The Fog
00:38:40
About
We return, once more to the work of the one and only Mr John Carpenter (the only J.C. we worship round here). It’s time for 1980’s “The Fog”, a film which proves that 2 generations of scream queens are better than one; that a regular series of pissed-up night-fishing boat-trips will eventually end badly; and Tom Atkins, even without his trademark moustache, is still an absolute shagger. John Carpenter’s follow up theatrical film to the eternal classic “Halloween”, “The Fog” didn’t do well at the box office, but found its true audience on VHS, and grew in appreciation. A good old fashioned ghost story in the tradition of MR James with an American slant, and a cloud of chilly nautical gothic. Watch (or re-watch) to avoid spoilers, and join us.
There's something in the fog!
Famous lines
- "Lock your doors. Bolt your windows. There's something in The Fog!"
- "It is night. It is cold. It is coming."
- "What you can't see won't hurt you... it'll kill you!"
- "Antonio Bay has a curse on it."— Father Malone
Quotes verified against Wikiquote.
Transcript
Show full transcript
LeeEvening everybody, Lee here. Our regular listeners will know that we recently did a supernatural stories episode, or not, depending on your beliefs.
Leebut it seems to have gone down quite well and we've spoken to a few people who said they've got interesting stories of their own.
LeeSo, as we tempted the idea at the end of our last episode, we're going to do a follow-up at some point.
LeeSo if any of you have stories of your own that you think would be interesting that you wouldn't mind us sharing with the listeners.
Leefeel free to either record them and email them over to us at info@welcometohorror.com.
Leeor otherwise, you can type them out and send them to us and we will read them out on the show.
Leeif you'd rather not use your name, we will use your first name otherwise, but if you'd rather go under an alias, include that in the message and we'll be sure to use that.
LeeThanks very much and enjoy the show.
LeeGood evening and welcome to Horror.
LeeI'm Lee.
ChrisI'm Chris.
AdamI'm Adam.
LeeAnd we are here recording on the 21st of April.
Leewhich is poignant.
Adam21st of April.
ChrisFive minutes to midnight.
LeeYeah.
LeeWe're too old for that.
ChrisIncidentally, I take it you saw the clip that I put up on Instagram.
LeeNo.
Chrisoh, yeah, I actually said this is the things I do for this podcast, I set an alarm because, well, I'm an old cunt so I wasn't going to be up then.
ChrisNot a school night.
AdamYeah. Oh, yes. That's for sure. I think we've made that pretty clear.
LeeOh, yeah, yeah.
AdamYes.
LeeSorry.
Chrisyeah, but I set an alarm so I would I did actually post that at five minutes to 12 last night.
LeeNice.
AdamVery good.
ChrisAnd the best bit was is it was five minutes to 12, "Right, I'm ready. I'm ready. I'm half asleep, but I'm ready. I'm ready." Post. Okay.
ChrisRight, check that's gone up, yeah.
AdamJust lay me down on the sofa for a second.
ChrisOh, it's 2 in the morning.
LeeOh.
AdamOh.
Leeso we are covering this evening The Fog, as Adam, I believe, watched it recently and realised that it was set on the 21st of April and we were approaching that date so I thought it would be good to get the episode out this weekend.
LeeAnd as I was away last week, this is the first opportunity we've had to record, so it's on the day in question, which is very exciting.
AdamYeah.
ChrisSee, weirdly enough, maybe something that will come up in a future Lee's Haunted episode, but I do have a thing for asynchronicity.
LeeYeah.
AdamOh, we do get them a lot.
ChrisI do like it.
AdamExactly.
Leecovered a random film and then someone has messaged us and said, "Do you realise it's on in two days on BBC 4 or whatever?"
LeeSo yeah, it's happened more than you'd expect.
ChrisOr or we suddenly suddenly there's loads of posts. Oh, yeah, it's the 60th anniversary of this. Oh, right, okay.
AdamWhich has recorded it.
Leeso, yes, so we are here to cover 1980s John Carpenter masterpiece, I'm going to say.
AdamHey!
LeeI love the crap out of this film.
LeeThe Fog.
Leeso in typical traditional styley, Chris, have you seen this film before and what did you think of it?
ChrisI haven't, and I was just saying, "Ahoy, mateys, this is Chris, and I'd just like to ask you something: Are you weird?"
ChrisWeird and unlucky.
AdamYes.
LeeDefinitely.
ChrisSo, yeah, I quite liked that the very start, it says, "Is all that we see or seem, but a dream within a dream."
LeeEdgar Allan Poe.
ChrisYeah.
AdamPoe. Edgar Allan Poe for you.
ChrisSo.
AdamApparently.
AdamApparently that was Debra Hill's idea. Debra Hill the producer and co-writer with John Carpenter.
ChrisOh, yeah.
AdamWho was also producer for like Halloween and Escape from New York and stuff.
AdamYeah.
AdamAnd yeah, she came up with that.
LeeIt worked well.
AdamBut from what, from what I gather, the film had a lot of basically John Carpenter, when he put it together, it was about 10 minutes too short.
AdamAnd the music didn't work and the story didn't really work, and the producer said it needs to be scarier.
AdamAnd John Carpenter was like, yeah, and so they gave him a bit of money and they in a month they knocked up loads of new bits.
ChrisOh, right.
AdamLike and added to bits and stuff like that.
AdamBut the stuff that they put in was it's I did write I noted them down, but it was the ghost story at the start.
ChrisOh, I was going to say that's interesting. So yeah, because that that was a great intro, right? But it does tell you it tells you the whole film.
LeeYeah, that's interesting. Okay.
LeeIt's a really good way, though, like, rather than having like a dreadful scroll or like a shoehorn in.
AdamIn times of oldness.
LeeYes, so, Chris, sorry, you were saying, yes, your first thoughts.
ChrisYeah, well, so excellent start.
Chrisand it, yeah, like I said, it gives you the ghost story. That's that's wonderful. Interesting that that was added on later.
Christhe the music, fantastic. I I think we've now seen enough John Carpenter that I'm getting well familiar with his his nice synth and sound effects that go really well together.
ChrisIt's it's certainly got like its own style or character, I suppose, and, yeah.
AdamAs the podcast soundtrack obsessive, I think this might actually be my favourite John Carpenter soundtrack.
ChrisOh, okay.
AdamIt certainly stood out to me.
ChrisYeah, that.
ChrisOh, that's interesting. So I really will one day have to have like a proper John Carpenter marathon session and just compare all of the soundtracks and, yeah, see.
ChrisCuz it each one sounds great and it's like, are they getting better or is it me getting more used to them or I don't know.
ChrisBut yeah, no, it's fantastic.
Chrisand really, yeah, so, so this is a ghost a ghost story.
ChrisAnd it's I thought, I don't know what you think, it seemed to have an element of social commentary, so it seems to be themes of revenge and a, you know, repressed sort of corruption to do with the founding of the the town and and, you know, no one knows about it and then a hundred years later back come the those who have been done wrong to seek their revenge.
ChrisOn on on six.
ChrisMaybe five.
LeeMaybe.
ChrisIt's six, it's definitely six.
LeeYeah.
AdamI think that's a great intro.
AdamI think the like you're saying, Chris, there, that that theme is actually weirdly something that feels quite relevant at the moment.
AdamBecause it is a real ongoing conversation in general about.
ChrisOh, yeah.
AdamWell, certainly about America, but also in general our country as well.
ChrisThere's definitely.
AdamDefinitely, yeah, that seems to come up every year or or.
ChrisSo where it's like how do we deal with these historical events?
ChrisYeah, that some people haven't know nothing about and don't feel like they're part of, but somehow, you know, you do have to figure out what's what's reasonable.
AdamBut it's also.
AdamIt's also it's like the people who have that knowledge but can't do anything about it.
ChrisWe're having a party.
AdamYou know, keep it light, you know, we don't we don't want to dwell on the fact that.
ChrisTo enjoy ourselves, yeah.
AdamOh, we've done this, you know, not had to do this, but that, you know.
AdamDon't don't talk about the shit we've done, not at the moment because we're having a knees up, all right?
LeeYou know.
AdamIt's very sort of almost like Jaws like amity with the again, like the the head of the town is like sort of like, yeah.
AdamThis is it's also the episode of The Simpsons with what's his name, Jebediah Springfield where Lisa discovers the scroll that proves that Rick.
LeeYeah.
ChrisYeah.
AdamYeah, yeah.
AdamThere's definitely that vibe.
AdamI'm talking to the great historical documents about like historical hypocrisy here, obviously like The Simpsons.
ChrisBut it's it's funny though, watching this, you know, you you're sort of you're not against those seeking revenge.
ChrisAnd yet if it's applied to us as a country, we're a bit a little bit more against those seeking revenge, like they're the they're definitely the bad guys then.
ChrisBut in this, you know, you're like, they did get done wrong, even if it's a hundred years ago and it was none of these people, like you're not.
AdamSee again, classic ghost story is that idea of things from the past that have like.
AdamYou know.
AdamIt's like righting a wrong or because of, you know, something that's it's something bad that happened and that the sort of repercussion of it later.
AdamAnd.
AdamBut yeah, I think the the fact that they've focused on that whole thing of the town being founded on, you know, this murderous.
ChrisYeah.
AdamBecause that whole cuz
AdamI know there was John Carpenter said that there were like the the influences that went into The Fog was stuff.
AdamHe went when he was promoting Assault on Precinct 13, him and Debra Hill visited Stonehenge while they were in England.
ChrisOkay.
AdamAnd there was like a a fog bank and basically, yeah, she was like Debra.
ChrisBut does it.
ChrisDoes that mean the Assault on Precinct 13 is English?
AdamNo, I think it was just during the promotional side of it so he was presumably being released over here so was sort of on the sort of press tour as it were.
ChrisFair enough.
AdamAnd but yeah, so they they were over here and they visited Stonehenge and sort of at sort of twilight and there was a huge fog bank and John Carpenter, what if something comes out of.
ChrisYeah.
AdamYeah, what if something came out of that?
ChrisI can see you you could think that at Stonehenge, yeah.
AdamOh, definitely, yeah. I think and also he said there's a.
AdamThere's a film called The Trollenberg Terror, which has creatures hitting in clouds which he sort of mentioned as well.
Adambut the whole thing about there's a ship called John Carpenter says about a ship called The Frolic, which was wrecked off the coast of California in 1850.
Adamand he said that was carrying gold, but apparently it was porcelain and opium.
ChrisOh, okay.
LeeProbably still worth quite a lot.
ChrisOh, yeah.
AdamYeah, but
AdamSo and there was but also this whole thing of wreckers sort of appears in tales and stuff like that.
AdamWhich is people deliberately luring boats to wreck them for usually to wreck them for salvaging and stuff like that.
ChrisOkay.
Adamand once again in that way that the world just reveals itself to be a much duller place than it than it much duller place than you think it is, apparently there's not much evidence of people doing that.
AdamSo.
AdamIt's it's it's more like a story rather like a legend rather than a criminal practice that was actually being done.
LeeI mean, it's good to see that.
AdamBut I think if it's a legend it's much more interesting if people did do that.
ChrisWhat a.
LeeIt's.
ChrisBut I I wonder how much evidence would be left behind though to be able to work out one way or the other.
AdamExactly. I mean, but then that's, you know, the age-old question, there's no proof either way, so.
ChrisNo. I tend to think if it can be done, humans might well be doing it somewhere.
AdamYeah, if the internet tells us anything, it's certainly, you know, yeah.
Adambut and there's there's also a Rhode Island.
AdamRhode Island legend called The Palatine Light which is like a ghost ship story as well, which it sort of kind of seems to be from, I think.
LeeI'm keen to know, Chris, did you spot John Carpenter's cameo?
AdamBut you've got.
ChrisNo.
Adam
ChrisSo I'm trying to think where I've actually seen him before.
ChrisDid he he he presented an anthology that we watched in the.
ChrisWas he in the the morgue?
AdamYeah.
ChrisHe looks he looks a bit healthier in this.
LeeOkay.
ChrisYeah.
ChrisNot not a great degree, but he looks.
LeeWait, does that mean he's one of the ghosts?
ChrisOh, no.
ChrisAlthough the ghosts are sort of a lot of associates like John Carpenter like sort of crew and stuff like that who always worked with John Carpenter like Tommy Tommy Lee Wallace is one of them.
ChrisRob Bottin, who did the special effects, is also Blake like the body of the Blake.
Chrisin it.
Chriswhich apparently was because he's quite tall.
ChrisCuz literally literally to hide he's like, well, yeah.
LeeYeah, sorry if I speak over you guys. My internet is been a real dick, so.
ChrisYeah, it it doesn't seem too happy.
Adamwell, we we should persevere because if the film teaches anything it's the voice that's important.
ChrisYeah.
ChrisBecause it's weird when you think about it because like Adrian Barbeau's character Stevey Wayne is I think she interacts with her son and then everything else is over the radio, over the tele.
LeeEspecially with Dan.
ChrisAnd yeah.
LeeOh, yeah, Dan, the the weatherman.
ChrisThe smooth I don't know why she wasn't rushing over to him instantly as soon as he opened his mouth.
LeeOh, yeah, no, he's he's a he's a seductive fellow.
LeeAlthough, although obviously Tom Atkins, even without his mustache, yeah, he's still just a right shag machine.
LeeIt's like pick up a hitchhiker. Next thing, they're in bed. Right, okay.
LeeWhat's he age?
LeeIt's weird though, Tommy Lee Wallace without mustache, sorry Tom Atkins without a mustache.
ChrisYeah.
LeeYeah, it doesn't look right.
LeeIt just feels it's just like every time you look you're just like that's just a bit missing.
LeeIt's just just not quite right.
LeeI don't know why.
LeeSo.
LeeIt's funny. I always forget as well that obviously Jamie Lee Curtis and her mother.
LeeJanet Leigh are both in this film together and I forget it every time and then when I don't know why Janet Lee's character, I kind of forget that part of the story and then every time she says that I go, oh yeah, and it surprises me every time I see it.
ChrisYeah.
ChrisBut it's actually, I mean, that's the thing is I always kind of that that and Father Malone are the although they're like key to the sort of the story of what is going what is actually going on.
Chrisyeah, they're the bits I tend to sort of like I don't always remember those bits.
ChrisBut actually when you watch it, it's, you know, there is a there's a larger cast of people like it is the town being laid siege to. It's not just like one group one group's experience.
ChrisIt's everyone cuz obviously you've got like Stevey abandoned in the well not like trapped in the lighthouse, and then you've got sort of like Tom Atkins and Jamie Lee Curtis sort of like actually out actively doing stuff.
ChrisAnd then you've got the procession going on, but with people trying to close up.
ChrisThe other thing I always forget is that the the the one of the guys on the Seagra is Janet Lee's husband.
LeeOh, I didn't know that.
Chrisbecause they're sort yeah, cuz there's the bit you know when they're in the bar and it's like the the sorry the character. Sorry, yeah, not not not actually the actor, yeah.
LeeOh yes, yes.
LeeYeah.
LeeYes.
Chrisbut yeah the character like it's her husband. I always forget that bit because.
LeeCuz it doesn't seem to affect her.
ChrisWell, it that's the thing is it does but then she just sort of like, "No, we're and it's kind of like you realise in a way that isn't necessarily, well, it's questionable, but I don't think it comes from a bad morality where she's like, right, we're not talking about this. We're just going to have the celebration."
ChrisAnd then it's like, she is literally the show must go on or business as usual, even though it's like now, well, we don't know where your husband is, but one of the blokes who was with him has turned up and he's had his eyes stabbed out. So, you know.
ChrisSo so.
LeeNo, I got nothing for you.
ChrisI was just going to ask about Jamie Lee Curtis.
ChrisSo she's pretty young in this, I'm assuming she's done Halloween or has been done.
AdamYeah, Halloween 78 and this is 80.
ChrisOh, okay, yeah, so not a huge difference then.
ChrisOh, that's interesting. So what what else was this the second film or?
AdamThis is this is John Carpenter's second.
AdamWell, it's John Carpenter's second theatrical film, she did Halloween.
ChrisOh, okay.
AdamHe does a film called he does Elvis.
ChrisOh, right.
AdamWith Kurt Russell like the the story of Elvis, which is like a TV movie.
Adamexcuse me.
ChrisWait, and Kurt Russell playing Elvis?
AdamAnd he does a TV movie.
LeeOh, okay.
ChrisSo I should probably watch that.
LeeYeah, me too.
AdamWe'll we'll have to do it as a we'll have to do it as a sidebar or something like that, you know.
AdamWhat are the horror connections, a director and the star?
AdamNo, we're just doing the Elvis story. Don't worry.
Adambut yeah, and he did a like a TV movie thriller called Someone's Watching Me.
AdamAnd that was where he met Adrian Barbeau, who plays Stevie Wayne, and they ended up getting married.
ChrisOh, right.
AdamSo she's married to John Carpenter when she does The Fog.
AdamAnd he wrote the part for her.
AdamI didn't realise she's Cody Carpenter's mother, though, which is John Carpenter's son who he now composes with.
ChrisOh, okay.
Adamand but yeah, so they met on the set that and interesting thing.
Adamthing.
AdamI didn't know if this was a film called there are worse things I could do.
AdamAdrian Barbeau's written three horror comedy novels about vampires in Hollywood.
LeeOh, I'd read that.
AdamYeah, Vampires of Hollywood, Love Bites and Make Me Dead.
AdamAnd yeah.
AdamAnd before before she was before she got into acting, she was a go-go dancer in a mob run club in New York.
AdamThere you go.
AdamThe fascinating facts you can glean from IMDb. I don't know.
AdamBut but obviously this but then she.
AdamShe turns she's in Creepshow with Hal Holbrook playing her husband, so the guy who's Father Malone in this in the first Creepshow, they play husband and wife in one of the segments.
ChrisOh, right.
AdamAnd she's in.
LeeRight.
AdamYeah, Cannonball Run, Swamp Thing, two Evil Eyes.
AdamCannibal Women in the Avocado Jungle of Death.
AdamWhich I kind of feel might be one you've seen, Lee.
LeeI've not, but only because.
Leeof the amount of times I've seen Cannonball Run probably didn't leave much time to watch anything else.
AdamThat's true, that's true.
Adamwatched that watched that recently and yeah, I quite really enjoyed that.
LeeYeah, it's like yeah, I feel passed on a video a VHS classic there.
Adambut I always forget she was in Carnivale, wouldn't she, that but it was only one series, wasn't it, Carnivale? Or two? I can't remember.
AdamBut and she's also the voice of Catwoman in the animated series of Batman.
AdamAnd for John Carpenter, she's in Escape from New York and she's the computer voice in The Thing.
ChrisOh.
AdamSo yeah, she's the.
ChrisOh my gosh.
Adamis playing Kurt Russell at the start of it, so.
LeeI've got to say that that like the the visuals of this, the the ghosts, you know, that like their appearance as they come out of the fog with the glowing eyes, it's so iconic, like it's just one of my absolute favourite looks, it's so so good.
ChrisYeah.
ChrisYeah.
AdamIt's it because from what I gather, it's quite a low-budget film.
ChrisOh, relatively low budget.
AdamBut it just looks fucking great.
ChrisYeah, I wonder how much of that is fortunate that fog gives that effect.
ChrisYeah, I don't know if anyone's been to know.
AdamBut this, like this, cuz it's like at the coast, but it reminds me it's really like the M.R. James ghost stories for Christmas, like the BBC ones, it has that sort of, "Whistle and I'll come to you," or I can't think what it's called now.
AdamThe one with Peter Vaughn and it's completely escaped me.
AdamBut, "No digging here." Whatever one that is.
LeeOh, yeah, Warning to the Curious.
ChrisYeah.
AdamThat's it, thank you.
AdamYeah, Warning to the Curious.
AdamAnd it's that sort of but you know, everything that's shot in this, it feels, it still clearly America, but obviously it's a, it's sort of.
ChrisYeah.
AdamYeah, at the coast, it's not, it's not the height of summer or anything else like that, but it just has a real, just amazing look to it, and, yeah.
AdamI mean.
AdamAnd the fog effects, the ghost effects.
AdamIt's really fucking good. There's not any.
ChrisYeah.
AdamThere's nothing that feels even like the the basics of like rattling bottles and stuff like that at the start of it doesn't look bad.
AdamAgain, that was stuff that was added.
ChrisYeah.
AdamLike the whole sequence of the town going nuts where it's like just the cars start beeping and the like the petrol garage lights up and everything else like that.
AdamThat's all, that was all additional stuff.
AdamAnd Debra Hill shot most of that.
AdamAnd apparently some of it was shot using her car's headlights for lighting.
LeeOh.
AdamThat's how sort of like quick and they were having to do all this stuff when they were sort of putting putting it back to like trying to add all this stuff to make it work.
LeeI mean, that does add to it, though, because that's the thing otherwise, if you just see the rock fall out and he gets to find the book and the gold.
LeeLike, it doesn't give the same impression as the whole town suffering from that earthquake.
AdamYeah.
Adamit was I when I watched it, Claire came up with an interesting thing which she she said about all the clocks breaking because the ghosts are trying to stop.
ChrisThey can only.
AdamBecause obviously they on the first night they can only last within the hour.
ChrisYeah, which then on the second night is just fuck it, forget it. It's it's.
AdamIt's ghost time. So.
AdamBut there's oddly enough, there are so many fucking references in this.
Chris
AdamThat like are now they're references, but back then they were basically in-jokes from John Carpenter because it was all just related to people he knew. But all those people are now iconic.
AdamSo if you put these names in your film now, people are just going to be like, well, that was fucking hack and I they just, you know, hack need sort of thing they just put in, like they were calling them after directors or whatever like that.
LeeYeah, I noticed. I didn't know that until now.
AdamSo Tom Atkins, I could say, I didn't know that until I just opened IMDb, saw what we started recording and realised that the character's name of the the the weatherman is Dan O'Bannon.
AdamYeah.
AdamSo he's Dan O'Bannon. Tom Atkins's character is called Nick Castle, which is the guy who played Michael Myers in Halloween.
AdamAnd did and directed the last half Halloween as well.
ChrisAll right.
Adamand there's also Buck Flower, who's one of the guys on the Seagra is his character is called Tommy Wallace, as in Tommy Lee Wallace, and and he's one and he's one of the ghosts in this.
Adamapparently Mrs. Kobrits is named after Richard Kobrits, who was John Carpenter's producer on Someone's Watching Me, which is the TV movie he did with Adrian Barbeau.
AdamAnd he plays a character called Bennett, whose name is actually he's named after someone John Carpenter knew at college called Ben Tremer, but but it's Ben Tremer, who is mentioned in Halloween, like Jamie Lee Curtis.
AdamI think like Laurie, it's someone that Laurie fancies.
AdamI think he just gets mentioned.
AdamI don't think he's actually in it.
Adamand then you've got the the pathologist is called Dr. Fobes, which, you know, I think which I'm pretty sure only appears in the credit.
Chris
AdamSo it's yeah you say you've got that reference.
ChrisI would have thought I would have noticed that, but yeah.
AdamJohn Houseman, who's who is the guy at the start doing the ghost story, his character's called Mr. Machen, which is probably after Arthur Machen, who was like a weird fiction author.
Adamand one, when Stevie's like playing records on the radio, she mentions The Coup de Villes, and that is John Carpenter's band with, Tommy Lee Wallace and Nick Castle, who did the end song from Big Trouble in Little China.
Chrisokay.
AdamSo, but like I say.
AdamAll this stuff now would feel like the most, but back then it was an in-jokes with him and his mates, you know, no one was picking up.
ChrisWould have known.
AdamHe's called Nick Castle, that's the name of the guy who played the shape in the Halloween in the 78. Come on.
Adamthe Elizabeth Dane is apparently an old girlfriend of John Carpenter's.
LeeYeah.
AdamBodega Bay is mentioned, which is where The Birds is set like Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds.
Adamwhen they're talking about when there's the the report about the seagra, like the of the missing seagra and they mention Whitley Bay and Arkham Rift, which are Lovecraft references.
Chris
AdamThen you've got, you know, you've got the Edgar Allan Poe at the start.
AdamWhen Blake's voice bleeds through the radio, he talks about an albatross around the neck, which is from the Rime of the Ancient Mariner, which I think we talked about on Triangle, like the poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
ChrisSorry.
AdamColeridge, Samuel T.
AdamAnd and there's even.
AdamApparently there's a brick with H Hawks written on it, for Howard Hawks.
Adamthe director.
AdamAnd I do think that the end bit where she the end speech with The Fog, where she's saying look to the look look across the sea, watch for The Fog, really feels like the Watch the Skies bit from the end of the original like Thing from Another World, which obviously he did as The Thing.
AdamSo, yeah, it's just absolutely fucking rammed.
ChrisYeah.
AdamAnd still manages to.
AdamBut again.
AdamThat's not the point of the film.
AdamYou know, it's they weren't there for you to spot.
AdamI think maybe it was just he was having a bad week and I just fucking character name so I'm just going to just go through my phonebook.
AdamTommy Lee Wallace, yeah, Tom Wallace that'll do, right, okay.
AdamChris Kurt Russell was apparently offered a part. I'm assuming that Tom Atkins would have had in it.
ChrisYeah.
Adam
AdamSorry to say this, Lee, but Father Malone, the part was offered to Christopher Lee but he just couldn't do it.
LeeOh.
AdamCuz of scheduling.
AdamAnd we could have had a fucking Christopher Lee extended cameo in a John Carpenter movie.
LeeSee, I would've loved that.
LeeBut this guy plays it so well. I think he's perfect.
ChrisYes.
AdamI was thinking that watching it was like, I don't know if Christopher Lee would do like vulnerable, you know what I mean, it's like, you know, he is just actually, I love the bit where she can't where they turn up and she just goes, "Well, I hope he's not in his cart." Cuz I just love that tone for drunkenness.
AdamI just think it's such a.
ChrisThat's such a good.
LeeThat's such a.
LeeYeah.
LeeYeah, saying about how good it looks.
LeeThe the bit with the ghost ship as well, I thought it looks incredible and it's creepy as all hell.
ChrisYeah.
AdamIt's such a sustained atmosphere that they get with this.
AdamAnd it's everything, it's the music, it's the cinematography.
AdamI think.
ChrisAnd it doesn't doesn't drag you down, though.
ChrisIt's still.
ChrisNo, holds action and it's like, yeah.
AdamSee, I was I was a bit worried. I wasn't sure if this was still on Lee's classic list because we did an all-nighter at the Prince Charles of Carpenter movies and I think The Fog was like, I think they put it on fifth, which was just so wrong for that time in the morning.
LeeYeah.
AdamCuz it's too quiet, too sedate compared to when you've just been watching they live or Big Trouble in Little China or Halloween or whatever like that.
AdamIt's not that same.
LeeYeah, pace and speed.
LeeBut I honestly, I think after Big Trouble, I think this is my favourite Carpenter movie. I thoroughly enjoyed this every time and it's funny because I don't think about it a lot, and then every time I watch it, I'm like, why don't I watch this at least once a year.
LeeIt's so good.
AdamWell, well, we now know the date to be watching it.
LeeYes.
AdamSo.
AdamThat was actually just because I was listening to the soundtrack and they've put the the speech from the beginning at the start of the soundtrack and it was like, oh, hang on.
LeeOh.
LeeSee, that beginning was great.
LeeBut that closing shot as well, I love when you think it's all over and then it just comes back for one last bite, it just phenomenal.
ChrisYeah.
AdamWell, not that but also I think that's the point where it's like it's still it's still going, "No, we're we're still a horror film." Because that you know what I mean, it's like the the thing's over, but you've got to do the pay off.
LeeYeah.
AdamIt's always always the way with like certainly with eighties horror and I think it's sort of, yeah, you you couldn't just leave leave it where it was.
AdamIt's just that right it's just the right little sort of and I think it's such an effective because all you've got to do is pump smoke under a door.
AdamTo give the presence of the of the ghosts and everything.
AdamAnd and boat hooks are just really fucking visceral, just looking at them.
LeeYeah.
AdamYou know, you don't have to actually go that far with them.
Adamalthough they did put in more chopping and stuff as part of the like reshoots and stuff like that because I think they were because like they said they weren't some of the producers were saying we didn't feel scary enough and it's like, all right, well.
AdamSo, oh, so you get bits like apparently I think in the the attack on the Seagra, you saw the ship go past and then that was it and then they were found dead.
AdamSo they added like the confrontation with the ghost coming on board and everything, which is, you know.
ChrisDo you think he was originally thinking to make it like a ghost story sort of more in your mind?
AdamAnd then somehow that just didn't quite work. I think so, and I think also cuz I remember I can't find any proper thing on it.
AdamSo I think it might have just been someone was, you know, a thought that someone had had rather than actual factual basis or anything else like that.
AdamIs I had heard that originally it was meant to be a kids' film at one point.
ChrisOh, okay.
AdamLike I'm sure I've heard that somewhere, so I couldn't find any similar anything in like notes and.
ChrisOr, you know, something creepy and yeah, that could have worked.
AdamBut I think it was still kind of a bit too much for, you know, it's like, it's not a kids' film, even if we cut the eye gouging out.
AdamIt's not a kids' film.
LeeI'm trying to find it on my shelf. There's they did a a Disney film about a a pirate ghost.
LeeAnd I'm pretty sure Blackbeard was in that.
AdamBound to be.
LeeWas it wasn't there one like Blackbeard rides again or something like that.
LeeYeah, it's called something like that.
LeeYeah, yeah, and I bought it last year and saw it.
LeeI can't find it on my shelf now. I think it was one of those annoying things where I heard about it and bought it there and then and then the next day I was like, oh, it's suggesting it to me on Disney Plus.
LeeYou bastards.
AdamYeah, they do seem to have the link up the shit. The also that lighthouse.
AdamI could fucking live there.
ChrisYeah.
AdamI could never watch The Fog again.
AdamBut I could live there.
AdamI think it just looks amazing, but that's where is it? It's Point I'm assuming it's Point Reese or Reese Lighthouse in in California.
Lee
Adamand that staircase is 313 steps long. That's right, folks.
AdamYou only get the best best facts on this show.
ChrisGod.
Adamthat's it.
AdamBut it's like.
LeeI can't lug in all that gear up there every day.
AdamIt's like 900 feet.
LeeGod.
AdamThey reckon it's like it's the equivalent of 20 stories high.
AdamAnd you like you can go and visit that.
AdamYou can go and visit as a historical museum, the lighthouse.
AdamUnless the winds exceed 40 miles per hour and then they have to close the stairs because they're fucking dangerous.
ChrisOh my gosh.
AdamBut yeah, it's such a weird, yeah, just a lovely sort of weird little location.
Adamalso I will say one thing that happened once, people could pause films.
Adamin the journal and I clocked it.
AdamYou can do it.
Adamwhen Father Malone first opens the journal, you can't can't sort of make all of it out, but basically on the first page that gets flipped over really quickly, it says, sort of starting from somewhere, "My college education to work right in dumb shit in this fucking movie prop."
AdamIt's time to bring in the new girls with big tits, tattoos and shaved beavers.
LeeOh.
ChrisWow.
AdamAnd obviously, no one is ever going to see that.
AdamIt's on screen for less than a second.
ChrisAnd and.
LeeI'll be looking out for that next time.
LeeOh, and there will be next time.
AdamSeriously, it was it's just so cuz it's still it's still written lovely, but you know.
LeeYeah.
LeeExcellent.
LeeRight, so yes, I think this is definitely a recommend from all of us.
LeeIs that fair to say?
ChrisYeah.
AdamOh yes.
ChrisOh, yes.
LeeExcellent.
LeeRight, so thanks ever so much for listening everybody.
LeeGo and check out The Fog.
LeeIf you've not seen it before.
ChrisOh.
LeeOh, am I breaking up?
ChrisShouldn't have listened this far.
Leeyes.
ChrisYeah.
LeeAnd so our next episode is going to be Session 9.
Leeand we'll be back in a fortnight's time with that.
LeeThanks very much for listening.
LeeGood night.
ChrisGood night.
AdamGood night.
