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Summary: THE FOG
Review: This movie was very cool. Love it. Worth buying. Hey it's John Carpenter, and if it was made before 1990, heck, you know it'll be good. It's scary, and has zombies in it. See it, see it, and see it.
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Summary: Feels like Halloween, but looks like The Fog
Review: What can I say that hasn't already been said? If you're a fan of well-made (but not overly slick) horror films, or if you're a Carpenter fan who hasn't seen this particular film, then I highly recommend The Fog.Set in a fictional coastal village called Antonio Bay, with most of the story revolving round a widowed female DJ/Radio station owner (Adrienne Barbeau: Carpenter's wife, at the time), whose station transmits from a lighthouse, The Fog was made shortly after Halloween and certainly resembles Halloween on many aspects (which is not a bad thing). This time, however, the evil is a legend from the past which returns for vengeance on the citizens of Antonio Bay through and with a mysterious fog. The Fog on DVD has extras that include photos, trailers, deleted scenes, flubs, and a making of The Fog, all of which I found very informative and entertaining, being a big fan of Carpenter's early films. Basically, if you like Halloween, you'll like The Fog. The Fog is by no means a masterpiece, nor can it be ranked with Halloween; however, the familiar John Carpenter imagination, feel, original music, intensity, and scares are there, along with some familiar faces, and a much different setting.
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Summary: Why I agree with last review and.....
Review: I WANTED to like this movie when I saw it, but it, like any other Carpenter movie that I've seen (and I have to say I haven't seen anything recent of his), is so full of holes and flaws that still years later I feel cheated as a movie goer. I honestly do not know how this man continues to make movies. ::::SPOILERS: Do not continue if you have NOT seen the movie:::
I agree, like I said, with the previous review. The mood is set, but why set up all the knocking without entering a place, and then he breaks that whole convention in the end with their getting into the lighthouse (build up of power? who knows). BUT..and the biggest but..is when they just POOF appear in the church to behead Holbruck. If they could do this, the rest of the meager set up makes no or little sense. This movie could have stayed on VHS and gone out of print for all I cared. Why write this and share? Want someone to save money and get a better film.
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Summary: Old Fashioned Ghost Story gets High Quality DVD Treatment
Review: A dark and eerie night. A group of children sitting around a campfire. A grizzled old man telling a ghost story at the stroke of midnight. So begins John Carpenter's "The Fog", an old fashioned ghost story about the dead returning from a watery grave to seek revenge against the living.
The basic plot of the film concerns a group of sailors who were lured to their death when their ship crashed against the rocky coastline and sank to the bottom of the sea 100 years earlier. The ghosts return, enshrouded in a glowing fog, seeking out revenge and wreak havoc on the tiny coastal town of Antonio Bay. As horror films go, this is just an okay film. Carpenter does provide plenty of atmosphere and a couple of good jolts, but the movie does tend to stretch credibility to it's limit, such as the scene in which Adrienne Barbeau (who plays a disc jockey, stationed in a lighthouse)tells her listeners the movement of the fog STREET BY STREET! Does she have a bionic eye??
The real reason to watch this DVD is the extras. In addition to "voice over" commentary by Carpenter and screenwriter Debra Hill (who makes it very clear every time she, or one of her body parts, appears on the screen), the DVD has two "making of" documentaries. (one origionally made at the time of the film's release and another made specifically for the DVD). There are also outtakes, the original trailer and TV spots included in the extras. All DVDs should provide such bonuses. So whether you're a fan of horror, ghost stories, or Jamie Lee Curtis, this is definitely worth a look.
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Summary: INCRDIBLE TRANSFER FOR CHILLING MOVIE
Review: GREAT MOVIE TO SIT AND FEEL CREEPED WITH. WHO WASN'T AFRAID OF FOGS AFTER SEEING THIS ONE THATS WHAT I WANNA KNOW!. THE TRANSFER TO DVD WAS GRRRRRRRREAT! THE COLORS WONDERFUL, BLACKS ARE AS BLACK AS CAN BE, AND SOUND GREAT. GREAT GREAT JOB!
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Summary: Another Fine Carpenter Achievement!
Review: John Carpenter is a directoral genius! Form the creator of such films as Halloween & Escape From New York, who could expect anythingless than a masterpiece of horror. An excellent idea, a well rendered filming, and fine acting make this a film worht watching...worht owning! I give this four stars. If you enjoy this one, be sure to check out Halloween, and The Thing.
