The Fog (1980)

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General		Extras
Category	Horror	Main Menu Introduction Menu Animation & Audio
Rating
Year Of Production	1980
Running Time	85:53
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (43:02)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Language Select Then Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	John Carpenter
Studio Distributor	Universal Pictures Home Video	Starring	Adrienne Barbeau Jamie Lee Curtis Janet Leigh John Houseman Tom Atkins James Canning Charles Cyphers Nancy Kyes Ty Mitchell Hal Holbrook John F. Goff George 'Buck' Flower Regina Waldon
Case	?
RPI	$19.95	Music	John Carpenter

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.35:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	Portuguese	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    The 1980 scary movie, The Fog, is a reminder of the variability of John Carpenter's work. A hit and miss director, he has created some memorable flicks including The Thing, Escape from New York and Halloween. He has also produced some fairly weak material such as Vampires and Ghosts of Mars. Certainly, The Fog falls closer to the "weak" section of his resume than the "impressive" section...

    Stevie Wayne (Adrienne Barbeau) is a single mother who has relocated from Chicago to the sleepy Californian hamlet of Antonio Bay. She makes her living by broadcasting an evening radio show from the local lighthouse. Strangely, despite playing only an endless stream of elevator muzak, and Stevie's insistence on talking like a telephone sex worker at all times, everyone in the town appears to listen to "KAB" constantly. Stevie's young son is happy enough as a latch-key kid - after all he has the opportunity to listen to the ghost stories retold by local sea salt Mr Machen (a cameo by John Houseman). The scariest of all his tales is apparently true - 100 years ago, the clipper ship Clare Danes (or something like that) was lured to its demise on the local rocks by a bunch of sadistic town forefathers, who did not want the sailors to land at Antonio Bay.

    Now, why would these sailors be so unwelcome? Because of their incessant swearing? Because of their insistence on wearing stripy Matelot tops? Because of their tendency to carry really sharp hooks at all times? Nope - because they had leprosy. When the ship is lured onto the rocks by a strategically placed beachside campfire, it sinks and all on board are banished to a watery residence in Davey Jones' Locker. When the 100th anniversary of the tragedy rolls around, strange things begin to happen in Antonio Bay. Car alarms sound, petrol pumps begin err...pumping themselves, clock faces shatter and a mysterious glowing fog rolls in from the sea - despite a cloudless sky.

    Terrifying though dampness from errant water vapour may be, this fog carries more than just the ability to wet things. It also carries the ghosts of the aforementioned sub-aquatic sailors. Showing no mercy, the sailors begin to carve up the townsfolk...seemingly bent on revenge. Can they be stopped - and if so, how? (Answers on a postcard please, to Kitsch 80's Horror Competition, care of the site). If you want to find out just how scary atmospheric moistness can be, you will have to rent the film!

    Despite a fairly novel plot, this film is disappointing thanks to some mediocre acting of the hammy variety from Barbeau and of the wooden variety from Hal Holbrook. That and a very weak script...and some careless plot holes. In the acting department the most interesting aspect of the film is the second film appearance of Jamie Lee Curtis (following hot on the heels of Halloween) and her recently departed mother Janet Leigh (Psycho). There are some reasonable special effects (although at times the fog does look like suspiciously like it has been generated by a smoke machine, located just off camera) and even a few cheap scares that will really make you jump. This may be worth a purchase for collectors of Carpenter's work, but for most people who just wish to re-visit a horror film from their youth it can only be recommended (just) as rental fare. Whilst it does manage to generate some suspense at times, overall it looks, feels and sounds dated by today's horror standards.

Video

    The overall video transfer of this film is not at all bad, despite the film being almost a quarter of a century old. Perhaps the rather high bit rate, averaging 8.4 Mbps has something to do with it. Certainly fans of the movie who have worn out their VHS copies will be very impressed with this digital version.

    The movie is presented in a measured 16x9 enhanced aspect ratio of 2.35:1 which is the original theatrical aspect ratio.

    There really is little in the way of noticeable grain present to mar the transfer when the image is well lit. The sharpness of the image does vary a little bit through the film, with the daylight, outdoor shots looking very sharp indeed, whilst some of the lower lit scenes can look more grainy, pixelated and overly soft.

