INTRODUCTION: So my television decided this year should be dedicated to John Carpenter movies. I assume it has to do with his soon to be released Peacock Halloween anthology series. Anyways, I seen a majority of this man’s movies, but never reviewed them, so I’m doing so for Kageoween. The Fog has to have had the weirdest of pitch meetings ever attached to it, because I don’t know who in the blue hell could of say straight faced through it, Which seems fitting to say about most of John’s movies. Lame concepts turned into iconic movies. So what are my thoughts? Read on!

PLOT: The Fog is rolling in. People are trapped on this island or something, IDK! Ahhh! Scary/sarcasm

VISUALS: It was made in the 1980’s on what appears to be a $13 dollar budget. Not millions, but literally $13 dollars USD. Thankfully John had great people surrounding him and a knack for visual flair, which makes a movie that should look a lot no retro, seem like it still could of be released yesterday to capitalize on nostalgia with retro movies, instead of being limited to tacky styles due to actually being filmed in the decade that birthed those styles. Unlike Halloween, where bell bottom are seen, along with middle age men, running around in tweed jackets thinking those were excellent style choices. (Writers note, I tend to like tweed jackets.) The most dated thing in this movie is a shot of a captains cup, looking like a middle schooler’s first attempt at clay firing and shellacking. You know, the hard to wash cups that get filled with cracks from day one and still, for some reason, exist? While still not John at his best, visually, it definitely shows a director making better overall choices and about to hit his peak with style by the time he gets to The Thing.

ACTING: Mostly good, but Jamie Lee is at her worst acting ever and her character is basically worthless, making her dialogue to Tom Akins in the boat, the most meta dialogue ever, about how she is basically worthless.

CHARACTERS: Mostly good, albeit sparse character development. Compared to other movies of its time though, this is still pretty good.

FX: You get two FX styles in this. Ghouls and the fog. The only really bad FX shot is near the end as the fog, rolling over a crespecular bay, looks like it’s on par with the moon in Evil Dead, except instead of a box, it looks like the fog is moving sideways on top of the water, like those old kids toys, that pretended to be video games, but just featured a moving background with a plastic car on top of it. Except those toys were bigger eye sores.

DIALOGUE: Good. Nothing overwhelming cringe.

CONCLUSION: For a movie whose title misrepresents the entire premise is a pretty good movie. It even has some pretty intense and scary moments that got me, even. The scariest part, is the lack of Tom Atkins mustache. The story is mildly interesting and done very well, for what is really a “from beyond the grave” ghost movie. Albeit I’m not quite sure why it took the Ghost nearly a century to take revenge, but lack of plot details aside, it works, minus the weak resolution that leads to an awesome finale sequence that more than makes up for it. Still a great Halloween movie, that hold up, some 43 years later.

4 stars out of 5