Rating: 
Summary: The Fog at last!
Review: I am so glad this got a re-release on video! I have been searching for this movie for years. Okay, so this one is not the classic that Halloween was but look at the cast... Jamie Lee Curtis, Janet Leigh, Adrianne Barbeau, Hal Holbrook, and Nancy Loomis. It's a mood piece (not too much happens quickly)...pure and simply put it's just a creepy movie. But the scenes with Adrianne Barbeau as a deejay pleading for anybody who can hear her to help her son "get out of the fog" are worth the price of the video alone. It's a wonderfully fun film that any John Carpenter fan will enjoy! The signature music is there, and the cinematography is great too! It's not your typical "slasher" movie. THE FOG aspires to be something more...or maybe something less depending on how you see it. It opens with a man telling a ghost story around a campfire about a ship of un-dead lepers exacting their revenge on the inhabitants of a small coastal town. Well, that's what this is! It's a ghost story that you might hear around a campfire. Primal and scary, and not really all that gory or violent. It's a wise purchase for any horror fans out there!
Rating: 
Summary: Every Town Hides A Secret
Review: The seaside town of Antonio Bay is celebrating its 100th birthday. However, some uninvited guests, are about to crash the party. Some 100 years ago, a ship carrying lepers, crashed near the town, under mysterious circumstances. Now, something evil lurks inside the fog, ready to exact revenge on the town's citizens. This is the set up to director John Carpenter's THE FOG. A modest little ghost story. Genre favorite Adrienne Barbeau stars as Stevie Wayne, the owner and disc jockey of KAB, the town's only radio station. Jamie Lee Curtis plays hitch-hiker Elizabeth Solley who strolls into Antonio Bay, looking for a ride, instead, she finds more than she bargained for. The original "scream queen", Janet Leigh, plays Kathy Williams, the person in charge of the celebration. Actor Hal Holbrook is Father Malone, who knows more about the town secret, than anyone else. Teamed once again with producer Debra Hill, as well as many other actors and production folks, who worked on HALLOWEEN, the Fog was an attempt to do a different kind of horror film. For the most part it works. This is in large measure, due to the movie's creepy mood and the atmosphere, created by cinematographer Dean Cundey. There are few actual jolts for me in the film. But I like it well enough to be able to recommend and respect the work. The "Special Edition" DVD contains an all new 30 minute retrospective that is pretty solid. Strange to note that actress Jamie Lee Curtis didn't sit down for any new interview. Anytime we see her in the documentary, the producers used stuff lifted from the original featurette, made at the time of the film's release. The commentary track by Carpenter and Hill is lifted from the Laserdisc release. On said track, Carpenter talks about having just completed VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED, so that kind of was the clue that told me the track was lifted. No big deal, just thought it might be good to know, if you were expecting an all new track. It also includes the aforementioned original featurette. There's a group of outtakes (some of which are kind of funny), trailers and t.v. spots, a note from Carpenter, and a 5.1 digital soundtrack. The film can be viewed in either standard or widescreen format. THE FOG is not one of my top favorites from Carpenter but I still think it is worth a look ***and a1/2 stars for the whole deal.
Rating:
Summary: Carpenter at his most chilling and suspenseful.
Review: Following the mega success of the low budget Halloween, a year previous, Debra Hill and John Carpenter teamed again to present terror in an all new form.
The plot is simple enough: the spirits of wronged pirates return to seek revenge on the inhabitants of a California town on the anniversary of their betrayal.
This film is probably my favorite horror film of all time-featuring stellar acting performances from an all star cast (John Houseman, Janet Leigh, Jamie Lee Curtis, Hal Holbrook and the beautiful Adrienne Barbeau), a great plot and the most jump inducing and nail biting combination of music and film imaginable courtesy of John Carpenter. Carpenter has a great knack for composing music that raises the tension level to unbearable heights when matched to the onscreen mayhem.
Also, fantastic in this film is the cinematography, making the most of the scenic locale of Bodega Bay (the same location Hitchcock used for THE BIRDS). The ocean vistas are truly breathtaking, as is the scenery in the California town.
This film uses an old fashioned approach to presenting violence and does not rely on gratuitous gore, unlike many of the repetitive slasher films that also emerged from this period. The use of story, mystery, intrigue and plot twists makes for compelling viewing, as the viewer never knows what will happen next.
The DVD itself is a treasure trove for fans of this classic. With a modest price and loaded with special features including two awesome documentaries (one from 1980, the other made especially for this DVD), a horror fan just can't go wrong. The commentary track by Hill and Carpenter is insightful and revealing featuring many informative anecdotes. Furthermore, the widescreen presentation is beautiful in both picture and sound.
