The Fog – 4K UHD

Summary

“To the ships at sea who can hear my voice, look across the water, into the darkness. Look for the fog.”

Last night I rewatched John Carpenter’s wonderful film The Fog on the new Shout! Factory 4K UHD release. While the 4K transfer is essentially the same as Studio Canal’s earlier 4K release of the film, Shout! Factory has upgraded the film’s audio track to the Dolby Atmos format and supplied all the excellent supplements from the prior Collector’s Edition Blu-ray. Shout! Factory has offered the film in a standard release with the original theatrical poster artwork, and in a steelbook release with new art. While in many cases I prefer the original artwork on these releases, I ordered the steelbook version because of the great looking new art. 

For myself and many, The Fog is one of Carpenter’s most enjoyable films. After the one-two punch of Assault on Precinct 13 and Halloween, Carpenter had proven himself as a director that could make a film on a tight budget and deliver large profits. In fact, Halloween was one of the most profitable independent films of all time with a budget of only three hundred thousand dollars and an initial profit of forty five million dollars. John Carpenter and co-writer/producer Debra Hill were given a million dollar budget to make their next project. Re-enlisting the great cinematographer Dean Cundey, they filmed The Fog in 1979. It was released in theaters in 1980. It may not have wowed critics, but it has remained a fan favorite for decades due to its fantastic cinematography, excellent practical effects, and incredibly atmospheric setting.

The coastal town of Antonio Bay is preparing to celebrate the centennial of the town’s founding. A hundred years earlier, a ship called the Elisabeth Dane was traveling to the town carrying lepers. They were led by the wealthy Blake. The ship had been enveloped in fog. The ship wrecked on the rocks when it steered towards a campfire on the shore. All the lepers drowned alongside Blake. A few days later the town had been formed. The local radio station of Antonio Bay – KAB Antonio Bay – is inside a lighthouse facing out towards the ocean. It is owned by Stevie Wayne (Adrienne Barbeau) who is forced to spend many of her nights away from her young child Andy so that she can talk to her listeners about weather conditions and play them music throughout the night. At the local parish, priest Father Malone (Hal Holbrook) finds a diary written by his grandfather when it becomes dislodged from a hole in the wall of the church. The diary holds distressing secrets about the founding of the town. Across town, Nick Castle (Tom Atkins) picks up a freewheeling hitchhiker named Elisabeth Solley (Jamie Lee Curtis.) They become romantically entwined, as a supernatural fog begins to hover off the coast. Out at sea, the fog rolls in against the wind and approaches a local trawler. Unbeknownst to the men aboard the ship, in the fog is the spectral Elisabeth Dane and its revenge seeking ghosts. The town will face serious danger from the fog as the centennial approaches of the sinking of the Elisabeth Dane.

I think it is safe to say that The Fog has a pretty ridiculous plot. The audience is asked to suspend their disbelief to a pretty far degree and allow the plot to rely on purely fantastic concepts. The plot doesn’t hinder the film, because it’s a movie that is determined to create a mood. The story is an excuse to create evocative images and one of the best horror settings of any film. Carpenter has an amazing skill to be able to create something larger and much more impressive than the plot of the film could provide. This is also the reason that the remake of The Fog could never have worked. With the million dollar budget Carpenter and Debra Hill were provided, The Fog features a broader scope of setting than Halloween and a lot more practical effects than that film. One of the best aspects of The Fog is the way that setting is evoked. The lighthouse location in the film is a standout, but it isn’t just one location that makes the film. The film manages to make the viewer feel like they understand the topography of the town and the way of life in a small town on the Pacific Coast. The centennial celebration may feel borrowed from films like Jaws, but it allows the town to feel lived in and like an actual community. The practical effects in the film work wonders and largely hold up today.

Cinematographer Dean Cundey does some of his best work on the film. At Carpenter’s request the film was shot in anamorphic widescreen. This was done for a number of reasons, but the most obvious perk to shooting in widescreen was that the film seemed like it had a much larger budget behind it. Cundey’s amazing ability to light settings helped to create the trademark look of Carpenter’s filmography. The Fog is not about the ridiculous homicidal leper colony sailors, but about the fog itself. The obscuring of the menace lends so much to the mood of the film, and while the film is not particularly frightening it is still captivating. The imagery of the film is helped by one of my favorite scores by Carpenter. The score is beautifully written, driven by a strong piano hook with synth backgrounds. 

