Countdown to Halloween Teaser Trailer Tuesday: The Fog (1980)

The beginning of Countdown to Halloween means that TTT gets the Halloween treatment as well and today we have a creepy chiller from the 80's in John Carpenters 'The Fog' (1980).

Wow, talk about moody. The feeling of tension and unease in this teaser for 'The Fog' is thick (like some kind of low-lying formation of clouded water droplets) and that's the point. This teaser was meant to make us feel uneasy. Another great thing here is that clearly you can tell that either this was released before filming began or in the middle of production. It features no characters or story points. Hell, we don't even know what the plot of the movie is at this point. It's all about the tone. They are selling tone. A tone that something is wrong and it has to do with a sinister fog. What's in the fog? A hand. Who or what does the hand belong to? SEE THE MOVIE!

SPOILER ALERT!!!

'The Fog' is about the small coastal town of Antonio Bay on the eve of their centennial celebration when a mysterious fog rolls in. The fog proves to conceal a deadly force, later revealed to be the ghost/zombie crew of a leper ship.  You see, apparently the founders of Antonio Bay decided that they didn't want a leper colony so close to their all white...sorry, all right town so they forced the ship carrying the poor souls to crash into the rocks and then plundered the wealth the ship was carrying. Murdering and then picking the pockets of the dead seems rather shitty so years later the vengeful spirits have returned to reap havoc on the entire town. There are several characters with individual storylines that all come together in the end to try and outrun the fog (which seems impossible...it's gaseous water, it's essentially everywhere). 

After making 'Halloween' (1978) John Carpenter wanted to do a more classic horror story and this was his creation, a moody ghost story about revenge. It has some great visual moments and plenty of tension. Check it out this Halloween season.

For those who have seen the film go further with this vintage interview feature Carpenter and other s talking about the film called "Fear on Film: Inside The Fog". Thanks to FilmMasterCarpenter for posting the original video.