- Directed by John Carpenter
- Written by John Carpenter, Debra Hill
- Stars Adrienne Barbeau, Jamie Lee Curtis, Janet Leigh, John Houseman, Tom Atkins
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 29 Minutes
- Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOZwnivtLbc
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
This still holds up pretty well. It’s suspenseful, the tension builds nicely, and the cast does a good job with it. The practical effects do the job and hold up for the most part. We were entertained.
Spoilery Synopsis
We open on Mr. Machen, an old sailor, who is going to tell one more ghost story to the children before midnight. One hundred years ago, on this very day, a small clipper ship was surrounded by fog. They saw a fire and steered toward it; it was a campfire, and the ship crashed. Everyone aboard drowned as the fog lifted. The fog never came again, but the old fisherman says that when the fog returns to Antonio Bay, the men in the water out there will rise up and search for the campfire that led them to their dark and icy death. Credits roll.
We cut to a man listening to radio DF Stevue Wayne on the radio. He does work for Father Malone, who can’t afford to pay him. The old priest finds a book that was hidden in the wall. “Midnight till one belongs to the dead,” it says.
Around midnight, weird things start happening all over town with machines and electricity. The grocery store has an earthquake and the gas station runs by itself. Stevie, on the radio, reports clear skies over town, and especially over the old lighthouse, from where she’s broadcasting. She gets a call from Dan, who reports a fog bank way out at sea.
Out on the road, Nick Castle picks up a hitchhiker; she’s Elizabeth. Something breaks all the windows in the car– as they drive.
The guys on the Sea Grass look out toward the approaching fog bank– it has lights inside. The fog hits, and their generator shorts out. Then they see a big sailing ship pass them by. The men are soon killed by… pirates?
Dan calls Stevie back, the fog bank has changed direction, against the wind. At Nick’s place, hitchhiking has escalated to sex as the two get real close, real fast. Someone comes knocking at the door. It’s a man with a hook, but when Nick goes outside, there’s no one there. The radio announces that it’s one a.m. now.
The next morning, a kid on the beach finds a piece of wood with “Dane” written on it. He’s Andy Wayne, Stevie’s young son; he was one of the kids listening to Mr. Machen’s ghost stories last night.
Nick and Elizabeth go to the dock; he’s angry because the Sea Grass didn’t come home last night. Nick asks Ashcroft to take him out to search for the missing boat. Elsewhere Mrs. Williams and Sandy talk about a big presentation coming up; Al Williams was the captain of the missing boat. Nick finds the missing boat, just floating out there with no one on board. Everything on board smells like salt water. They eventually find a body. The man drowned, but he was still on the ship.
Mrs. Williams and Sandy go to the church to talk to Father Malone. He shows them the old book he found. He reads about the ship Elizabeth Dane, which was carrying a boatload of lepers to a new leper colony. Malone’s grandfather and the town’s preacher at the time conspired to kill the lepers and steal their money. As they killed the men, “an unearthly fog” rolled in to help them. Yes, the towns’ founders were all murderers. “Antonio Bay has a curse on it,” he says. “We’re all cursed.”
Stevie watches as the wood with “Dane” on it changes to say “6 must die.” At home, Andy wonders about those strange clouds out on the horizon.
Nick and Elizabeth head back to town after finding the body on the boat. The coroner has a strange report about that. The body gets up and lunges at Elizabeth before collapsing.
Downtown that night, the 100th anniversary celebration of the town’s founding goes on. Nick tells Mrs. Williams about what happened to her husband out at sea last night. Nick calls Stevie on the phone to ask about the fog rolling in. She tells him how the fog was glowing last night and also about the strange driftwood that Andy found. Nick and Elizabeth decide to go out to the lighthouse.
Dan calls Stevie and reports another fog bank moving in. Dan says the fog has reached where he is and that there’s someone knocking at the door. Dan doesn’t live long after that, but Stevie can hear his screams over the phone. Outside, the fog breaks down the phone lines and power station.
The fog hits houses in town, including where Andy’s house is; he’s there with the elderly babysitter, and they have no idea where all this fog has come from. The people in the fog take the babysitter and start hacking through the door to get Andy. Nick shows up to grab Andy just in time. As everything happens, Stevie reports where the fog is around town, and she tells everyone to get to the old church.
Nick, Elizabeth, Andy, Mrs. Williams, Sandy, along with Father Malone barricade themselves in the old church. They figure out that “Six must die,” the three on the ship, the babysitter, Dan the weatherman– who is number six? The dead break the windows and try to come inside.
The fog hits the lighthouse, where Stevie is all alone. She barricades the doors, but that’s not going to stop the dead. She ends up climbing to the roof of the lighthouse.
The people in the church find a huge, solid gold cross made from the treasure of the murdered men. Father Malone grabs it and runs outside. “Blake, I have your gold,” he yells. The leader of the dead approaches him but rather than run, he offers himself as the sixth victim.
The dead close in on Stevie, but back at the church, the dead “zap” Father Malone, which ends the curse apparently because they got their gold back. The dead all vanish, leaving the priest alive; they decide not to take him. The fog recedes quickly.
Father Malone wonders why the dead didn’t take him. Then he turns around and the leader of the dead is standing there to kill him after all.
Commentary
Jamie Lee Curtis and Tom Atkins? There’s the “Halloween” crossover we didn’t know we needed. Like many John Carpenter films, the soundtrack here really adds to the creepiness of the situation.
It all gets very tense for a while, but the dead only wanted six victims.
There was an unnecessary remake of this in 2005, but this one holds up just fine.