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List Price: $9.94 | | Label: MGM (Video & DVD)
Salesrank: 18408
Released: August 1, 2000 |
| Our Price: $19.95 |
| Used Price: $0.75 |
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MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)
Media: VHS Tape |
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Editorial Review:
Horror master John Carpenter offers up a triple treat with The Fog: Jamie Lee Curtis, Adrienne Barbeau, and Janet Leigh all in the same movie. As if that weren't enough, both John Houseman and Hal Holbrook make appearances, each clearly enjoying the novelty of being in a horror flick. The Fog opens just before the centennial celebration of the seaside town of Antonio Bay. Then the witching hour strikes, glowing fog rolls in, and all hell breaks loose. Carpenter wrote the script with producer Debra Hill, his collaborator on Halloween, and the two know their craft. It's a creepy story and a tight script, and, as in their previous effort, the audience gets to know the main characters a bit before they're put in danger. The movie also has a sly sense of humor: "Things seem to happen to me," says slasher vet Jamie Lee. "I'm bad luck." Barbeau is also obviously having a great time, sinking her teeth into her role as a frightened disc jockey watching the fog roll in from a lighthouse. The Fog offers a few shocks and plenty of good old-fashioned clammy chills. You'll never look at weather systems the same way again. --Ali Davis
The Fog Reviews:
From the director who brought us Halloween 
2008-11-19 - THE FOG is an awesome horror flick that scared me when I saw it for the first time when I was only 8 years old practically making me afraid of the fog in general, since you cant see through the fog very well in real life, except in John Carpenter's masterpiece of THE FOG was almost like an upgrade of Carpenters 1978 flick HALLOWEEN, since the Michael Myers character seemed to have inspired Carpenter to make this movie(THE FOG).
In addition to that, I've noticed that THE FOG had some co-stars from HALLOWEEN like Jamie-Lee Curtis, Charles Cyphers, and Nancy Loomis.
Therefore, it seemed like THE FOG had just about every co-star that was in HALLOWEEN, except for Donald Pleasance and PJ Soles.
THE FOG also had co-stars from Carpenter's 1981 flick ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK too like Tom Atkins, Adrienne Barbeau, and Charles Cyphers, which reminds me that I noticed that they had used Nick Castle for Tom Atkins character name in this movie as if they got the name as an idea from the actor(Nick Castle) who played Michael Myers in HALLOWEEN and was the writer for ESCAPE FROM N.Y., which was almost as if Nick Castle being an actor and writer had inspired Carpenter to pick that name for a character for one of his films.
I also think HALLOWEEN & THE FOG were probably Carpenters best flicks of all time, especially Carpenters best horror flicks along with the fact that THE FOG had a lot of interesting special effects like the glowing fog and the make-up used on the dead pirate ghosts, etc., plus I liked the eerie creepy heart-pumping music scoring that John Carpenter did in this movie, just like the music composing he did in HALLOWEEN, THE THING, & ESCAPE FROM N.Y.
What I can't help finding kind of odd was THE FOG was actually about a bunch of dead pirate ghosts hidden in the fog setting their sites on a small remote town near Antonio Bay killing people to retrieve their lost cross from a church, which was supposedly the only thing that could get rid of the ghosts who were fogging up the town turning this community upside down, but I was baffled at the end of this movie when the ghosts who were THE FOG returned to the church later on to kill Father Malone(Hal Holbrook) leaving us a cliffhanger making us wonder if those dead pirate ghosts were going to continue or return later to murder more people to get what they wanted.
As a matter of fact, the cliffhanger at the end of THE FOG was a tad similar to the cliffhangers end of the movie HALLOWEEN, since Carpenter used the same kind of strategy by keeping us wondering what else Michael Myers was going to do next in HALLOWEEN, since Michael obviously didn't die at the end of HALLOWEEN even though Michael fell off the balcony after being shot 6 times by his psychatrist Dr. Loomis(Donald Pleasance).
In addition, I would have to say that THE FOG and HALLOWEEN are my 2 favorite John Carpenter films.
I had a foggin good time!
