Tag line : When the fog roles in the terror begins.

The small coastal town of Antonio Bay is preparing to celebrate its 100th anniversary, only to have their upcoming celebrations marred by a series of bizarre events late at night. Car alarms go off for no reason, lights turning themselves on and off, church bells ringing, strange earth tremors and other peculiarities, including a strange glowing fog that has started to appear off the coast at night, and finally the discovery of several mutilated bodies on a fishing boat.

The local priest, Farther Thomas (Hal Holbrook), says that legend has it that the town carries a curse, having been founded on smugglers gold that was taken from the wreck of a sailing clipper that crashed on the rocks 100 years ago. But of course, the mayoress (played by Janet Leigh) is eager to play down this story, and the recent strange events, and so forges ahead with the towns celebrations.

However, it would appear that the curse is all too real, and the long dead smugglers have returned to reclaim their gold, along with the lives of the townsfolk who's ancestors lured them onto the rocks. As the towns celebrations draw to a close, the fog roles in and the fun begins as the zombified cut-throats set about the unsuspecting townsfolk with cutlasses, boat hooks and assorted sharp implements whilst a small group hold up at the local church to confront Father Thomas, in an attempt to find out what's going on and how to stop it.

Directed by John Carpenter, this is a classic ghost story that manages to be both creepy, atmospheric and exceptionally chilling and is one that I can heartily recommend to all serious horror fans, and general movie goers alike.

Overall marks : 7/10.

Other Information.

• Alternate tag lines "What you can't see won't hurt you... it'll kill you!", "Lock your doors. Bolt your windows. There's something in THE FOG!", "It is night. It is cold. It is coming.

• "The films budget was $1,000,000.

• The characters Nick Castle (Tom Atkins), Dan O'Bannon (Charles Cyphers) and Tommy Wallace (George "Buck" Flower") are all named after John Carpenter's real-life collaborators.

• Bennet, the church handyman, was played by the director John Carpenter.

• Special effects artist Rob Bottin makes a cameo appearance as the lead ghost "Blake".

• The Coroner was named "Dr Phibes" after Vincent Price's character in "The abominable Dr Phibes".

• Charles Cyphers, Nancy Loomis and Jamie Lee Curtis previously starred togethor in John Carpenter's "Halloween".

• Adreinne Barbeau, who plays Radio DJ Stevie Wayne, was at the time married to the director John Carpenter.

• This was the first of only 2 films that Janet Leigh and Jamie Lee Curtis (who are mother and daughter just in case you didn't know) have starred together in. The other one was "Halloween H20".

• Tom Atkins also starred in John Carpenters "Escape from New York", "Prince of Darkness" and "Halloween 3".

• As mentioned in my other reviews, George "Buck" Flower has starred in several John Carpenter pictures, including "Escape from New York", "Starman" and "They Live"

• John Carpenter and Debra Hill got the theme for the film from combining several different ideas. The first was the look of the surrounding fog in the English Countryside during a visit to Stonehenge in the UK, along with the stories from the old EC Comic books of the 60's about zombies rising from the grave to get revenge and a tale from 1800's California, of townsfolk luring ships carrying gold onto the rocks by lighting bonfires on the beach.

Cast & Crew.

Cover Gallery.

Theatrical trailer. (2.27MB)

Buy the UK DVD (spec ed).

Buy the US DVD (spec ed).

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Other recommended John Carpenter films.

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