1980 - THE FOG, John Capenter's follow up to Halloween.

Carpenter's next film after Halloween.  The intention was apparently to make a classic ghost story.  Working with a small budget but a much larger cast, Carpenter didn't quite pull it off. Carpenter used all of his old tricks from Halloween. There are jump cuts, the usual tracking camera shots and lots of creative ways to kill people.

The cast is almost a John Carpenter stock company.  Jamie Lee Curtis, Adrienne Barbeau, Tom Atkins, Charles Cyphers and Janet Leigh (Jamie Lee Curtis's mother).  The film has lots of little in jokes as well.  One character is named Dan O'Bannon after the writer of Carpenter's first film Dark Star.  Another character is called Tommy Wallace who was the editor of The Fog and finally there is Carpenter himself in a small role at the beginning of the film.

 

I'm not sure what happened with this film. Certainly all the ingredients were there for a successful horror film but for some reason they just don't come together.  Perhaps the jumping between characters negated the film's suspense and horror moments.  Not even having Jamie Lee Curtis back helped much.  Adding gratuitous violence didn't do much for the film either.

The Fog made money since it was advertised as "from the director of Halloween," but this film is no Halloween.

The film was written by John Carpenter and Deborah Hill, the running time is 90 minutes.