31 Days of Halloween Movies: John Carpenter's THE FOG

Today begins a 31 day journey through Halloween movies here at the 822 Writing Company. I say Halloween Movies rather than horror movies, because to say that horror movies are the only appropriate films to view around Halloween would be incorrect. Some movies like They Live or The Thing fall a little bit more on the sci-fi side than the horror and the works of Alfred Hitchcock are more in the category of thriller, yet all are very appropriate to watch around Halloween. These are the movies that evoke the feeling of Halloween for us here at 822, so won't you join us as we share some of our favorites with you?

It's no coincidence that I name dropped two John Carpenter films in the above paragraph. For making those two films, along with Escape From New York, Big Trouble in Little China, and Halloween he is one of my favorite directors. My love of these films doesn't come out of any nostalgia, aside from Halloween and They Live I hadn't seen any of these films until about a year ago. So I'm a little late to the John Carpenter party. Anyway, last October, while going through that year's Halloween movies, I was pretty gay for Carpenter. So while in WalMart looking for five dollar movies to buy, I came across The Fog. I saw that Carpenter had directed it, I saw that Jamie Lee Curtis and Adrienne Barbeau were in it, and I saw that it was five dollars, so I purchased it. And then it sat on my DVD shelf until last week.

Now, one of the first and best things about The Fog is also one of the most fleeting. George "Buck" Flower appears in the beginning as a doomed fisherman. George "Buck" Flower is awesome. Click on his name. Look at all the movies you've seen him in. You'll say "Oh, that guy" followed by, "that guy is fucking awesome." Deny this. Try it. I defy you to declare that the late George "Buck" Flower is not awesome. 

At this point, three glasses of Francis Ford Coppola's Chardonnay in, I'm not going to even try to review The Fog. Instead, I'm going to make a point about what I think an appreciation of the movies we're going to be talking about this month does. It helps you to recognize the George "Buck" Flowers of the world, the character actors who usually play the same part, who are vaguely recognized by the general viewing public and are loved by those who love movies. They are in shitty movies, they are in great movies, they are in shitty movies that are great. They look funny, they talk funny, they usually have a single defining characteristic that gets them work (usually creepiness in various forms) and they fucking knock it out of the park every time. So that's part of what this month is about, the character actor.  

P.S. Review of The Fog: 3.5 Dead Hookers out of 5