I have watched this film a dozen times at least and have yet to tire of it, on the other hand I seem to discover new things with every viewing that only serves to increase my interest in this great film. Highly recommended!!
Rating:
Summary: Atmospheric Thriller Given First Class Package
Review: I was always a fan of THE FOG if only because John Carpenter and company proved they would not imitate HALLOWEEN (which would have been easy considering the rest of the world did!). Straying away from the slasher mold, the same production team decided to make an old-fashioned ghost story about spirits of wronged lepers taking revenge on a town built from their stolen fortunes. This DVD special edition includes the widescreen version as well as the pan and scan version. Both are very cleaned up, though I did notice some extreme edge enhancements on the widescreen in the "ship scenes". But it looks better than it did on-screen! Included is an extensive 27 minute documentary as well as commentary from Carpenter and Debra Hill. The DVD is a VAST improvement over the video. It's a creepy movie with lots of atmosphere. And the REAL first time Jamie Lee Curtis and mom Janet Leigh teamed up for a horror movie (forget that hoopla about H2O!). The actors are great, the moos is tense, and the effects are proof that CGI still has a ways to go to compete with movies like THE FOG -- where you can almost reach out and touch everything.
Rating: 
Summary: Classic ghost story, not for the nervous
Review: THE FOG (USA 1979): While celebrating its centenary birthday, a small Californian coastal town is visited by a ghostly fog containing an army of murderous spirits who take revenge for a terrible injustice. Released on a wave of expectation following the worldwide success of John Carpenter's HALLOWEEN (1978), THE FOG surprised everyone by underperforming at the US box-office. Which is a shame, because it's arguably the better of the two films. Beautifully photographed in widescreen Panavision by Carpenter stalwart Dean Cundey (who went on to Hollywood glory with the likes of BACK TO THE FUTURE, JURASSIC PARK and APOLLO 13), this unassuming 'ghost story' opens on a lonely clifftop at midnight, where a crusty old sea dog (John Houseman) tells an audience of wide-eyed children how their home town was built on the foundations of tragedy. As with HALLOWEEN, the pace is slow but steady, and Carpenter judges the shocks and scares with consummate ease, and there's a relentless accumulation of details which belies the script's modest ambitions. Jamie Lee Curtis headlines the movie opposite her real life mother Janet Leigh, though Hal Holbrook takes the acting honors as a frightened priest who realizes the town was founded on deception and murder. As the fog rolls in, the narrative reaches an apocalyptic crescendo, as most of the major players find themselves besieged by zombie-like phantoms inside an antiquated church, in scenes reminiscent of NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (1968). Scary stuff, to be sure, though Carpenter was forced to add new material during post-production in an effort to 'beef up' the movie's horror quotient, including a memorable late-night encounter between a fishing boat and the occupants of a ghostly schooner which looms out of the swirling fog (similar scenes would be added to HALLOWEEN II [1981] for the same reasons, though under less agreeable circumstances). Production values are rock solid, and Carpenter cranks up the tension throughout, resulting in a small masterpiece of American Gothic. Recommended, though nervous viewers are advised that this one is genuinely frightening in places. MGM's region 1 DVD - which runs 89m 30s, minus the MGM logos at beginning and end which weren't part of the original film - letterboxes the Panavision frame at 2.35:1 (anamorphically enhanced). A full-screen version is also included on the disc, which utterly destroys the movie's beautiful compositions and should be avoided at all costs. Picture quality is grainy in places but OK overall, and there's a choice of soundtracks: The original 2.0 mono version (very good) or a revamped Dolby 5.1 version, which adds a little bass to the proceedings but nothing truly significant. English captions and subtitles are provided. Extras include the usual trailers and production notes, along with a couple of documentaries (one from 1980, the other recorded specifically for this DVD) and an audio commentary by Carpenter and co-writer/producer Debra Hill. There's also a series of outtakes, during which illustrious thesps Holbrook and Houseman can be heard swearing like troopers!
Rating:
Summary: Overall, a good DVD
Review: This is one of my favorite movies, I watched it alot as a kid (and was scared many times by my Mom, which helped matters). The movie itself is in great quality. A huge step up from the VHS that I've watched for years. If you haven't seen the movie, it's one of Carpenter's best. Behind only Halloween on my list. It's about a small coastal town gearing up to celebrate it's 100th anniversary. But, what they don't know is the story that lurks under the fog (pun intended :)) and the horror that is about to unfold. As the film continues, we meet Father Malone, who is a vital part to the story. We also meet Stevie Wayne, a radio broadcaster who starts to realize what's happening with the fog. It's a great film, I highly recommend it. The DVD doesn't contain a whole lot of extra stuff, but it's enough to satisfy. The movie itself looks great and the sound is wonderful.
