Hello everyone, and welcome back to Marvelous Videos for another dreadful video about horror movies. Today we have a horror classic with a plot that will blow your head. The white fog that creeps out in the air after midnight, when everything is calm, is not merely an extra aspect of fear in the film.
We are going to discuss one of John Carpenter’s most creative works, released in 1980. He has been known for his horror films for a long time. After the critical acclaim for Halloween in 1978, he followed it up with another masterpiece, The Fog, barely two years later. It is a full-fledged ghost story, which did not happen all that frequently at the time. It is April 20, 1980, five minutes to midnight, and Antonio Bay, a little California coastal hamlet, is the setting.
Now, in order to scare the youngsters, Mr. Machen, a kind, bearded old man, tells them a terrifying genuine story about their own town. And, guess what? It is cursed by a mystery curse left by the ghostly dead, who will undoubtedly return to wreak havoc and exact their vengeance at some point in the future.
The rest of the movie is with the revenge that is meant to be exacted, and then there are a series of disturbing incidents that occur throughout the town between midnight and one of the clocks in the morning. Oh, and the lighthouse in the movie is the Point Reyes Lighthouse, which is located in Martin County, California. It also has nearly 300 steps leading down to the lighthouse, believes it or not.
The great director John Carpenter ends up establishing a spooky, evocative atmosphere for the rest of the picture. The Fog has the air of a ghost story, the kind you might hear over a campfire as a kid, where you lean in close, put your chin on your hands, and become completely immersed in a story you have never heard before.
Let us now delve deeper into the film and discover what is actually going on in this strange little village.
When The Fog Rolls in The Terror Begins! – The Fog (1980)
It is the eve of the 100th anniversary of Antonio Bay, a small coastal town in Northern California. The film begins with a not so scary looking old man named Mr. Machen, who is sitting around a campfire with a bunch of kids, telling them ghost stories. Five minutes are left until the clock hits midnight, which is the witching hour. And fun fact, this opening scene of the movie was actually added much later after the whole film was made.
Well, there is just enough time for Mr. Machen to tell these kids a rather true horror story about what surrounds their lovely little town. Oh, don’t worry, this old man is not the monster of our film. He tells the kids that a hundred years ago, there was a clipper ship called Elizabeth Dane. That night, there was a lot of fog in the sea. And through that fog, the ship was heading towards the coast of Antonio Bay.
That is when the tragic events unfolded. The ship crashed against the rocks and along with its Captain and crew, the ship sank. Everyone on it died. That sounds pretty horrible for them but what does the town have to do with it?
Turns out as soon as it was midnight, things started to get a bit unnatural around the town. The witching hour was not serving well with the already unnatural occurring. Dogs started barking while watching the sea, a whole bunch of cars suddenly turned on by themselves, and everything seemed a bit spooky. At the local church, Father Malone, the local priest, somehow discovered a diary that apparently belonged to his grandfather. Someone sure went through a lot of trouble to hide it.
Now, you won’t believe this while watching the film, but it was actually a low-budget independent film. But John Carpenter chose to shoot the film in anamorphic widescreen Panavision, and that is why the audience never got the feel of a low-budget horror movie while watching it.
Well, what happens next in the film is that, at the very same time when things in the town are kind of going bizarre, there is a small ship out at sea with three fishermen on it. The local radio DJ Stevie Wayne who is played by Adrienne Barbeau, warns them of the fog heading towards their ship. Now, you will be surprised to find out that the fog kind of takes over their entire ship, and something come out of the fog. They have those hooks with them as the one Captain Hook had in Peter Pan.
And as events unfold, all three of them are killed. The next morning Stevie’s son, Andy wakes her up with a piece of wood in hand that has “DANE” written on it. If you are thinking it has something to do with that ship that sank, well you might be correct. Suddenly, when Stevie is at the lighthouse, from where she broadcasts her radio show, water started flowing from that piece of wood that kind of messes up a tape player and we hear a clip. Looks like some kind of murder was being planned! Just then, the words “6 must die” appear on the wood and it catches on fire.
Oh, and something interesting, Adrienne Barbeau actually modeled her voice after Alison Steele, who was a 1960s female disc jockey, known as the Nightbird. A pretty great performance, have to give her credit for that!
Now, a town resident Nick Castle, played by Tom Atkins, along with his friend Elizabeth Solley, who is played by Jamie Lee Curtis, go to the docks to find out about those fishermen. One of the guys was Nick’s friend, so they set out to sea to find their ship. Although not a lot of blood has been seen in the film, we now do see the corpse of one of the fishermen, Dick Baxter, whose eyes seem to have been gouged out. Freaky, right?
Just then something unimaginable happens. In the autopsy room, Dick’s lifeless corpse literally gets up, falls on the ground, and scribbles the number 3. This sure is a town with its issues.
Things just keep getting stranger from here on. The local weatherman, Dan, calls Stevie and tells her that another fog bank has arrived and from the looks of it, it is heading towards town. Okay, this fog definitely brings bad news along with it.
Now might be the right time to find out about the horrors of this fog, right? Back at the church, Father Malone, along with Kathy Williams, who is overseeing the town’s 100th-anniversary celebrations, and her assistant Sandy, all read the secret diary. Looks like Father Malone’s grandfather and five other people, who were all the founders of Antonio Bay, planned the murder of the six people on board Elizabeth Dane, which included Captain Blake.
This was all done in order to steal Captain Blake’s gold so that they could build this town together. Oops, that is sure a wrong thing the town has been celebrating.
So, basically, the fog brings with it the ghosts of Captain Blake and his crew members from the ship of Elizabeth Dane, whose lives were wrongfully taken from them. This is why in return, they are going to kill six people from the town. And remember, three fishermen have already died. The fourth unfortunate death was of the weatherman Dan and then it was Stevie’s son Andy’s babysitter, Mrs. Kobritz.