The cast of the film is an excellent ensemble. Hal Holbrook is perfectly cast as Father Malone. Holbrook was a great actor and brought a seriousness to the role that other actors would potentially render ludicrous. Jamie Lee Curtis is enjoyable in her role. Adrienne Barbeau is essentially the central character of the film and this is in my opinion the best role of her career. I also think that this is the most attractive she looked onscreen. I love character actor Tom Atkins and he is reliably great as Nick Castle. Atkins is such a distinct character actor and I love seeing him in anything. Janet Leigh also shares the screen with her daughter as a beleaguered mayoral candidate. Nancy Kyes also has a small role in the film.

Overall – The Fog is an enduring favorite from John Carpenter’s long career for good reason. It is one of the most atmospheric horror films ever made, even if it is not extremely frightening. The film also has amazing replay value, because viewers will want to revisit Antonio Bay again and again.

Video

Shout!Factory’s 4K UHD release features essentially the same excellent 4K transfer from StudioCanal’s UK release. This is an exceptional 4K transfer. Clarity is excellent, with very fine film grain. There are a few very minor anomalies in some motion I noted (some grass blowing in the wind looked strange at one point,) but overall this is an incredible encode of this film. The HDR brings out the most from the colors in the film, and the original elements seem to be in great shape. It is safe to say that the film has never looked better and fans of the picture will be extremely pleased.

Audio

Shout!Factory has upgraded their solid DTS-HD MA 5.1 track from before into a full fledged Dolby Atmos track. This is one of the best reasons to upgrade to the Shout! Factory release. The movie has never sounded better than it does here. There is excellent clarity of dialogue and John Carpenter’s score sounds amazing. The Atmos adds a lot of immersion that simply was not possible before. This immersion helps the film to become more atmospheric than any time in prior history. This will be the preferred way to watch the film moving forward.

Supplements:

The original supplements from the prior Collector’s Edition Blu-ray appear on the Blu-ray in the set. The 4K UHD carries the  supplements that were featured in the StudioCanal release:

• 4K UHD:
• Audio Commentary with Writer/Director John Carpenter and Writer/Producer Debra Hill
• Audio Commentary with Actors Adrienne Barbeau, Tom Atkins and Production Designer Tommy Lee Wallace
• Retribution: Uncovering John Carpenter’s The Fog
• The Shape of The Thing to Come: John Carpenter Unfilmed
• Intro by John Carpenter
• Scene Analysis by John Carpenter 
• Blu-Ray:
• Audio Commentary with Writer/Director John Carpenter and Writer/Producer Debra Hill
• Audio Commentary with Actors Adrienne Barbeau, Tom Atkins and Production Designer Tommy Lee Wallace
• My Time with Terror with Jamie Lee Curtis – the iconic scream queen discusses her working relationship with John Carpenter and Debra Hill, her sadness over their break-up at the time, her distaste for horror films (including The Fog, which she does not particularly care for,) and her numerous horror roles that gave her a start in the business before she could leave the horror genre behind (aside from the occasional Halloween film.)
• Dean of Darkness with Dean Cundey – this interview with the iconic cinematographer behind the camera on so many of Carpenter’s best films is really fantastic. He discusses the various techniques used not only on The Fog, but also on other films including Escape from New York. This is the best feature on the disc.
• Fear on Film: Inside The Fog – this vintage featurette from the Eighties seems to have come out around the time the film was released. I liked hearing John Carpenter discuss that he does not make films for the critics.
• Tales from the Mist: Inside The Fog – a solid archival feature with interviews from cast and crew.
• The Fog: Storyboard to Film 
• Horror’s Hallowed Grounds: A Look at the Film’s Locations – Sean Clark revisits the locations that still exist from the film.
• Outtakes
• Special Effects Tests 
• Theatrical Trailer 
• TV Spots 
• Photo Gallery 
• Storyboards 
• ABC Sunday Night Movie Promo

Overall Scores:

Video – 4.5/5

Audio – 4.5/5

Supplements – 4.5/5

Overall – 5/5

The Fog is one of the most atmospheric horror films ever made. It is a classic horror film that every aficionado should have on their shelf. The plot requires a pretty big suspension of disbelief, but the film more than makes up for that issue with engaging characters, strong setting, and a strong sense of mood. The film is a stylistic triumph thanks to the excellent work by cinematographer Dean Cundey. The Fog has remained one of John Carpenter’s most loved films for good reason. The new Shout! Factory 4K UHD is the definitive way to view the film moving forward thanks to an excellent transfer from StudioCanal and a brand new Dolby Atmos track. All of the  supplemental features from the prior Collector’s Edition are present on the Blu-ray, and the features from the StudioCanal release are on the UHD disc. This release earns our highest recommendation! I also recommend checking out the beautiful steelbook that Shout! has released because the new artwork is exceptional.