This has to be one of my favourite horror films of all time.
'The Fog', one of John Carpenter's films from what many regard as his golden era, takes a simple, run of the mill ghost story about 'wronged' leprosy sufferers seeking revenge from beyond their watery grave and sticks the tension levels up from the first scene.
From the intro with the old sailor telling a ghost story on the beach to all the children, to the 'shock, didn't see it coming ending', this film pushes all the right buttons.
To be honest, what I really like about this film, and let this be a lesson to many other present day horror makers, is the way that from the moment the film rolls to the final moments in the film it does not let-up. Whereas many films slowly build to a shocking finale this starts with it (the scene on the boat), it also manages to keep shocking you with minor scares all the way through the film, and doing this without showing any red stuff whatsoever (a classic Carpenter trait). Plus the semi-narrative from Stevie in the lighthouse as the Fog creeps into Antonio Bay was and still is a fantastic way of building the terror.
It also has a great deal of thought put into the film with lots of intertwining stories that Carpenter manages to link together in the final 10 minutes.
Jamie Lee is as good a scream queen as ever and while the rest of the cast is strong it is the radio DJ Stevie Wayne, played by Adrienne Barbeau who catches the eye.
Plus the Carpenter score, as always, is fabulous.
If only JC could go back to what made him great in the first place...