Rating:
Summary: A highly underrated gem of the horror genre...
Review: John Carpenter's "The Fog" was a disappointment at the box office - and among many critics - when it was first released in 1980. But, like Carpenter's remake of "The Thing" (1982), "The Fog" has gained an ever-growing cult following over the last two decades, and many critics have given the film a second look and now regard it as a classic, "old-fashioned" ghost story. Along with "The Thing" and "Halloween", this film in my opinion represents Carpenter's best work. Almost everything in this film is perfectly done - the acting, the plot, the musical score, and the eerie, moody feel of the entire film. The film is set in the beautiful little seaside town of Antonio Bay, California, which is preparing to celebrate the 100th anniversary of its' founding. On the night before the celebration, several bizarre and unnatural events take place between midnight and one AM - cars turn on by themselves and honk their horns, glass windows crack and shatter for no reason, gasoline pumps begin working all by themselves, and a glowing, creepy fog is seen offshore by Stevie Wayne, the owner and deejay of the local radio station (Adrianne Barbeau, in one of her most memorable roles). Father Malone, the Episcopalian priest at the local church (Hal Holbrook, in an appropriately gloom-and-doom performance) finds a journal written by his grandfather, one of Antonio Bay's founding fathers. In it he learns that his grandfather and the town's five other founding members (their memories are being honored at the 100th anniversary celebration the next day) are actually murderers and thieves. It seems that a wealthy man named Blake developed leprosy and moved to a leper colony on an offshore island. He wanted to move the colony to the shore a few miles from the town, but the six founders of Antonio Bay were horrified at the prospect of a next-door leper colony, so they set a campfire on the beach to lure Blake's ship - the "Elizabeth Dane" - to its' doom on the jagged rocks offshore. A glowing, eerie fog covered the ship, it hit the rocks and sank, and all of the poor lepers on board - including Blake - were drowned. Blake's fortune in gold coins was used to build the church and a huge gold cross where Father Malone now holds worship services. From there the film rapidly picks up speed, as the creepy fog rolls in from the ocean, causing havoc with power and telephone lines, and horrifying "shapes" (the long-dead corpses of the lepers) appear out of the fog to claim their revenge. This film doesn't have much blood and gore, but like all classic films of the genre it has plenty of suspense, tension, and chills. Just as "Psycho" made many people scared of showers and "Jaws" left others wondering whether their beaches were safe, after watching "The Fog" you'll never see another fogbank the same way again. Highly Recommended!
Rating:
Summary: Watch out for The Fog
Review: The Fog is truly, even after 21 years, my all time favorite horror movie. It is the first movie that ever truly scared me and one that continues to make me nervous whenever I see a dense fog. John Carpenter has created a classic by blending all the elements of horror, suspense, ghosts and one of the greatest horror actresses of all time Jamie Lee Curtis, into one. The movie tells the tale of a town celebrating its 100th birthday cursed because of the deeds of their ancestors. The curse brings a band of ghostly men out of the fog to seek revenge. The Fog is very atmospheric combining great scenes of the coastline of California to scenes of the fog slowly rolling in across the sea. When the ghostly men attack, it is enough to make anyone jump to the edge of their seats. The music gives the film an overall eerie feel as well. The cast of characters Adrienne Barbeau, Jamie Lee Curtis, Janet Leigh, Hal Holbrook, and the little known talen of Tom Atkins all make The Fog that much more believable. John Carpenter even makes a cameo appearance. If you haven't seen The Fog yet, watch it now. You'll never forget it!
Rating:
Summary: An excellent creepy ghost story
Review: The Fog is not exactly a "horror" movie in the way most people think of them, and isn't that much like Carpenter's first hit Halloween. Rather, it is a creepy and atmospheric ghost story filtered through Carpenter's unique perspective. It won't scare the crap out of you or gross you out like The Thing, but it is consistently spooky and interesting, and looks way better than its microscopic budget should have allowed. I don't think it quite measures up to Carpenter's best movies, but it is definitely worth a look. The Special Edition DVD has a decent amount of extras, but the main benefit is the excellent picture quality and sound. John Carpenter's commentary track is OK, but not as good as his ones on other films, especially the ones with Kurt Russel where he seems to have more fun and is more interesting.
Rating:
Summary: The Fog IS better than Halloween!
Review: Only better film is The Thing 1982. The Fog aint bad, folks! This is a classic and its better than the Friday 13th slasher films that followed. And like Jason is retarded. And 4 get about Freddie!
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