{"id":26774,"date":"2017-10-28T03:12:19","date_gmt":"2017-10-28T07:12:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=26774"},"modified":"2017-10-28T03:12:46","modified_gmt":"2017-10-28T07:12:46","slug":"the-perfect-film-to-watch-on-halloween","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2017\/10\/28\/the-perfect-film-to-watch-on-halloween\/","title":{"rendered":"The Perfect Film to Watch on Halloween"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Since we\u2019re all slowly and inexorably heading into the last day of the month of October, I\u2019ve gotten to thinking about the perfect film to watch on Halloween. The sort of film where, to properly experience it, you have to turn off all the lights in your living room and surround yourself with friends or family, put a huge bowl of freshly made popcorn on the table to get that smell of hot butter in the air, and then cower together to scream and laugh while lit only by the glow of the television. We\u2019ve all done it at least once, and it\u2019s always fun, but it can be unforgettable if you pick just the exact right thing to watch.<\/p>\n

This, in turn, got me to thinking about John Carpenter. Because, as you all remember, he just happened to make a little obscure flick called \u201cHalloween\u201d. Which, coincidentally, is why my own personal recommendation for the perfect film to watch on Halloween is \u201cThe Fog.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Yeah, yeah, yeah\u2026 I know. I am more than fully aware that \u201cHalloween\u201d the movie is awesome. In fact, it\u2019s one of my favourite films and certainly one of the best films ever made. At the same time, it\u2019s not the perfect<\/em> film to watch on Halloween. Well\u2026 it kind of is, but I like to have unpredictable opinions. Maybe next week I\u2019ll change my mind, but for now The Fog<\/em> is the perfect film to watch on Halloween.<\/p>\n

Also, I think I can back up this opinion. For one, The Fog is brutally efficient in its storytelling. If it\u2019s not something scary or a setup for something scary to happen later, it\u2019s not in there. This is stripped down terror at its best. There\u2019s no fat, no filler. Just a pure 90 minutes of terror. It\u2019s one of those films where you\u2019ll catch a few minutes of it on TV or something and end up watching it through to the end credits without even realizing how much time went by because it\u2019s so perfectly paced. Every scene is like carefully laid out dominos, one always pushing the next one forward.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>If you\u2019ve never seen it, The Fog is about ghost lepers who return on the 100th<\/sup> anniversary of their deaths while hidden amidst the titular otherworldly fog in order to seek revenge on the descendants of the people who killed them. Tom Atkins plays a fisherman, Jamie Lee Curtis plays a hitchhiker, Hal Holbrook plays a priest, Adrienne Barbeau plays a radio DJ, Ty Mitchell is her son, Janet Leigh plays the mayor and Nancy Kyes, who is my own personal carpenter favourite, plays the mayor\u2019s assistant.<\/p>\n

Yes, I realize all these characters have names. No, it kind of doesn\u2019t matter. Because they barely function as characters. They\u2019re archetypes at best. They have no dramatic arc, they just have a path to follow. Now, I know this almost makes the film sound bad, but The Fog isn\u2019t meant to be high drama. It\u2019s meant to scare you, and in I think it\u2019s very very successful in that goal.<\/p>\n

So let\u2019s analyze a few individual scenes and see what I think makes The Fog work:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>We\u2019ll start with the first scene. The film opens, appropriately enough, on the beach with John Houseman as an old fisherman telling a story to a bunch of kids about a ship called the Elizabeth Dane that was lost during an odd thick fog after being led towards a reef by a campfire masquerading as a beacon. The ship sunk to the bottom of the ocean and all hands were lost. He then goes on to explain that when the fog returns the dead will rise to seek vengeance on those who built the fire.<\/p>\n

I love the cinematography of this scene, and indeed of the whole film. The bare set, enhanced by long shadows and deep darks is just amazing to look at. Houseman\u2019s somber face and voice are so convincing that you might as well be<\/em> one of the kids listening to him in that moment.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Another scene, one that takes place a little bit later that night, are of three men on a fishing trawler out in the ocean. They\u2019re sitting on their bunks talking and drinking beer when fog envelops their ship. Two of the men go out on deck and we get our first (and only) look at the ghost\u2019s ship, and the scene is magnificent despite its brevity. The angle, the lighting, the reaction shots, all make the scene feel like it lasts ten minutes instead of a ten seconds. It\u2019s exactly what you want a ghost ship to be. Old and grey and mouldy, with tattered sails. If the people behind the Pirates of the Caribbean films didn\u2019t at least watch this scene I\u2019d be a little disappointed in them.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>After the ship\u2019s apparition, the ghosts reveal themselves to the two men, and again it\u2019s brilliant. They\u2019re a trio of dark shadows just on the edge of visibility in the fog. Which, of course, is probably the best and scariest way to reveal them. Soon after that the men are gruesomely killed.<\/p>\n

The scene\u2019s pacing here is just about perfect. We spend enough time with the men to get to know them a little so they\u2019re not just random victims, but not so long that the film momentarily forgets that its main goal is to scare us.<\/p>\n