2008-09-19 - This movie was great. The music was eerie and spooky. The atmosphere was moody. The story was entertaining. Need I say more? John Carpenter is a genius at creating unique films full of suspense and mood. THE FOG is a fine example. In the 80's Carpenter could do no wrong. He directed and shot brilliantly(panavision, widescreen, POV, wide angle shots from eye level) and he scored his films brilliantly. Check out the rest of his 80's cinema Fantastique! ( ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK, THE THING, CHRISTINE,STARMAN,BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA, PRINCE OF DARKNESS,
THEY LIVE)
Polite zombies always knock first 
2008-07-16 - I've never seen The Fog except in snippets on television. My wife, on the other hand, saw it at a Girl Scout movie night, which is either a cruel trick or a hilarious joke, depending on you perspective. Certainly, the movie scared the heck out of the poor girls watching it and my wife remembers it vividly.
Anyway, this gave the movie something of a reputation at our house that made it required viewing. With the release of the awful remake, I decided it was time for me to bone up on a little chunk of cinema history by John Carpenter, master of action horror.
The movie is essentially a ghost story: settlers of a coastal town led a ship full of lepers to their deaths, stole their gold, and went on to prosper. On the eve of the hundred-year celebration, six souls will be claimed in vengeance.
There are several protagonists in this film: Stevie Wayne (the smoky-voiced Adrienne Barbeau) the radio DJ, Kathy Williams (Janet Leigh) as the mayor, Elizabeth Solley (Jamie Lee Curtis) the loose hitchhiker, and Father Malone (Hal Holbrook) as the boozy priest. Malone discovers a diary that details the pending doom about to befall the town. Wayne, who runs her radio station from a lighthouse, is uniquely positioned to use the power of 80s technology to track the fog. Williams frets over the loss of her husband at sea and bravely leads the candlelight vigil on the eve of the ceremony despite the town losing power. And finally Solley...well Solley sleeps around and gets scared a lot.
The Fog is hardly perfect. It's obvious Curtis' character exists as a box office draw. She has nothing to do but tag along. There's at least one scene where the fog looks like a kid's chalk drawing being dragged across a piece of celluloid. And viewed abstractly, there's something hilarious about zombies dressed in pirate garb who are polite enough to knock on the door rather than breaking into your house with outstretched hands, Romero-style.
And yet The Fog is one scary movie. John Carpenter's score, while reminiscent of Halloween, is scary in its own right. Wayne's helplessness and terror, as she shifts from sultry on-air voice to a mother terrified for her son, is palpable. And the glowing fog, when the special effects are up to snuff, is truly terrifying. Carpenter knows when to show his zombies and when not to show them, and it's a credit to his nascent (at the time) moviemaking skills that even when the zombies show up, they're scary enough that the glowing red eyes of the lead zombie burn in your memory long after the movie has faded.
There are also a variety of nods to Lovecraft throughout the film, including Machen, Whateley, and Arkham, which just goes to show that Carpenter actually knew his horror roots. The special features are illuminating as well, explaining the moviemaking process Carpenter went through as well as the reshoots. I'm pleased to report the movie is better for it.
Years later, when my wife saw this movie, she was still creeped out by it. But she's comforted by the knowledge that when the zombies come in the fog...at least they'll knock first.
John Carpenter's Sophomore movie - THE FOG
2008-05-05 - For me they could have done more with this movie.
Coming off the success of "HALLOWEEN" this movie
lacked a good storyline.
It's kinda like the fog came from no where and then
returned to no where.
Until the end of the movie do you understand why
dead people were coming out of the fog & killing
people.
If your just getting into watching some of John Carpenter's
movies check out some of his other movies this one isn't recommended.
I rate this movie a 6 from 1to10!!
An underrated classic!!
2008-04-11 - When this movie was released in theaters in 1979/1980, it was considered to be "John Carpenter's worst mistake", but today, it is considered as a total horror classic !
I don't know what people where thinking back in the 80's when they said this movie was terrible, I mean, from the first moment I saw it, I totally liked it and it scared the hell out of me !
I was something about 7 or 8 years old when I first saw it, it scared me a lot, but let me tell you right now I'm 19, almost 20, and it still scares me so much, you never get bored of watching it, specially if it is in a cold, rainy weather at night, besides, the atmosphere of this movie is so great, it has that carpenter's style of horror from Halloween, Halloween 2, and possibly Halloween 3.
Go ahead and watch "The fog" ! !
Greetings!