Well, they only have one more person to kill. And who better than the grandson of the original conspirator. The fog is wreaking havoc everywhere in the town, it tries to go after Andy, who is then saved by Nick and Elizabeth. Soon, the fog has spread pretty much all over the town, leaving the old church as the only safe place.
Even Stevie is seen struggling, trying to run away from the ghosts of the crew members, who have come with the fog and are trying to kill her desperately.
Just then, back at the church, Father Malone, Kathy, Sandy, Nick and Elizabeth figure out that if they give the rest of Captain Blake’s gold back to him, then they will all probably leave the town alone for good.
Well, they manage to find the stolen gold which was hidden inside the wall in the form of a golden cross. Father Malone takes it to the ghost of Captain Blake and then suddenly it starts to glow with magnificent light. And Captain Blake and his crew disappear along with the golden cross. The fog starts to vanish away, and everyone thinks all is well now because everyone is safe from the captain’s wrath.
The film certainly ends with a bang, when Father Malone is wondering why didn’t they kill a sixth person. Just then, the fog reappears inside the church and Captain Blake and his crew cut off the head of Father Malone, and the screen blacks out.
Wow! That was certainly terrifying to watch. Well, better buckle up your seats before watching The Fog, if you don’t want to end up jumping off your seat during the movie. Now, let us find out about this ghost of horrors that came along with the breathtakingly killer fog.
Captain Blake and His Ghost Crew
So, basically, Captain Blake is the main enemy in this epic 1980 horror classic film The Fog. We know you must be wondering who actually played the role of Captain Blake. Well, here is an interesting story about that.
Rob Bottin, a makeup artist, played the character of the lead ghost, Captain Blake. Upon asking for the job, John Carpenter told Bottin to “stand up”. Now, naturally, Bottin was expecting Carpenter to then say “…and get out!” But turns out, Bottin was a very large man at 6′ 5″, which is exactly what was required for the character of Blake, and so Carpenter immediately hired him.
So, who really is Captain Blake? Well, he was a wealthy ship captain in the 1800s, with a rather unfortunate disease. And on April 21, 1880, which is exactly 100 years ago from when the movie starts, he and his crew were sailing at night in a thick, heavy fog, in their ship Elizabeth Dane. They were in search of a suitable location for them to establish a colony because Blake decided to move off Tanzier Island and relocate.
What happened then was, he and his crew members noticed a beacon far away in the distance and set out for it, but it turned out to be a ploy set up by a nearby town. And that beacon was meant to be a booby trap for them. So, the boat ended up getting destroyed when it hit a whole bunch of rocks off Spivey Point, and no one managed to survive. The people of the town then, looted the ship, in order to build their town on stolen gold.
So, if you look at this from another angle, it was basically murder because from the witching hour, that 12 midnight until 1 in the morning, the six founders of Antonio Bay planned the whole trip. It is easy to understand now, why Captain Blake’s ghost was never at peace.
Because clearly, many years later, Blake and his ghost crew decided to take revenge on the townspeople. And so, they came along with the fog which had caused their deaths, so that now they can take the lives of six people from the town and settle the scores.
Oh, but guess what, Blake’s ghost actually ends up appearing as himself in the film, only towards the end when everyone is inside the church. And as it turns out, he is the only ghost whose eyes glow red with rage.
We do get a look at one of his crew members, whose face looks like a rotten zombie-infested with gory worms. Yeah, not a pleasant look to have obviously. You will be surprised though, that apparently the crew members became stronger somehow after turning into ghosts. Looks like something worked out in their favor after all while taking their revenge.
They all carry sea tools along with them like hooks, knives, and swords, and are obviously always surrounded by the fog, so of course that makes it easier for them to kill their victims. All this fog in the film definitely will creep you out. Captain Blake and his ghost crew definitely look kind of like ghosts attached to the body of zombies.
Is there going to be The Fog 2?
Well, in 2005, Carpenter’s The Fog was remade but it did not exactly have as much of a boost and impact on the world of horror buffs. Although, regarding the sequel to the original 1980 film, Carpenter has said it before that he would be interested in that and he is certainly open to the idea for a sequel to a lot of his films.
In fact, John Carpenter has said that the sequel to The Fog might be in its early stages of development. So, looks like we can expect this excellent film surrounding sea spirits to make a comeback. And since we already know that Carpenter did take part in David Gordon Green’s 2018 Halloween sequel, which serves as a direct sequel to his original film, a potential sequel to The Fog might succeed as well in giving the horror fans new magic.
The themes we get to see in The Fog about betrayal, theft, and terror, could easily work well to make a sequel, which would show the audience how the horror genre has always had themes of social awareness and responsibility somewhere inside the violence. That being said, it still is far too early to say when a sequel to The Fog will be released, but with Carpenter on board, we can hope it will be sooner rather than later.
John Carpenter after the major success of his film Halloween certainly did not disappoint us when he decided to make The Fog. He has actually listed two sources of inspiration for the film, both of which are related to Great Britain. The first was The Trollenberg Terror (1958), a British film which is about monsters hiding in the clouds.
He also mentioned that he and his co-writer and producer, Debra Hill, were extremely motivated by a visit to Stonehenge, an ancient monument in South West England that was totally cloaked in fog during their visit. This only makes The Fog an even more interesting watch when you want to have a good scare of some ghosts going insane.
Well, with that, guys, we come to the end of another exciting video. We hope you enjoyed watching it. Make sure to drop a like and hit that subscribe button on your way out. Until then, stay safe and have a great day ahead!