The Fog

The Fog deserves 5 stars for its ability to make me shudder, jump with fright and hoard sofa cushions. A horror film's first task is to make its audience shudder. That the story is not particularly sophisticated is another matter, and a trait that is not unknown in horror land.

The film is set in the small Californian fishing town of Antonio Bay, which on the very day the film takes place is celebrating its centenary. Behind the happy occasion, however, lies a tragic story that only comes to the townspeople's attention when the fog, and with it the town's dark past, drifts in over the coast. The sailing ship Elizabeth Dane, with its crew and rich cargo, was once tricked into believing it was near a safe harbour, but instead it was smashed on the rocks. The dead sailors now return to take revenge on the town's inhabitants. The film does not give the impression that the revenge is aimed particularly at the descendants of the sailors' murderers. That would otherwise have been obvious.

Carpenter is good at building up the menace around the various people the film focuses on. Stevie Wayne, for example, is a single mother with her own radio station, located in isolation in the lighthouse out on the cliffs. Both she and another horror star, Jamie Lee Curtis, survive. In fact the drowned revenants claim only 6 victims – boo.