Editorials
John Carpenter’s ‘The Fog’ Brought Seafaring Ghosts to the Big Screen 40 Years Ago
After the success of Halloween, John Carpenter returned to horror once more with a traditional ghost story. Co-written with producer Debra Hill, The Fog opens with old Mr. Machen (John Houseman) telling a group of kids around a fire the eerie tale of the clipper ship Elizabeth Dane that sank off the coast of their town nearly a century ago. He doesn’t know it yet, but as the Antonio Bay centennial celebration is approaching, the ghosts from his tale are indeed returning to seek revenge.
Like the title implies, The Fog asks the question: what if something lurked within the blanket of fog that rolled into town? Something supernatural and hellbent on retribution.
Released wide in theaters on February 8, 1980, Carpenter’s spooky tale of seafaring ghosts turns 40 today.
In the days leading up to the town’s centennial celebration, strange things happen at night that coincide with the appearance of a dense fog bank. Nick Castle (Tom Atkins) has the windows of his truck blown out inexplicably shortly after picking up hitchhiker Elizabeth (Jamie Lee Curtis). The son of local radio DJ Stevie Wayne (Adrienne Barbeau, making her theatrical feature debut) finds a piece of driftwood marked “Dane” while exploring the shore. Town priest Father Malone (Hal Holbrook) discovers an old journal hidden within the church walls after a seismic anomaly, and its pages contain the awful truth about the town’s origins. The fishermen of the Sea Grass fall victim to the ghosts in grim fashion.
The town founders intentionally lured the Elizabeth Dane to its doom. Its owner, Blake, was a wealthy leper seeking to establish a colony a little too close to the town that would become Antonio Bay. The founders snuffed out the ship and its crew and stole the gold to establish their town and its church. A century later, Blake and his crew float in with the fog to claim six lives out of vengeance for the lives they lost.
In hindsight, it’s not surprising that Stevie Wayne became the fan-favorite breakout character. Aside from Wayne’s soothing voice and Barbeau’s spirited portrayal of her, Wayne is the most connected to the horror. Her radio station is nestled in the lighthouse, giving her a unique vantage point to the fog. Her role as a DJ means she’s the most connected to the townsfolk, too. Moreover, she has the highest personal stakes of the cast as the single mother trying to warn the town and keep her son safe from a distance.
Father Malone retreats in terror for most of the film after reading the diary, and town figure Kathy Williams (Janet Leigh) and her assistant Sandy (Nancy Loomis) have such basic motivation that they exist to allow Malone to recount exposition. Nick and his new lady love offer up more opportunities for scares as Nick seeks out answers on the missing crew of the Sea Grass. It’s this limited view of Antonio Bay that makes The Fog feel like the intimate ghost story that it is.
There tends to be a negative knee-jerk response to the idea of a film undergoing reshoots, and The Fog makes for a prime example of why reshoots aren’t necessarily a bad thing. Carpenter’s initial cut didn’t show the ghosts, at least not during their attack on the Sea Grass, and the deaths weren’t very violent. The climax didn’t seem as thrilling either, so all of this was punched up in the reshoots- gory deaths were added, as was Wayne’s suspenseful showdown with the ghosts, and seeing more of those ghosts fleshed out the feature.
The ghost of Blake was played by the film’s special makeup effects artist Rob Bottin, who would shortly after go on to work with Carpenter on The Thing. His ghostly crew was comprised of production designer and film editor Tommy Lee Wallace and various grips.
While Dean Cundey’s cinematography, Carpenter’s direction, and the scenic landscapes all make The Fog feel more luxurious than its meager budget, what makes the film so memorable isn’t the visuals, but the sound. The Fog is an aural ghost story conveyed through Carpenter’s score, the soothing sound of Wayne’s voice on the radio, and the sound design. Most important of all, though, is the recurring theme and tradition of telling ghost stories. From the opening tale by the fire, Father Malone’s recounting of a horrific town secret, Nick Castle telling Elizabeth of a ghost story his father once shared with him, and even to Wayne’s closing monologue, sharing stories is vital in The Fog. Stories have power, but they must be passed on so their lessons retain value.
It’s the emphasis of oral storytelling and reliance on sound to carry the horror that makes The Fog so different. Carpenter traded streamlined slasher suspense for atmosphere and aural-based terror. Inspired by the ghost stories he grew up with during his childhood, The Fog brought old-fashioned paranormal horror that still holds up four decades later.
The problem with filming sequels back-to-back is that, unless you can afford expensive reshoots, there’s no easy way to adjust course in between movies if fans react badly to where the story is headed. That’s why it’s important to have a complete narrative thought out well in advance lest you accidentally kill a budding franchise.
However, this isn’t always the case. Every once in a while, it seems like the cinema gods smile upon certain chaotic productions and gift moviegoers with complete franchises that feel like more than the sum of their hastily produced parts. Ted Nicolaou’s Bloodlust: Subspecies III is precisely one of these miraculous pictures, with the raw talents of the artists involved (as well as the continued support from Romania) turning the feature into an effective conclusion for a series that kind of made things up as the filmmakers went along.
