I used to love John Carpenter, but I've been rewatching his movies recently and I'm not so sure anymore. He has interesting ideas and can do a lot with a low budget, but there's no escaping the fact that some of his movies are just plain bland... especially "The Fog." All his trademark touches are here--simplistic score and sets, interesting lighting--and all his trademark weaknesses, too--simplistic score and sets, town with a population of about five people (the crowd of extras at the "celebration" look like just that, extras, who have been paid to stand around listlessly). This time there's the the added weakness of a fog that doesn't look or act anything like fog. It should have been called "The Smoke," or maybe "The Steam." It glows, turns off boat engines (!?), and drags unconvincingly across the screen. The way it completely smothers people's houses is kind of cool, and has a claustrophobia to it that's the only scary part of the movie. The ONLY other noteworthy thing is that a key element of the movie--and this is supposed to be very scary and menacing--is a board. Yes, a board. At one point Adrienne Barbeau says something like, "I think everything that's been happening around here has something to do with the board my son found!" (OK, she calls it driftwood, but still). Other than the claustrophobic "fog" and the Board of Doom, this is a tedious movie, and people who say it's a horror classic are lying through their teeth. 5/10.
Review of The Fog