Also, I\u2019m guessing, probably wrongly, that this whole movie was written around frightening images and ideas that John Carpenter and Debra Hill had in their heads.<\/p>\n

Following the attack on the ship is a scene with Tom Atkins as a local fisherman and Jamie Lee Curtis as the hitchhiker he picked up in an earlier scene. Here we see them both lying in bed either just before or just after sex, presumably. It\u2019s kind of hard to tell because Atkins is wearing an undershirt, which is both odd and charming. They\u2019re talking about Curtis\u2019 drawings. Much of the scene feels improvised on the spot by the two actors and feels very warm and almost realistic. That\u2019s the thing about stripped down scripts. It gives the actors a chance to live and breathe in their roles and try some stuff, and Carpenter is a good enough director to leave his cast alone when they\u2019re doing something that works.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Now, because this is a horror movie and not The Big Chill, a knock at the door is heard and we see that whoever\u2019s standing there is knocking using a metal scythe and not his hand. Atkins, not recognizing the person at his door in the dark, walks over to answer. The clock is minutes away from one AM. The scythe rises just as Atkins turns the knob, opens the door and\u2026 The clock rings one in the morning. The witching hour is over. Whoever was at the door disappeared, even the fog is gone.<\/p>\n

To me, this is all so efficient. Atkins and Curtis talked just enough for us to get to know them, and then the movie creeped us out with the scene of the ghost at the door. That\u2019s what you want in a horror movie. Adding drama and backstories can work too, but more often than not it just comes off as inept and extraneous.<\/p>\n

At the same time. Don\u2019t get the impression that the whole movie is just people sitting around and then being scared or killed. There IS stuff happening. There are three distinct plotlines running concurrently: The first is the Tom Atkins and Jamie Lee Curtis one, where Atkins is trying to find out what happened to his friends on the trawler earlier. Then you have the Adrienne Barbeau one where she plays a single mom who moved to town not long ago to be a DJ at the local radio station and is starting to realize that the place may have some very dark and ghostly secrets. Finally, you have the Janet Leigh and Hal Holbrook storylines where you have the mayor trying to organize the town\u2019s anniversary and the priest trying to stop it because he found a diary warning them that the dead are going to return when the town turns 100.<\/p>\n

All in all, that\u2019s the film. I skipped quite a bit of it and tried not to include any spoilers, but still tried to give you a good \u201cfeel\u201d for what you\u2019d get if you watch this. The simplest way I can put it is that The Fog is like the greatest and most messed up episode of Goosebumps you\u2019re ever likely to see. A bunch of stuff makes no sense if you obsess over details, but in the moment it all feels fine. More than fine in my opinion, I think it\u2019s really awesome.<\/p>\n

On the negative side, it is<\/em> a bit bare and short, and once you step outside of the viewing experience it can seem a bit silly. If you do even the most basic google search online you\u2019ll see that people keep calling the ghosts in the film \u201cGhost Pirates\u201d even though they\u2019re 19th<\/sup> century lepers, but the fact is that the movie itself does little to shake this commonly held misconception. The ghosts carry swords just like pirates, and dress just like pirates, and ride on a ship that looks very piratey, And<\/strong><\/em> they\u2019re looking for their stolen treasure of gold Spanish doubloons. In fact, if the movie didn\u2019t give you an explanation about who they are and what they want you\u2019d think they were pirates. For once, I don\u2019t really blame people for getting it wrong. It\u2019s an easy mistake to make.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Also, if I\u2019m going to be nitpicking, I always felt that the ghosts\u2019 powers are very vague and unexplained. On the one hand they seem very earthly, having to knock at your door before entering your house and needing to chase you on foot and chop you up with knives. Hell, one of them is even stabbed at one point and reacts to the wound. Which is not very ghostly when you think about it. Yet, at the same time, they can teleport, control electrical and mechanical objects, and possess dead bodies. Don\u2019t get me wrong, it looks cool and all, but in the grand scheme of things it seems a bit incoherent. In yet another weird moment, Adrienne Barbeau\u2019s son finds a gold coin on the beach that turns into a plank of wood, a piece of the ghost ship\u2019s hull. No explanation for this. Later this plank starts to \u201cbleed\u201d water all over her radio console which then becomes possessed and starts to broadcast a ghost\u2019s voice.<\/p>\n

At the same time\u2026 meh. Who cares? If you\u2019re looking for logic in a horror movie you may be there a while. Horror is about emotion and fear, not rational explanations. So Carpenter may have cheated a bit. Good for him that he got away with it. I certainly have never had any problems with this film, and I must have watched it fifty times. It\u2019s every one of your childhood fears come to life. That\u2019s why I think it works.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Besides, this isn\u2019t a review. It\u2019s a recommendation. Call up some friends, or your kids if you feel they\u2019re old enough, and sit in the dark watching The Fog and eating candy. Relax. Have fun. Be scared. That\u2019s what Halloween is all about. It\u2019s like the man said \u201cEveryone\u2019s entitled to one good scare.\u201d<\/p>\n