The Fog

0:00 Lee Evening everybody, Lee here. Our regular listeners will know that we recently did a supernatural stories episode, or not, depending on your beliefs.

0:10 Lee but 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.

0:16 Lee So, as we tempted the idea at the end of our last episode, we're going to do a follow-up at some point.

0:23 Lee So 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.

0:29 Lee feel free to either record them and email them over to us at [email protected].

0:36 Lee or otherwise, you can type them out and send them to us and we will read them out on the show.

0:43 Lee if 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.

0:52 Lee Thanks very much and enjoy the show.

1:59 Lee Good evening and welcome to Horror.

2:01 Lee I'm Lee.

2:02 Chris I'm Chris.

2:03 Adam I'm Adam.

2:04 Lee And we are here recording on the 21st of April.

2:09 Lee which is poignant.

2:13 Adam 21st of April.

2:16 Chris Five minutes to midnight.

2:17 Lee Yeah.

2:20 Lee We're too old for that.

2:20 Chris Incidentally, I take it you saw the clip that I put up on Instagram.

2:27 Lee No.

2:28 Chris oh, 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.

2:37 Chris Not a school night.

2:39 Adam Yeah. Oh, yes. That's for sure. I think we've made that pretty clear.

3:21 Lee Oh, yeah, yeah.

3:23 Adam Yes.

3:27 Lee Sorry.

3:28 Chris yeah, but I set an alarm so I would I did actually post that at five minutes to 12 last night.

3:37 Lee Nice.

3:38 Adam Very good.

3:39 Chris And 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.

3:47 Chris Right, check that's gone up, yeah.

3:50 Adam Just lay me down on the sofa for a second.

3:53 Chris Oh, it's 2 in the morning.

3:54 Lee Oh.

3:55 Adam Oh.

3:57 Lee so 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.

4:10 Lee And 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.

4:17 Adam Yeah.

4:19 Chris See, weirdly enough, maybe something that will come up in a future Lee's Haunted episode, but I do have a thing for asynchronicity.

5:07 Lee Yeah.

5:08 Adam Oh, we do get them a lot.

5:09 Chris I do like it.

5:10 Adam Exactly.

5:11 Lee covered 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?"

5:18 Lee So yeah, it's happened more than you'd expect.

5:20 Chris Or or we suddenly suddenly there's loads of posts. Oh, yeah, it's the 60th anniversary of this. Oh, right, okay.

5:27 Adam Which has recorded it.

5:29 Lee so, yes, so we are here to cover 1980s John Carpenter masterpiece, I'm going to say.

5:37 Adam Hey!

5:38 Lee I love the crap out of this film.

5:40 Lee The Fog.

5:42 Lee so in typical traditional styley, Chris, have you seen this film before and what did you think of it?

5:49 Chris I haven't, and I was just saying, "Ahoy, mateys, this is Chris, and I'd just like to ask you something: Are you weird?"

5:56 Chris Weird and unlucky.

5:59 Adam Yes.

6:00 Lee Definitely.

6:02 Chris So, yeah, I quite liked that the very start, it says, "Is all that we see or seem, but a dream within a dream."

6:10 Lee Edgar Allan Poe.

6:11 Chris Yeah.

6:12 Adam Poe. Edgar Allan Poe for you.

6:15 Chris So.

6:16 Adam Apparently.

6:17 Adam Apparently that was Debra Hill's idea. Debra Hill the producer and co-writer with John Carpenter.

6:24 Chris Oh, yeah.

6:25 Adam Who was also producer for like Halloween and Escape from New York and stuff.

6:28 Adam Yeah.

6:29 Adam And yeah, she came up with that.

6:32 Lee It worked well.

6:33 Adam But 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.

6:42 Adam And the music didn't work and the story didn't really work, and the producer said it needs to be scarier.

6:49 Adam And 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.

6:56 Chris Oh, right.

6:57 Adam Like and added to bits and stuff like that.

7:02 Adam But 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.

7:11 Chris Oh, 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.

7:18 Lee Yeah, that's interesting. Okay.

7:20 Lee It's a really good way, though, like, rather than having like a dreadful scroll or like a shoehorn in.

7:29 Adam In times of oldness.

7:39 Lee Yes, so, Chris, sorry, you were saying, yes, your first thoughts.

7:49 Chris Yeah, well, so excellent start.

7:52 Chris and it, yeah, like I said, it gives you the ghost story. That's that's wonderful. Interesting that that was added on later.

7:59 Chris the 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.

8:10 Chris It's it's certainly got like its own style or character, I suppose, and, yeah.

8:17 Adam As the podcast soundtrack obsessive, I think this might actually be my favourite John Carpenter soundtrack.

8:27 Chris Oh, okay.

8:27 Adam It certainly stood out to me.

8:29 Chris Yeah, that.

