Continuing #Johnuary, the next John Carpenter movie I watched was The Fog. I knew absolutely nothing about this movie before I watched it, other than it starred Jamie Lee Curtis. I didn’t even read any blurb about it. I just went in totally blind. In my head I was imagining some kind of cheap ‘B movie’.
Here are my thoughts…
- It seemed much higher quality directorship than Halloween. I found Halloween slightly rough and ready in places. This one just seemed to be slicker and of a very high quality in terms of framing, lighting and editing
- I really liked the font used in the title and opening credits
- It’s possibly the longest title sequence in history. Crew names were still appearing on screen after 12 minutes. I wasn’t complaining because, like I said, I liked the font
- I obviously knew Jamie Lee Curtis was in the film but I recognised several other people in this film too that I wasn’t expecting. Firstly one of the lawyers from The Firm playing Father Malone, and then also the actor, Tom Atkins, who played Michael Hunsaker from Lethal Weapon playing the main male role. I also eventually looked up the older actress who I found out was Janet Leigh, famous from her role in Psycho and who also was mother of Jamie Lee Curtis! I wonder how many films they did together. I think they only shared one scene in this film, but that must have been fun for them
- What is bizarre is that Tom Atkins characters is actually called Nick Castle, which is the name of John Carpenter’s collaborator/friend who played the role of Michael Myers in the first Halloween and went on to direct The Last Starfighter. Strange, but cool, that he actually gave the character his full name
- Interesting how they have a major character openly drinking Budweiser whilst driving a car. I keep spotting that more and more in 80s films, so I’m guessing it’s just a product of the time. Seems so strange now though
- I spotted a very nice touch when one of the sailors gets killed you see his face afterwards and the white glint in one of his pupils just fades out
- It’s not a great advert for hitchhiking. Jamie Lee Curtis really didn’t know what she was getting herself in for
- I do quite like stories like this where you are following several, often unrelated, groups of people who are slowly discovering different pieces of the puzzle and then come together at the end. I’ve heard that be used as a criticism of this film too, that it’s too disparate, but I quite enjoyed that
- I really like films like this which has no sense of having to rush. Lots of long shots with nothing happening on screen. This helps to set a pace and also build tension. Tom Atkins’ understated acting also really helps here. Carpenter did this well with Assault on Precinct 13 too, with some long shots without any dialogue
- The whole film is a pretty bizarre, but cool, concept. I’m not sure if it’s based on anything from the past or just John Carpenter’s own imagination
- I felt the plot had a few holes at times near the end and a few assumptions were made. Things escalated pretty quickly. It’s not the kind of plot that stands up very well to scrutiny
- I didn’t find it scary today but I imagine it could have been in 1980.
Images from Blu-Ray.com
I actually really enjoyed watching this film at the time. I thought it was well made and well acted. It’s just when you really look at the plot and compare it to other films that it doesn’t quite stand up as well. I can imagine it might finish in the middle of my final Carpenter ranking.
Tune in tomorrow for the next Carpenter movie review.