That’s why I’d like to invite my fellow readers to join me on this third part of our journey through the Subspecies franchise as we look into Bloodlust and talk about how it remains a surprisingly satisfying finale to the original trilogy.
A Trilogy Planned on the Fly
Released only a year after Bloodstone found plenty of success in rental stores and mail-in VHS catalogues worldwide, 1994’s Bloodlust was produced at the same time as its predecessor in (mostly) the same locations and with the same team. This means that the movie benefited from all the same upgrades as Bloodstone, with the crew now being more experienced with the ins and outs of surviving a low-budget Romanian production and the cast really settling into their characters.
At this point, everything from location scouting to the makeup process had been streamlined, with Wayne Toth and Norman Cabrera, the main duo behind special effects, even switching out time-consuming prosthetics for latex gloves in order to speed up Anders Hove’s monstrous transformation. The titular “subspecies” demons were also once again relegated to a mere cameo appearance due to the laborious puppetry required to bring them to life.
The only real hiccup came from the fact that actress Denice Duff had replaced the first film’s Michelle (Laura Mae Tate) and was immediately expected to portray the character as both an innocent victim in part II and as a secondary villain in part III. According to behind-the-scenes interviews, the hectic production schedule that blended two different movies meant that Duff would often find herself having to alternate between two incredibly different versions of Michelle during the same shooting day – though it’s obvious that she’s having more fun with Bloodlust’s more traditionally vampiric version of her character.
In the finished film, we pick things up immediately where the previous entry left off as Rebecca (Melanie Shatner) is forced to leave her vampire sister Michelle (Duff) behind in the dungeons of Castle Vladislav due to the rising sun. This allows Mummy (Pamela Gordon) to use Michelle’s blood to revive the vicious Radu (Hove) so that he may continue his quest for the coveted Bloodstone – a magical artifact that perpetually drips the Blood of Saints.
Meanwhile, the dreamy US embassy agent Mel (Kevin Blair) agrees to help Rebecca plan a rescue mission, though they’re unaware that Radu has become infatuated with Michelle during his attempts to guide her growing bloodlust. This all culminates in a climactic confrontation meant to tie up all of the series’ loose ends in one of Full Moon Pictures’ most ambitious productions.
The Evolution of Radu
Like its predecessor, Bloodlust: Subspecies III was also warmly received by fans who argued that the series was an even bigger success than Full Moon’s other major horror franchise, Puppet Master. This praise wasn’t unanimous, however, as 1994 had seen the rise of a more modern breed of sexy vampire popularized by Anne Rice, with old-school Nosferatu like Radu being viewed as obsolete when compared to the likes of Lestat and Gary Oldman’s take on Dracula.
In a way, one might argue that Nicolaou’s film is something of a swan song for the classic vampire story, as Bloodlust combines all of the traditional elements we tend to associate with these tales into a single tragic yarn that ties a neat little bow on Radu’s story as well as the old-fashioned monster movies that he represents. The finale remains shocking despite the fact that this is the third time we see Radu get brutally killed onscreen, with the brief tease that he may one day return feeling more like a nod towards the nature of evil rather than sequel bait.
The film dabbles a bit in gothic romance and even explores the inherent power fantasy behind transforming into an immortal creature of the night, but the filmmakers never lose sight of Radu as a demonic force even when he’s willing to betray his beloved Mummy for Michelle’s sake. In fact, his twisted “love” for his fledgling makes him even creepier as we get the feeling that his passion comes from a dark and disturbing place.
Anders Hove is at his absolute best in this film, with the effects department boosting his moments of what the younger generation would call “aura farming” whenever Radu emerges from shadows like a 90s version of Count Orlok. There are even a couple of surprisingly effective jump-scares here, which is why I’d argue that Bloodlust cements Radu as one of the most memorable cinematic vampires of all time despite his humble origins.
Subspecies Saves Its Best For Last
Nicolaou and Vlad Panescu also saved the best for “last” (more on that in a bit) regarding the film’s visuals, with the cinematography and overall atmosphere of Bloodlust absolutely surpassing what we saw in the previous films. Everything feels appropriately climactic this time around (including the wonderful soundtrack that was co-composed alongside an authentic Romanian orchestra), and I appreciate how this is the fastest-paced entry in the trilogy since the film doesn’t need to waste time setting anything up.
Bloodlust still suffers from some of the same low-budget blemishes as its predecessors, but there’s so much creative passion here that no amount of wonky effects work or stilted dialogue can get in the way of appreciating the flick’s gothic grandeur. That’s why it’s not surprising that the movie’s definitive(-ish) ending would later be retconned as fans begged for more Radu.
Of course, the next entry in this series would be a different kind of vampiric endeavor altogether, with the filmmakers attempting to engage with the same trends that ultimately killed Radu and his antiquated kin. That, however, is a story for another time. For now, I’ll merely insist that Bloodlust: Subspecies III remains a highlight of Full Moon’s expansive catalogue and is definitely worth seeking out today.
You must be logged in to post a comment.