The Fog

Pirate Ghosts

True to his nature, John Carpenter's THE FOG starts wonderfully: setting up an array of characters, lore, small towns, and a few beautiful women. Jamie Lee Curtis plays one of these women: in this film a quasi-scream queen who parades about the town while trying to uncover the mystery of a few dead men on a boat in the marina. A mysterious fog had enveloped them moments before their deaths, and it just so happened to envelop them right at midnight on the 100th anniversary of the founding of the small town. A priest, played by Hal Holbrook, level headed-ly uncovers the truth early on in the film, and although Curtis' character is ignorant of this truth, we the audience are aware early on. The priest, at midnight, discovered an old journal of his grandfathers in the church walls. Reading it, he discovered that his grandfather and five other men conspired to trick a crew of sailors to their deaths in order to steal their hidden gold. It is stressed that men were sailors with hidden gold. That, however, sounds a lot like pirates. The fog that eerily glows and stretches over the town is a vessel for the dead sailors (pirates) to attack the townspeople for revenge. Apart from this being a film about pirate ghosts, which is silly enough, the fact that the pirate ghosts kill people who weren't even related to the conspirators is all the more ridiculous. As Curtis and her counterparts flee the fog, a party celebrating the anniversary is occurring in the main part of town, but the people attending it never seem to be in any danger. No, the people celebrating the deaths of the sailors because it resulted in the creation of the town are never harmed, instead, Curtis (who is a drifter) is in harm's way. THE FOG is no fun, and eventually becomes grading. It's weak.
The Fog: ★★