter once called it, "a minor horror classic". Carpenter himself stated that this is not his overall favorite film due to re-shoots and low production values. This is one of the reasons he agreed to the 2005 remake (see below).

Novelization

In the same year as the movie was released, a novelization was published written by Dennis Etchison
Dennis Etchison
Dennis William Etchison , is an American writer and editor of fantasy and horror fiction. Etchison refers to his own work as “rather dark, depressing, almost pathologically inward fiction about the individual in relation to the world.”Stephen King has called Dennis Etchison “one hell of a fiction...

. The novel implies that the six who must die were not random but in fact descendants of the six original conspirators.

Cast

Actor Role
Adrienne Barbeau
Adrienne Barbeau
Adrienne Jo Barbeau is an American actress and the author of three books. Barbeau came to prominence in the 1970s as Broadway's original Rizzo in the musical Grease, and as Carol Traynor, the divorced daughter of Maude Findlay in the sitcom Maude...

 
Stevie Wayne
Jamie Lee Curtis
Jamie Lee Curtis
Jamie Lee Curtis is an American actress and author. Although she was initially known as a "scream queen" because of her starring roles in several horror films early in her career, such as Halloween, The Fog, Prom Night and Terror Train, Curtis has since compiled a body of work that spans many...

 
Elizabeth Solley
Janet Leigh
Janet Leigh
Janet Leigh , born Jeanette Helen Morrison, was an American actress. She was the wife of actor Tony Curtis from June 1951 to September 1962 and the mother of Kelly Curtis and Jamie Lee Curtis....

 
Kathy Williams
John Houseman
John Houseman
John Houseman was a Romanian-born British-American actor and film producer who became known for his highly publicized collaboration with director Orson Welles from their days in the Federal Theatre Project through to the production of Citizen Kane...

 
Mr. Machen
Tom Atkins
Tom Atkins (actor)
Tom Atkins is an American television and film actor. He is primarily known for his work in the horror film genre, having worked with writers and directors such as John Carpenter, Stephen King, and George A. Romero...

 
Nick Castle
James Canning Dick Baxter
Charles Cyphers
Charles Cyphers
Charles Cyphers is an American actor who has starred in many films and on television. He is known in the horror movie community for his work in the films of John Carpenter, especially his role as Sheriff Leigh Brackett in Carpenter's 1978 hit horror movie Halloween. He reprised this role in the...

 
Dan O'Bannon
Nancy Loomis
Nancy Kyes
Nancy Louise Kyes is an American film and television actress. In most of her film appearances, she is credited under her stage name Nancy Loomis. She is known for her role as the teenage babysitter, Annie Brackett, in John Carpenter's 1978 horror classic slasher film Halloween.-Early life:Kyes was...

 
Sandy Fadel
Ty Mitchell Andy Wayne
Hal Holbrook
Hal Holbrook
Harold Rowe "Hal" Holbrook, Jr. is an American actor. His television roles include Abraham Lincoln in the 1976 TV series Lincoln, Hays Stowe on The Bold Ones: The Senator and Capt. Lloyd Bucher on Pueblo. He is also known for his role in the 2007 film Into the Wild, for which he was nominated for...

 
Father Malone
John F. Goff Al Williams
George 'Buck' Flower  Tommy Wallace
Darwin Joston
Darwin Joston
Francis Darwin Solomon was an American actor known professionally as Darwin Joston...

 
Dr. Phibes
Rob Bottin
Rob Bottin
-Early life:He was born in the Los Angeles suburb of El Monte, California. His father was a foreman for a van and storage company.-FX artist career:...

 
Blake
John Carpenter
John Carpenter
John Howard Carpenter is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, editor, composer, and occasional actor. Although Carpenter has worked in numerous film genres in his four-decade career, his name is most commonly associated with horror and science fiction.- Early life :Carpenter was born...

 
Bennett

Remake

The film was remade
The Fog (2005 film)
The Fog is a 2005 horror film directed by Rupert Wainwright and starring Tom Welling, Selma Blair and Maggie Grace. It is a remake of John Carpenter's 1980 film of the same name, but this time made more in the vein of a "teen horror film" .Both Carpenter and Debra Hill The Fog is a 2005 horror film...

 under the direction of Rupert Wainwright
Rupert Wainwright
Rupert Wainwright is an English film and television director, writer, and actor.Wainwright was born in Cotswolds, UK and started his film career in the 1980s as an actor...

 with a screenplay by Cooper Layne and starring Tom Welling
Tom Welling
Thomas John Patrick "Tom" Welling is an American actor, director, producer, and former model, best known for his portrayal of Clark Kent in the WB/CW series Smallville....

 and Maggie Grace
Maggie Grace
Margaret Grace Denig , best known as Maggie Grace, is an American actress. Originally from Worthington, Ohio, she dropped out of high school to move to Los Angeles with her mother after her parents' divorce. While struggling financially, she landed her first role as the title character in the...

. Though based on the concept of Carpenter and Hill's original screenplay, the remake was made as a "teen horror film" and given a PG13 rating (the original film was rated R
R rating
R rating may refer to:*R - Motion Picture Association of America film rating system*R-value...

). Green-lit by Revolution Studios
Revolution Studios
Revolution Studios is an American production company founded in 2000 by Joe Roth, a former chairman of Walt Disney Studios and 20th Century Fox. Revolution was formerly a strategic partner of Sony Pictures Entertainment, which distributed and marketed Revolution's films. The company's film division...

 with just eighteen pages of script written, the film was almost universally panned for its poor script and acting. As of January 2006, the film has a Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...

rating of 5%.

External links

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