The Fog (1980)

 3/4

Starring: Adrienne Barbeau, Tom Atkins, Janet Leigh, Ty Mitchell, Hal Holbrook

Rated R (probably for Terror/Violence)

The appeal of "The Fog" is purely visceral.  The only reason to watch it is to admire the spooky special effects and the growing sense of terror and dread that John Carpenter is uncannily skilled at creating.  Aside from that, the film comes up short.  The screenplay is weak with a poorly communicated backstory, and the characters are thinly sketched.  But this is a horror movie, and the most important thing is that it delivers on that level.  So if you're looking for some chills and thrills, this movie delivers the goods.

It's the centennial celebration of Antonio Bay, a small seaside town in California.  It's a normal slice of Americana, the kind of place you visit while on summer vacation.  And it's populated by relatively normal people.  Stevie Wayne (Barbeau) is a young single mom who works hard at the radio station she just purchased.  Everyman Nick Castle (Atkins) picks up a pretty young hitchhiker named Elizabeth (Curtis).  And Kathy Williams (Leigh) is busy overseeing preparations for the festivities.  The night before the anniversary, strange things start happening.  A local trawler goes missing.  Windows suddenly shatter.  And there is a mysterious, glowing fog that moves against the wind.  And things are about to get a whole lot worse for this small town.

John Carpenter has always had a keen eye for atmosphere.  He and his cinematographer Dean Cundey are exceedingly careful in cultivating a look and feel for their films.  In order for a film to scare the audience, they have to create a situation in which terror can breed.  They turn this small town into an eerie place where one can feel that there is something not right.  We can sense it in our bones.  There is no warmth here.  Just a sense of unease and menace.  It's not as overpowering as in their later film, "The Thing," but there are times when it comes close.

Another element is the use of the fog.  Carpenter takes the gutsy move of anthropomorphizing the fog, turning it into a menacing character in and of itself.  By contrasting its unnatural speed and actions with the still shots of the town, he manages to make something relatively harmless into something truly frightening.  Not many people could pull this off, but Carpenter can.

The film's score (also by Carpenter) is also another important tool in the film's arsenal.  Like his infamous score from "Halloween," it's not terribly complicated.  In fact, it's simplicity is what generates so much tension.  It puts us on edge without calling attention to itself.

The acting is effective, although no one has much of a character to play.  They're stand-ins for us, which is fine in a movie like this.  Adrienne Barbeau is fine as the mom with a seductive voice, although she's not great.  There is a scene where she is trapped in her radio room and calling out to other characters.  This kind of situation is the stuff horror is built from, but its impact is muted because of her limitations on screen.  As the heroic hunk, Tom Atkins is dull.  He brings neither talent nor sex appeal to the role.  Carpenter brings a number of alumni from "Halloween" back for this film, including Charles Cyphers, Nancy Keyes, and most notably, Jamie Lee Curtis.

The problem with the film is the plot.  Carpenter is telling three stories at once, which is fine, but he sometimes struggles to keep it all together.  But the mystery of the fog is poorly told.  The scenes that explain the backstory needed to be rewritten for clarity.  There's nothing like confusion to put a damper on the scares.  There are also some cosmetic flaws that hamper the film.  Shots of key moments are badly framed or edited in such a clumsy way that we don't get to register what is happening.

Ultimately, on its basest level, the film works.  I was creeped out and engaged, and that's all I ask for in a. movie like this.  The end credits rolled and I saw the omnipresent clouds in the sky, and thought to myself, "Man, I hope it doesn't come into my apartment."  Any movie that can generate that kind of feeling gets a recommendation from me.