8:30 Chris Oh, 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.

8:39 Chris Cuz 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.

8:45 Chris But yeah, no, it's fantastic.

8:47 Chris and really, yeah, so, so this is a ghost a ghost story.

8:52 Chris And 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.

9:12 Chris On on on six.

9:15 Chris Maybe five.

9:16 Lee Maybe.

9:16 Chris It's six, it's definitely six.

9:19 Lee Yeah.

9:20 Adam I think that's a great intro.

9:23 Adam I think the like you're saying, Chris, there, that that theme is actually weirdly something that feels quite relevant at the moment.

9:28 Adam Because it is a real ongoing conversation in general about.

9:31 Chris Oh, yeah.

9:32 Adam Well, certainly about America, but also in general our country as well.

9:34 Chris There's definitely.

9:35 Adam Definitely, yeah, that seems to come up every year or or.

9:41 Chris So where it's like how do we deal with these historical events?

9:46 Chris Yeah, 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.

9:52 Adam But it's also.

9:53 Adam It's also it's like the people who have that knowledge but can't do anything about it.

9:58 Chris We're having a party.

10:00 Adam You know, keep it light, you know, we don't we don't want to dwell on the fact that.

10:04 Chris To enjoy ourselves, yeah.

10:05 Adam Oh, we've done this, you know, not had to do this, but that, you know.

10:08 Adam Don't don't talk about the shit we've done, not at the moment because we're having a knees up, all right?

10:11 Lee You know.

10:12 Adam It'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.

10:19 Adam This 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.

10:28 Lee Yeah.

10:30 Chris Yeah.

10:31 Adam Yeah, yeah.

10:33 Adam There's definitely that vibe.

10:34 Adam I'm talking to the great historical documents about like historical hypocrisy here, obviously like The Simpsons.

10:40 Chris But it's it's funny though, watching this, you know, you you're sort of you're not against those seeking revenge.

10:45 Chris And 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.

10:54 Chris But 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.

11:05 Adam See again, classic ghost story is that idea of things from the past that have like.

11:08 Adam You know.

11:10 Adam It'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.

11:17 Adam And.

11:18 Adam But yeah, I think the the fact that they've focused on that whole thing of the town being founded on, you know, this murderous.

11:26 Chris Yeah.

11:31 Adam Because that whole cuz

11:32 Adam I know there was John Carpenter said that there were like the the influences that went into The Fog was stuff.

11:38 Adam He went when he was promoting Assault on Precinct 13, him and Debra Hill visited Stonehenge while they were in England.

11:48 Chris Okay.

11:49 Adam And there was like a a fog bank and basically, yeah, she was like Debra.

11:54 Chris But does it.

11:55 Chris Does that mean the Assault on Precinct 13 is English?

12:01 Adam No, 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.

12:10 Chris Fair enough.

12:10 Adam And 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.

12:16 Chris Yeah.

12:17 Adam Yeah, what if something came out of that?

12:19 Chris I can see you you could think that at Stonehenge, yeah.

12:23 Adam Oh, definitely, yeah. I think and also he said there's a.

12:27 Adam There's a film called The Trollenberg Terror, which has creatures hitting in clouds which he sort of mentioned as well.

12:36 Adam but 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.

12:48 Adam and he said that was carrying gold, but apparently it was porcelain and opium.

12:53 Chris Oh, okay.

12:54 Lee Probably still worth quite a lot.

12:55 Chris Oh, yeah.

12:57 Adam Yeah, but

12:58 Adam So and there was but also this whole thing of wreckers sort of appears in tales and stuff like that.

13:06 Adam Which is people deliberately luring boats to wreck them for usually to wreck them for salvaging and stuff like that.

13:13 Chris Okay.

13:14 Adam and 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.

13:30 Adam So.

13:31 Adam It's it's it's more like a story rather like a legend rather than a criminal practice that was actually being done.

13:39 Lee I mean, it's good to see that.

13:40 Adam But I think if it's a legend it's much more interesting if people did do that.

13:43 Chris What a.

13:43 Lee It's.

13:44 Chris But I I wonder how much evidence would be left behind though to be able to work out one way or the other.

13:49 Adam Exactly. I mean, but then that's, you know, the age-old question, there's no proof either way, so.

13:53 Chris No. I tend to think if it can be done, humans might well be doing it somewhere.

13:58 Adam Yeah, if the internet tells us anything, it's certainly, you know, yeah.

14:03 Adam but and there's there's also a Rhode Island.

14:06 Adam Rhode 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.

14:16 Lee I'm keen to know, Chris, did you spot John Carpenter's cameo?

14:20 Adam But you've got.

14:28 Chris No.

14:29 Adam

14:31 Chris So I'm trying to think where I've actually seen him before.

14:34 Chris Did he he he presented an anthology that we watched in the.