    Shadow detail is passable - even quite good at times, although it does lapse into full blackness a little too quickly at times. The black levels themselves are fairly deep but do suffer from some noticeable pixelisation or low level noise. Colours are generally solid and can be quite vibrant, with the blue skies and green fields of the coastline belying the age of the film. I noticed no problems with colour bleeding. Skin tones are fine throughout.

    The transfer has no major MPEG artefacts. Unusually for my progressive scan system, I did notice several instances of aliasing, largely on the wooden edges of the station wagon, telegraph wires and the like. There is also some edge enhancement evident on occasion, visible as a halo around characters, but even on a large screen it is usually fairly minor and never overly distracting. There is some telecine wobble evident in the titles, but it is not an issue of note during the feature.

    This is quite an impressively clean transfer given its age, with little in the way of film artefacts present. There is the occasional speck and one or two scratches, plus a "grey shadow" across much of the image for about twenty seconds around 31:55 - which I suspect is some kind of lens flare or optical defect, rather than a fault with the transfer to DVD.

    There are no English subtitles available (only Portuguese).

    This is a single sided dual layer (RSDL) disc with the brief, and well placed, layer change cropping up at a scene transition at 43:02.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The audio quality of this disc is not overly impressive, sounding heavily frontal and decidedly low fidelity.

    The sole English audio track is presented in Dolby Digital 5.1 encoded at 448 kbps. The audio track has no major defects in the way of hiss, pops or dropouts but the dynamic range and fidelity of the sound is very limited. Despite the surround encoding, there is a generally tinny sound to much of the audio. Dialogue was recessed and occasionally hard to make out, with some minor distortion noted - a limitation of the source recording I suspect. I spotted only one significant lapse in audio sync (the fault of poor ADR work, rather than the transfer, I guess) as the weatherman speaks into the telephone around 57:20.

    The music is credited to John Carpenter and it is more than slightly reminiscent of his theme for Halloween to be honest. This is still a reasonable soundtrack for a scary movie, with an incessant "ticking" vibe and the simple, haunting piano melody playing over the top.

    The remix of the original mono soundtrack has added very, very little to the soundstage. For all intents and purposes this still sounds like a mono track - despite what my amp tells me. There is some spread of sound across the main front speakers, but almost all of the noise seems to emanate from the centre channel. There is no significant presence of cross-soundstage panning effects for instance.

    The surround channels, to my ears, are pretty well unused throughout. I didn't notice a single occasion where I felt any hint of an enveloping surround presence. Similarly, the subwoofer may as well not exist - it certainly isn't carrying any true LFE activity from what I could hear.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    There are no extras present on this Region 4 release - unlike the beefy Region 1 version (see below).

Menu

    The main menu features animated clips from the movie, accompanied by a short loop of the score. It allows the meagre choices of playing the feature, selecting one of fifteen (nicely animated) chapter stops or activating the Portuguese subtitles.

    The Region 1 (Special Edition) of this film includes some substantial extra features.

    The Region 4 release misses out on:

• Additional 1.33:1 version of the film
• Original mono soundtrack
• Commentary track by John Carpenter and co-writer Debra Hill
, recorded for the Laserdisc release in 1995, and which is apparently very good
• Tales from the Mist: The Fog documentary running for close to half an hour
• Fear on Film: Inside The Fog featurette running for around ten minutes
• Storyboard Comparison
• Outtakes
• Behind the Scenes footage
• Original Trailers
• TV spots
• Booklet

    The Region 1 release misses out on nothing.

    The Region 1 release is the clear winner for those of you who wish to buy the film.

    The Fog is of importance to many as it is an early John Carpenter flick. Personally, this tale of ghost pirates seeking revenge under cover of some water vapour leaves me fairly cold. It looks dated, has a poor script, wooden acting and tinny sound. There are a couple of scary moments on offer, but overall this is a child of the Eighties - and it is showing its age. However that is just my personal view, and this film has a growing legion of fans who proclaim it to be one of Carpenter's best works - a triumph of substance over style. If you have not seen it before, I suggest you rent it first and decide for yourself.

    The video quality is surprisingly good overall, but does have some grain, aliasing and edge enhancement present.

    The audio transfer sounds like it is mono - despite the 5.1 surround remix.

    The extras are lost at sea - despite a plethora of worthwhile additions on the Region 1 release.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall