Seen the remake a month or so ago and wanted to see the original and did so this morning as I was up early enough. Directed by John Carpenter you expect to have a bit of a squeaky bum time the guy knows how to turn the knife and scare you.
A small coastal Californian town Antonio Bay is about to celebrate its 100th anniversary but holds a dark secret at its heart. In 1880, six of the founders of Antonio Bay struck a deal with a wealthy man Blake (Rob Bottin) with leprosy to allow him and his community to establish a leper colony nearby for money. The six then decided to plunder and sink the ship the lepers arrived on killing everyone.
Forward to the present day and the town is readying itself for the 100th anniversary when a strange, glowing fog envelops a small trawler and the three crew are killed, it’s the vengeful revenants of Blake and his crew before he died he promise to return and seek revenge. Town resident Nick Castle (Tom Atkins) picks up a young hitchhiker named Elizabeth (Jaime Lee Curtis) when the fog comes out of nowhere and all the truck's windows inexplicably shatter.
That evening the fog is back heading in land, towards the town, and from her lighthouse vantage point, Stevie (Adrienne Barbeau) advises everyone to head to the town's church. The fog then attacks the lighthouse where her son’s babysitter is killing but Nick manages to rescue her son Andy. Stevie herself looks to be in trouble as she climbs out onto the roof of the lighthouse followed by what is within the fog.
Once inside the church, Nick, Elizabeth, Andy (Ty Mitchell), Kathy (Janet Leigh), her assistant Sandy (Nancy Loomis), and Father Malone (Hal Holbrook) all take refuge in a back room of the church as the fog arrives outside. Inside the room, they locate a gold cross in the wall cavity, which is made from gold stolen from Blake and the others. Malone enters the chapel and offers the cross and himself in lieu of the deaths of Blake and the others.
Blake takes the gold cross, which begins to glow, Nick pulls Malone away before Blake, the cross, and the fog vanishes. It was just in time for Stevie her number looked up until the fog disappeared. Later that night, Malone is alone in the church pondering why Blake did not kill him. The fog then reappears inside the church along with the revenants, and Blake decapitates Malone.
A good cast gives life to this ensemble and make them characters we like and care about so, we fear for them when they are placed in harm's way. Add an alcoholic priest and a host of Carpenter regulars, with even a cameo by Carpenter himself, and you have a film wonderfully filled with a variety of characters who are all potential victims for the marauding phantoms.
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