14:39 Chris Was he in the the morgue?

14:42 Adam Yeah.

14:43 Chris He looks he looks a bit healthier in this.

14:46 Lee Okay.

14:47 Chris Yeah.

14:48 Chris Not not a great degree, but he looks.

14:49 Lee Wait, does that mean he's one of the ghosts?

14:52 Chris Oh, no.

14:52 Chris Although 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.

15:02 Chris Rob Bottin, who did the special effects, is also Blake like the body of the Blake.

15:06 Chris in it.

15:07 Chris which apparently was because he's quite tall.

15:10 Chris Cuz literally literally to hide he's like, well, yeah.

15:14 Lee Yeah, sorry if I speak over you guys. My internet is been a real dick, so.

15:25 Chris Yeah, it it doesn't seem too happy.

15:29 Adam well, we we should persevere because if the film teaches anything it's the voice that's important.

15:36 Chris Yeah.

15:37 Chris Because 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.

15:52 Lee Especially with Dan.

15:54 Chris And yeah.

15:55 Lee Oh, yeah, Dan, the the weatherman.

15:57 Chris The smooth I don't know why she wasn't rushing over to him instantly as soon as he opened his mouth.

16:05 Lee Oh, yeah, no, he's he's a he's a seductive fellow.

16:08 Lee Although, although obviously Tom Atkins, even without his mustache, yeah, he's still just a right shag machine.

16:15 Lee It's like pick up a hitchhiker. Next thing, they're in bed. Right, okay.

16:20 Lee What's he age?

16:25 Lee It's weird though, Tommy Lee Wallace without mustache, sorry Tom Atkins without a mustache.

16:30 Chris Yeah.

16:31 Lee Yeah, it doesn't look right.

16:32 Lee It just feels it's just like every time you look you're just like that's just a bit missing.

16:36 Lee It's just just not quite right.

16:37 Lee I don't know why.

16:38 Lee So.

16:40 Lee It's funny. I always forget as well that obviously Jamie Lee Curtis and her mother.

16:44 Lee Janet 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.

16:54 Chris Yeah.

16:56 Chris But 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.

17:05 Chris yeah, they're the bits I tend to sort of like I don't always remember those bits.

17:09 Chris But 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.

17:18 Chris It'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.

17:32 Chris And then you've got the procession going on, but with people trying to close up.

17:36 Chris The other thing I always forget is that the the the one of the guys on the Seagra is Janet Lee's husband.

17:42 Lee Oh, I didn't know that.

17:43 Chris because 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.

17:47 Lee Oh yes, yes.

17:51 Lee Yeah.

17:53 Lee Yes.

17:54 Chris but yeah the character like it's her husband. I always forget that bit because.

17:59 Lee Cuz it doesn't seem to affect her.

18:02 Chris Well, 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."

18:13 Chris And 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.

18:25 Chris So so.

18:26 Lee No, I got nothing for you.

18:28 Chris I was just going to ask about Jamie Lee Curtis.

18:31 Chris So she's pretty young in this, I'm assuming she's done Halloween or has been done.

18:36 Adam Yeah, Halloween 78 and this is 80.

18:39 Chris Oh, okay, yeah, so not a huge difference then.

18:42 Chris Oh, that's interesting. So what what else was this the second film or?

18:46 Adam This is this is John Carpenter's second.

18:48 Adam Well, it's John Carpenter's second theatrical film, she did Halloween.

18:53 Chris Oh, okay.

18:54 Adam He does a film called he does Elvis.

18:57 Chris Oh, right.

18:57 Adam With Kurt Russell like the the story of Elvis, which is like a TV movie.

19:02 Adam excuse me.

19:03 Chris Wait, and Kurt Russell playing Elvis?

19:05 Adam And he does a TV movie.

19:06 Lee Oh, okay.

19:07 Chris So I should probably watch that.

19:08 Lee Yeah, me too.

19:11 Adam We'll we'll have to do it as a we'll have to do it as a sidebar or something like that, you know.

19:16 Adam What are the horror connections, a director and the star?

19:19 Adam No, we're just doing the Elvis story. Don't worry.

19:22 Adam but yeah, and he did a like a TV movie thriller called Someone's Watching Me.

19:28 Adam And that was where he met Adrian Barbeau, who plays Stevie Wayne, and they ended up getting married.

19:34 Chris Oh, right.

19:35 Adam So she's married to John Carpenter when she does The Fog.

19:39 Adam And he wrote the part for her.

19:42 Adam I didn't realise she's Cody Carpenter's mother, though, which is John Carpenter's son who he now composes with.

19:50 Chris Oh, okay.

19:52 Adam and but yeah, so they met on the set that and interesting thing.

20:02 Adam thing.

20:03 Adam I didn't know if this was a film called there are worse things I could do.

