Post by Chatterer on Jul 21, 2004 13:02:48 GMT -5
The Fog. The classic horror story made by the master of atmosphere himself…John Carpenter. This was Carpenter’s second film. (First being Halloween, shortly followed by the TV series Elvis), and one of the big three movies that he made (Halloween, The Thing, The Fog). The Fog is a revenge story, unlike Halloween being a knife flick, this one came from a different angle. In matter of fact the main character is: The Fog. The Fog moves with quick precise flows, comes and takes its revenge on you fast and simple. Luckily for us Jamie Lee Curtis (Halloween), played the character who’s always getting terrorized. Also a good actor in this film was John Carpenter’s wife, Adrienne Barbeau (Swamp Thing) who plays the mysterious voice on the radio Stevie Wayne. Also Jamie Lee Curtis’s mother Janet Leigh from (Psycho), plays as the town mayor. This film has quite a family in relationship with the film, all in all a great cast fit for a great movie.
The directing was marvelous definitely one of Carpenter’s best works. And just like Halloween it started out as a failer, but after production occurred, everybody, and I mean everybody (well maybe not everybody, but just about everyone) loved it. New York said it was “VERY SCARY!”, Newsweek said it was “crisply chilling”, and The Hollywood Report said “It will frighten the daylights out of you!”. Its also very interesting how Carpenter got the idea in the first place. Well him and Debra Hill (the producer who did a wonderful job) were at Stone Henge, when a thick cloud of fog rolled in, John asked Debra: “What do you think is in that fog?” yes that simple quote, but its because of that simple quote that made this movie possible. The first shooting of the film sucked bum, so Carpenter decided to do a professional job and redo the sucky parts. So just about everything that sticks out of a window looking like a dummy’s hand, is the first draft of the shoot.
The Fog had pretty good special effects, and makeup effects, some that stick out of my mind are the ‘wormface’ scene, and the shining cross scene. All this credit goes to the famous Rob Bottin, you know the guy who did the effects for “The Howling” ya that guy, he’s pretty famous. Some downfall happening in that era was the amount of viewers who wanted blood, and guts (It was about the time when Scanners came out). So what was Debra Hill, and John Carpenter to do? Well they asked Rob Bottin, and he did an exceptionally good job. As much as his fame goes, he’s in the same levels as Dick Smith, and Tom Savini (yes those other famous guys). It seems that after the movie was finished people still wanted some more gore, but the atmosphere covered that up.
Speaking of atmosphere, this movie has got to be John Carpenter’s masterpiece when referring to atmosphere. Both Debra and John are atmosphere perfectionists, they try to stay away from the gore more, and get into the actual feel of the movie. One of the things that captures the film has got to be the music. Like most Carpenter films, the music is always great. But the cool thing about this movie is that John Carpenter ‘did’ write, and compose the music for this film (who ever knew John could play keyboard?) If you haven’t noticed ‘the fog’ always comes out in the night, and never comes out in the day, why? I think because there’s something ‘ELSE’ in the fog, something that wants revenge. The actual fog in the movie is made by a group of people who blow the fog, (so it seems like it has a life of its own), and make the fog stay in certain places by taking boards and waving them around.
In the beginning of the movie you see a little quote by Edgar Allan Poe, it seems to be telling you something, but you can’t really get it. Then you see a campfire gathered around it is an old sailor, telling ghost stories to a group of children. (Right now you’d be saying to yourself, “damn this is awesome! Another great Carpenter film!”, and you know what you’d be right). Though most people don’t get the feel out of The Fog, that your supposed to, it seems to satisfy all viewers in the end. All in all great atmosphere.
The story goes that a priest finds a diary of a bunch pirates. He reads into it but there’s something about the book that’s better left unread. So in comes the fog to take revenge on whoever figures out what really happened….
10/10 A Must See.
The directing was marvelous definitely one of Carpenter’s best works. And just like Halloween it started out as a failer, but after production occurred, everybody, and I mean everybody (well maybe not everybody, but just about everyone) loved it. New York said it was “VERY SCARY!”, Newsweek said it was “crisply chilling”, and The Hollywood Report said “It will frighten the daylights out of you!”. Its also very interesting how Carpenter got the idea in the first place. Well him and Debra Hill (the producer who did a wonderful job) were at Stone Henge, when a thick cloud of fog rolled in, John asked Debra: “What do you think is in that fog?” yes that simple quote, but its because of that simple quote that made this movie possible. The first shooting of the film sucked bum, so Carpenter decided to do a professional job and redo the sucky parts. So just about everything that sticks out of a window looking like a dummy’s hand, is the first draft of the shoot.
The Fog had pretty good special effects, and makeup effects, some that stick out of my mind are the ‘wormface’ scene, and the shining cross scene. All this credit goes to the famous Rob Bottin, you know the guy who did the effects for “The Howling” ya that guy, he’s pretty famous. Some downfall happening in that era was the amount of viewers who wanted blood, and guts (It was about the time when Scanners came out). So what was Debra Hill, and John Carpenter to do? Well they asked Rob Bottin, and he did an exceptionally good job. As much as his fame goes, he’s in the same levels as Dick Smith, and Tom Savini (yes those other famous guys). It seems that after the movie was finished people still wanted some more gore, but the atmosphere covered that up.
Speaking of atmosphere, this movie has got to be John Carpenter’s masterpiece when referring to atmosphere. Both Debra and John are atmosphere perfectionists, they try to stay away from the gore more, and get into the actual feel of the movie. One of the things that captures the film has got to be the music. Like most Carpenter films, the music is always great. But the cool thing about this movie is that John Carpenter ‘did’ write, and compose the music for this film (who ever knew John could play keyboard?) If you haven’t noticed ‘the fog’ always comes out in the night, and never comes out in the day, why? I think because there’s something ‘ELSE’ in the fog, something that wants revenge. The actual fog in the movie is made by a group of people who blow the fog, (so it seems like it has a life of its own), and make the fog stay in certain places by taking boards and waving them around.
In the beginning of the movie you see a little quote by Edgar Allan Poe, it seems to be telling you something, but you can’t really get it. Then you see a campfire gathered around it is an old sailor, telling ghost stories to a group of children. (Right now you’d be saying to yourself, “damn this is awesome! Another great Carpenter film!”, and you know what you’d be right). Though most people don’t get the feel out of The Fog, that your supposed to, it seems to satisfy all viewers in the end. All in all great atmosphere.
The story goes that a priest finds a diary of a bunch pirates. He reads into it but there’s something about the book that’s better left unread. So in comes the fog to take revenge on whoever figures out what really happened….
10/10 A Must See.
