The Fog (1980) Adrienne Barbeau, Jamie Lee Curtis, Hal Holbrook, Janet Leigh Movie Review

The Fog (1980)   3/53/53/53/53/5


Adrienne Barbeau in The Fog (1980)

6 Must Die

Legend has it that 100 years ago a thick fog enveloped the sea off of the coast at Antonio Bay, California where a false beacon light resulted in a tragic accident and loss of life at sea. Now as the residents of Antonio Bay prepare to celebrate their centenary it appears the crew of the shipwreck have returned and are looking to reek revenge on the descendants of those who were responsible for the accident and their deaths.

"The Fog" starts with an old man telling a ghost story to a group of children sitting around a campfire and it is a scene which was described in a couple of reviews I read as being classically creepy. Unfortunately as I started to watch "The Fog" that scene didn't appear as being classically creepy in fact it came across as being nothing and certainly not creepy like I had expected. It immediately sank my hopes that "The Fog" was going to be the fun and exciting horror movie which rarely gets made these days.

Tom Atkins and Jamie Lee Curtis in The Fog (1980)

The trouble with "The Fog" is that it seems aware that it is a simple horror movie involving the dead returning to get their revenge on the descendants of those responsible for their death but rather than playing on that awareness it tries to play as if it was original. The result is a movie which never quite hits its stride because every time it is primed for some typical horror fun it tries to be clever only to ruin the rhythm it has created. Frankly it makes "The Fog" a slog because you quickly come to the point that every time you think some fun horror is coming it changes track or tries to be too clever.

The one thing which "The Fog" has going for it is the cast because everyone from Adrienne Barbeau to Tom Atkins are watchable and likeable for various reasons. But at the same time there is not a single character in "The Fog" which is memorable. And that is really the trouble with the movie as whilst it has some classic style scares and features some incidental music which is reminiscent of "Halloween" there isn't anything really unique about "The Fog" to make it stand out from the crowd.

What this all boils down to is that "The Fog" is an okay horror movie with some classic horror moments which make you jump. But beyond an appealing cast there isn't anything which really sets this apart from other horror movies which means in the end it is forgettable.


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