The Honeycut: Does ‘The Fog’ live up to its reputation as a horror classic?

Welcome Aboard

I first saw “The Fog” a long time ago. I watched it with my grandma when it was on the Sci-Fi channel one weekend. Recently it had been brought up on the show I co-host, the “Midnight Terrors Podcast,” which is why I chose to cover it this week for the podcast and this article. 

“The Fog” received mixed reviews when it first came out. However, over the decades it has become another John Carpenter staple of the horror genre. So, were the critics right 40-some years ago? Or are the horror fans right these days? The answer: yes. 

The Story

In 1880 the founders of a small California coastal town, Antonio Bay, lured a group of sailors suffering from leprosy to their deaths by creating a campfire that they followed, only to crash and sink on the coral reef before reaching the shore. 

One hundred years later, Captain Blake and his ghostly crew return to seek revenge on the town and its citizens. They and their phantom ship emerge from… the fog… to wreak havoc.  

Honey’s Cut

Let’s get a few things out of the way real quick. One: this is an awesome concept for a movie. Two: I don’t care what they call them in the movie; Captain Blake and his men are ghost pirates. Three: I can see why people love this movie, but it is flawed. 

Now, let’s unpack all that. A movie about ghost pirates taking revenge on a town who betrayed and killed them. Amazing, sign me up. The fog looks great when it appears and sweeps over the sea and eventually the town. It’s not a normal fog. It looks supernatural, with lightning flashing inside of it. 

Captain Blake and his men are also everything I want to see in a movie like this. They are always draped in shadows. All you can ever make out are their silhouettes with hooked hands, peg legs, sabers, and glowing red eyes. 

You might be wondering what I’m complaining about then. Well, things kind of fall apart with the story. Carpenter had to do some major work during postproduction, and about a third of the movie is comprised of reshoots. It was a messy production, and it shows. I’ll give you a few examples. 

The first thing I thought after watching “The Fog” is that it could have been bigger. In the climax, Blake and his ghost crew launch an all-out assault on the town. Yet, we only see them attack the same five characters we’ve been following this entire time. How cool would it have been to have even just a few shots of these ghost pirates running through town, causing chaos, and terrorizing a few more random people?

But wait.  Blake and his crew only need to kill six people. Or do they? Yes, because the six town founders tricked them, which led to their demise. So, they need to kill six descendants of the founders. No. Well, the novelization apparently specifies this, but the movie never does. So, Bill, who just moved there from L.A. last week, can get taken out and that counts? What kind of revenge is that?

And then there’s the typical stuff. Even though there are some amazing actors in this, like Jamie Lee Curtis and Tom Atkins, the characters aren’t really memorable. Which is a problem because there are long stretches of just them talking, roaming around town, etc. Luckily, Carpenter added a few more scares in the reshoots, or this would be a slog of a movie even at only 89 minutes. 

Honey’s Final Thought

So, were the critics right not to like this film? I think so. As I pointed out, it is far from perfect. Are the fans now who consider this a classic right to love it? I’d also say yes. There is a lot of good here. And at the very least, it is a John Carpenter movie. Come on.

After all that complaining, you probably think I don’t like this movie. Quite the contrary, I actually really enjoyed watching “The Fog.” I think that’s the problem. I thought this was a good movie that could have been a great movie with a few small tweaks. 

But isn’t that one of the frustrating parts of life? You want things to go a certain way, and they don’t. Or you can see the potential in someone else, or maybe even yourself, and with a few small tweaks everything could come together, but it never does.

In the end, there is good and bad in everything. Sometimes, you just have to enjoy things and people for what they are. 

But man, I’d have liked to have seen those ghost pirates really ransack that town!