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Summary: the fog finally blows in... doesn't disappoint
Review: i am, i suppose, a horror buff. since a young age i have enjoyed being scared by rollercoasters, walks at night, and, above all... horror films. i have seen many, and i must say that john carpenter's early work are among the best horror films one can sit through. His first film, HALLOWEEN, has been endlessly redone, its vast appeal and originality is still unrivaled today. But, lets forget about HALLOWEEN, shall we? mr. carpenter's follow-up, THE FOG, is what i would like to speak of for a moment. considered by critics to be a failure, THE FOG is the complete opposite of its hailed upon brother, HALLOWEEN. its is a deliberately paced, spooky little ghost story of revenge set against a beautiful widescreen ocean locale called antonio bay. the leader of a leper colony and his crew is sent to a watery death 100 hundred years ago by the denizens of a small community looking to set up their township with the colonie's riches. the waterlogged ghosts come back to do away with the progeny of the original townsfolk and retrieve the loot that is rightfully theirs. Carpenter, a master of mood and build, opens his tale with a right frightful montage of the town going crazy--car horns blaring, lights flickering off and on by themselves, etc. he brings back jamie-lee curtis, her presence always enjoyed, and the wonderful hal holbrook as a worried priest. then comes the true star, THE FOG itself. Carpenter makes us believe that THE FOG is an entity, creeping about as if it had a mind. THE FOG holds those unfortunate dead, and as it creeps closer, carnage ensues (though gore is at a minimal by todays standards). it all culminates at an old church with the principles in peril trying to escape with their lives.
the dvd is a treat at the price. a wonderful commentary track with carpenter is divine, along with two documentaries, trailers, and a neat storyboard comparison. and as ghost stories go, this is among the best. highly recommended.
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Summary: A Classic Finally Gets A Class-Act Treatment!
Review: Let's just cut to the chase right now and say THIS is THE version of The Fog to own. If you're a fan of the movie, or of John Carpenter (before he turned into a pod person and became incapable of releasing anything but dreck), buy this disc now! The transfer is beautiful: the contrast is high, the detail incredible, the colour rich, and the sound well-balanced. In fact, the overall image quality is better than that of the laserdisc version, with almost no noticeable flecks or scratches, and is almost entirely free of compression artifacting (the only spot I noticed it was after the attack on The Seagrass, when the fog completely covers the screen, and even then I really had to look to notice it). Even the menu screens get the professional touch, with artfully composed looping clips from the movie as well as art and sounds created specifically for the DVD. As far as sound, I'm no expert, but this disc really seemed to clean up all the problems found on previous versions. The levels seem balanced: no playing remote jockey to lower or raise the volume. And MGM even fixed faulty dialogue cues (for example, on the laserdisc version, during the attack on the church, when Father Malone makes his way out of the study to take the gold cross to Blake, and Andy warns him not to, the line "Don't go out there" plays, and then about five seconds later you see Andy's lips move. On the DVD, the cue and action are perfectly synched). The extras are decent, but nothing to write home about. The storyboard-to-film comparison "feature," in particular, is especially disappointing, in that it only shows a very brief segment of the film (the murder of Al and Tom on The Seagrass, about 140 seconds' worth of footage), and even cheats at that (the same art is shown for several shots, although this may have been how the storyboards were actually used). Also, the quality of the film portion of the comparison screen is inexplicably awful. The section is so short and so plainly presented that it seems a cheat to put "Storyboard to Film Comparison" on the packaging. Instead, it feels like an afterthought, something included because today's DVD consumer expects it, but with as little effort as possible, and no attention or focus at all on how the storyboards were conceived, designed, or used specifically for this film. The outtakes section also dissatisfies, as it is exactly the same as that on the laserdisc, comprising a bunch of unused (and unexplained) special effects and lighting test shots, followed by a scant 2 ½ minutes of actual bloopers (half of which consist of Adrienne Barbeau making post-take faces at the awfulness of her performance, although it is worth the price of admission to see the legendary John Houseman say "sh*t" after blowing a line), followed by shots of the crew at work. All with very poor sound, or smothered by overbearing music cues. But for those who haven't seen the laserdisc version, it makes a fair addition, in that it also shows many behind-the-scenes activities which are either missing or inadequately described in the voice-over commentary and documentaries Finally, the audio commentary by Carpenter and Hill is also a letdown; while it is fun to hear these two old friends chat away (and it should be noted their synergy is phenomenal), they often fall into a sort of verbal shorthand, leaving any of us without a film degree or fanatical zealot's insider info completely in the dark. Hill's commentary begins to annoy after a while, sounding like a high school TA puffing up her involvement in the film ("Those are my hands!" "That's my quilt!" "There I am!" "That's me!"), and frequently the contextual information she gives is wrong (at the point in the movie where Janet Leigh's character encourages the townsfolk to stick around and take a look at the statue, for example, Hill claims "Here Janet is telling everyone to go home, lock their windows, and be safe"). Carpenter tries to give some technical background, but I really don't need to know what town EVERY SINGLE SCENE was shot in, and one can only hear "That's Tommy Lee Wallace playing the part of the ghost" so many times without wanting to shoot...something. The few times he actually begins to describe interesting or revealing filmmaking footnotes, he either loses his train of thought, or uses abbreviated jargon which leaves the viewer scratching his head in bewilderment. If the disc shines at all in the area of extras, it is for the new documentary made specifically for the DVD. While "Fear on Film," made concurrently with the movie, is an abysmally jarring, low-low-budget pastiche of the various people involved blathering on about whatever interested them (Janet Leigh provides such stellar insights as "suspense is the fear of what's going to happen," then babbles on about Psycho and Alfred Hitchcock for the rest of her segment) intercut with overlong movie clips that have nothing to do with what the talking heads are talking about, "Tales from the Mist" presents the entire moviemaking process in a logical, chronological fashion, with movie clips whose content and brevity fully complement the script. Although nowhere near as in-depth or complete as the documentary made for the Halloween DVD, "Tales from the Mist" is an intelligent, beautifully edited, well-thought-out expose covering all aspects of the production. All in all, its only fault is that it ends much too soon. To sum up, this is a beautiful print which does great justice to a great movie; it deserves a place in your collection on the basis of audio and video quality alone. The presentation is so clean and rich that it looks as if the movie were filmed yesterday. Nor is it a bare-bones edition, with audio commentary, outtakes, storyboard comparisons, and two documentaries...just don't buy it solely for the extras, or you may be disappointed.
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Summary: I've seen fog before, but never like this . . .
Review: If you're looking for an atmospheric horror classic with great acting and a haunting theme, look no further! John Carpenter was at the top of his game when he wove this chilling tale of a mysterious fog that rolls into a small seaside town. Easy-on-the-eyes Adrienne Barbeau does a stellar job as a sultry-voiced disc jockey. "Don't go outside! There's something in the fog!" she warns listeners . . . and the listeners soon learn she's right.
If, on some foggy night, you hear a knock on your door--especially a slow, rhythmic pound--I'd think twice about answering it. You just might yourself face-to-face with a sailor from the doomed Elizabeth Dane. And he won't be selling Avon.
This is definitely one of my all-time favorite fright flicks, and I'm glad it's finally on DVD.
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Summary: Easter Egg Alert!
Review: Finally! The Fog comes to DVD! The Fog is one of my favorite horror films, and it's great to see it get the full DVD treatment! The plot is simple: On her 100th anniversary, the small hamlet of Antonio Bay is beseiged by a strange fog, cloaking the vengeful ghosts of a murdered leper colony, whose deaths provided the wealth necessary to start the town. Writer/Director John Carpenter gets right to the point, and there isn't a wasted frame of film in this tightly paced chiller. The scene where the men on the fishing boat see the ghost-ship is one of the classic movie creep-outs, and the ending is great. This film really harks back to the old ghost story films of the 40's. The DVD is full-frame on one side, and the widescreen side of the disc has all of the extras, including commentary by Carpenter and co-writer/producer Debra Hill, an old documentary and a made-for-the-DVD documentary, trailers and commercials, posters and print ads, and lots more. (I would have liked to have seen more about the makeup effects for Blake and his crew, but that's just me...) The film transfer is GREAT- The Fog has never looked better, and the colors are lovely and vibrant. I even managed to find an easter egg! On the "Special features" screen, tab up until a pair of glowing eyes appear in the fog- press enter and you'll see a brief (a little under three minutes) music video of behind-the-scenes-footage from the making of the film. Overall, The Fog is a must-have for fans of Ghost stories or John Carpenter. Now lets see Escape From New York and Prince of Darkness get the deluxe treatment.....
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