Scores of Scores : John Carpenter’s ‘The Fog’

John Carpenter’s The Fog is one of those movies that could have gone down in flames. Coming off the success of his independent horror film, a little flick called Halloween, Carpenter was given the opportunity to make another film. That film was called The Fog, and while in post-production Carpenter realized the film was not working. The “fog” effects did not look good, and with a movie that is completely reliant on fog being scary that meant the movie was going to flop.

So Carpenter re-shot scenes and a third of the finished film were additions he added. The result was a stark, creepy, and visually stunning horror film that indeed made you afraid of fog. While still a movie that made you fear more what you didn’t see rather than what you did, it cast a very specific spell on you. It’s still one of the most visually striking horror films to come out of the early 80s, with the lighthouse scenes still a dazzling visual over 40 years later.

And John Carpenter’s score is beautifully melancholy and eerie, capturing not only the dread but also the tragedy that occurred in Antonio Bay, 100 years ago in 1880. This is a ghost story, and scary as it is it is also a revenge story for the pirate ghosts of the Elizabeth Dane. They were duped by the people of Antonio Bay and were led into a fatal trap, sailing their boat into the rocky shore and dying a death at the bottom of the ocean. The town founders plundered the wrecked ship, took their gold, and used it to build their town. 100 years to the day Blake, the leper captain of the ship, returned with his undead crew to exact revenge on the ancestors of the founders and to get their gold.

John Carpenter has always mixed analog and electronic instrumentation when it came to his film scores, and The Fog I believe was his shining moment. Don’t get me wrong, I love many of his film scores; from Assault on Precinct 13 to Escape From New York to Prince of Darkness to Christine he’s a master of mood and melody. Of course Halloween, but I feel that goes without saying. But his work on The Fog elevated that movie to heights even greater than the lighthouse radio station run by Stevie Wayne(a fantastic Adrienne Barbeau.)

From the opening campfire to the fishermen run-in with the Elizabeth Dane to Stevie Wayne climbing to the top of the lighthouse in order to escape certain death, Carpenter’s piano/synth pulse and drones go a long way to put your heart right into your throat.

I remember the first time seeing The Fog. I was probably 8 and sick with fever. I remember lying on the living room couch, watching The Fog covered under two or three blankets as I was shivering. It was edited for television, but other than maybe language I can’t imagine too much was cut. The opening scene where the car horns are going off and glass is shattering in the convenience store in downtown freaked me out. And the scene where Father Malone tells the folks in the basement of the church about the journal he found of his grandfather’s was another memorable, visceral moment.

Like Phantasm, The Fog is another one of those horror movie moments from childhood that went a long way to making me a life long horror movie fan. I think I saw Halloween on TV before The Fog, but there was something aged and vintage about The Fog, whereas Halloween felt more modern despite being two years older of a film. Halloween felt smarter than what came after, but it was still the DNA of the 80s slasher. The Fog was more like a creepy ghost story you told late at night, and one that kept you up half the night looking out the window. Looking for that rolling and low fog, subtle glow, and a silence that’s deafening.