`Inside the Fog' is a routine `making of'- documentary. The structure and the footage shown are typical, but that doesn't mean it can't be informative. Debra Hill and John Carpenter (among other crew-members) enlighten us a little how they got the idea for the film, how they created those breath-taking fog effects etc. Some interesting trivia to discover there since Hill and Carpenter actually thought up the plot when they were visiting Stonehenge while all of a sudden a fogbank surrounded them. Also pretty interesting is the comparison between this film, and John Carpenter's big breakthrough `Halloween'
Even though they're both suspenseful films, they're entirely different, and it's fascinating to see how Carpenter tried to create a whole other style of film. Perhaps the most intriguing part of the documentary is how cast and crew explains how `The Fog' initially failed during a screening session. The audience wasn't impressed and the crew urgently had to add sequences and tension elements before the deadline. `Tales from the Mist' is an interesting little extra when you love the film. It comes as an extra on the Special Edition DVD.
3 Reviews
Fun for Fans of the Carpenter Classic
Michael_Elliott17 January 2012
Tales from the Mist: Inside The Fog (2002)
*** 1/2 (out of 4)
Nice documentary on the making of THE FOG features interviews with John Carpenter, Debra Hill, Janet Leigh, Dean Cundy, Tommy Lee Wallace and Adrienne Barbeau. Overall this is a very entertaining documentary that gives you a lot of insight into the making of the film as well as various issues that the production ran into. Fans of THE FOG will certainly enjoy seeing those who made it here talking about it even though Jamie Lee Curtis is missing except for some footage from a 1980 interview. I think the best moments of the documentary, as usual, happens when Carpenter is open and honest about various flaws that happened during the making of the movie. The most fascinating aspect comes when Carpenter and Hill discuss the original version of the movie and how awful it apparently turned out. They say that the entire thing was a disaster and when they talk about what stuff they had to re-shoot then you realize how bad it must have been. Carpenter talks about all the re-shoots that are in the movie now and you really do realize that the majority of the film has the new scenes and it really makes you curious to see what the original film was. Fans of THE FOG should enjoy this documentary because of the interviews as well as all the stories.
*** 1/2 (out of 4)
Nice documentary on the making of THE FOG features interviews with John Carpenter, Debra Hill, Janet Leigh, Dean Cundy, Tommy Lee Wallace and Adrienne Barbeau. Overall this is a very entertaining documentary that gives you a lot of insight into the making of the film as well as various issues that the production ran into. Fans of THE FOG will certainly enjoy seeing those who made it here talking about it even though Jamie Lee Curtis is missing except for some footage from a 1980 interview. I think the best moments of the documentary, as usual, happens when Carpenter is open and honest about various flaws that happened during the making of the movie. The most fascinating aspect comes when Carpenter and Hill discuss the original version of the movie and how awful it apparently turned out. They say that the entire thing was a disaster and when they talk about what stuff they had to re-shoot then you realize how bad it must have been. Carpenter talks about all the re-shoots that are in the movie now and you really do realize that the majority of the film has the new scenes and it really makes you curious to see what the original film was. Fans of THE FOG should enjoy this documentary because of the interviews as well as all the stories.
An interesting and informative retrospective documentary
Woodyanders29 August 2013
Warning: Spoilers
This 28 minute retrospective documentary covers some neat ground on the production of John Carpenter's supremely spooky horror cult classic "The Fog." Among the people interviewed are Carpenter, producer/co-writer Debra Hill, lead actress Adrienne Barbeau, co-star Janet Leigh, production designer Tommy Lee Wallace, and cinematographer Dean Cundey. Carpenter cites EC Comics, Edgar Allan Poe, and H.P. Lovecraft as major influences for the movie's overall tone and style. Moreover, Carpenter and Hill reveal that they first got the idea for the film when they saw a mysterious fog bank while visiting Stonehenge. In addition, the difficulty of creating and shooting the fog itself is addressed at some length, as well as the benefits of using the widescreen anamorphic format, John Houseman working for just one day (his lone scene was done on a sound stage), and Carpenter's simple approach to the premise. However, the best and most compelling stuff covered herein is when Carpenter admits that the original rough cut didn't work and thus an extensive amount of re-shoots were required to fix the film (for example, the opening montage of strange activity in the town at the start and the scene with Darwin Joston as a coroner were added in said re-shoots). Naturally, a wealth of cool production photos and choice clips are featured throughout. Worth a watch for fans of the film.
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