20:07 Adam Adrian Barbeau's written three horror comedy novels about vampires in Hollywood.

20:15 Lee Oh, I'd read that.

20:17 Adam Yeah, Vampires of Hollywood, Love Bites and Make Me Dead.

20:22 Adam And yeah.

20:24 Adam And before before she was before she got into acting, she was a go-go dancer in a mob run club in New York.

20:32 Adam There you go.

20:33 Adam The fascinating facts you can glean from IMDb. I don't know.

20:38 Adam But but obviously this but then she.

20:41 Adam She 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.

20:51 Chris Oh, right.

20:52 Adam And she's in.

20:53 Lee Right.

20:54 Adam Yeah, Cannonball Run, Swamp Thing, two Evil Eyes.

20:59 Adam Cannibal Women in the Avocado Jungle of Death.

21:03 Adam Which I kind of feel might be one you've seen, Lee.

21:07 Lee I've not, but only because.

21:08 Lee of the amount of times I've seen Cannonball Run probably didn't leave much time to watch anything else.

21:15 Adam That's true, that's true.

21:17 Adam watched that watched that recently and yeah, I quite really enjoyed that.

21:22 Lee Yeah, it's like yeah, I feel passed on a video a VHS classic there.

21:30 Adam but 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.

21:38 Adam But and she's also the voice of Catwoman in the animated series of Batman.

21:47 Adam And for John Carpenter, she's in Escape from New York and she's the computer voice in The Thing.

21:53 Chris Oh.

21:55 Adam So yeah, she's the.

21:57 Chris Oh my gosh.

21:59 Adam is playing Kurt Russell at the start of it, so.

22:04 Lee I'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.

22:22 Chris Yeah.

22:24 Chris Yeah.

22:25 Adam It's it because from what I gather, it's quite a low-budget film.

22:30 Chris Oh, relatively low budget.

22:33 Adam But it just looks fucking great.

22:37 Chris Yeah, I wonder how much of that is fortunate that fog gives that effect.

22:42 Chris Yeah, I don't know if anyone's been to know.

22:49 Adam But 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.

23:02 Adam The one with Peter Vaughn and it's completely escaped me.

23:07 Adam But, "No digging here." Whatever one that is.

23:10 Lee Oh, yeah, Warning to the Curious.

23:12 Chris Yeah.

23:14 Adam That's it, thank you.

23:16 Adam Yeah, Warning to the Curious.

23:18 Adam And 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.

23:27 Chris Yeah.

23:27 Adam Yeah, 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.

23:39 Adam I mean.

23:40 Adam And the fog effects, the ghost effects.

23:42 Adam It's really fucking good. There's not any.

23:46 Chris Yeah.

23:47 Adam There'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.

23:57 Adam Again, that was stuff that was added.

23:59 Chris Yeah.

24:00 Adam Like 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.

24:12 Adam That's all, that was all additional stuff.

24:14 Adam And Debra Hill shot most of that.

24:17 Adam And apparently some of it was shot using her car's headlights for lighting.

24:22 Lee Oh.

24:23 Adam That'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.

24:30 Lee I 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.

24:35 Lee Like, it doesn't give the same impression as the whole town suffering from that earthquake.

24:44 Adam Yeah.

24:45 Adam it 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.

24:52 Chris They can only.

24:53 Adam Because obviously they on the first night they can only last within the hour.

24:58 Chris Yeah, which then on the second night is just fuck it, forget it. It's it's.

25:03 Adam It's ghost time. So.

25:11 Adam But there's oddly enough, there are so many fucking references in this.

25:16 Chris

25:17 Adam That 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.

25:29 Adam So 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.

25:41 Lee Yeah, I noticed. I didn't know that until now.

25:44 Adam So 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.

25:57 Adam Yeah.

25:58 Adam So he's Dan O'Bannon. Tom Atkins's character is called Nick Castle, which is the guy who played Michael Myers in Halloween.

26:06 Adam And did and directed the last half Halloween as well.

26:11 Chris All right.

26:12 Adam and 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.

26:25 Adam apparently 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.

26:40 Adam And 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.

26:58 Adam I think like Laurie, it's someone that Laurie fancies.

27:01 Adam I think he just gets mentioned.

27:02 Adam I don't think he's actually in it.

27:04 Adam and 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.

27:11 Chris

27:11 Adam So it's yeah you say you've got that reference.

27:16 Chris I would have thought I would have noticed that, but yeah.

27:20 Adam John 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.

27:31 Adam and 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.

27:42 Chris okay.

27:44 Adam So, but like I say.

27:45 Adam All 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.

27:52 Chris Would have known.

27:53 Adam He's called Nick Castle, that's the name of the guy who played the shape in the Halloween in the 78. Come on.

28:00 Adam the Elizabeth Dane is apparently an old girlfriend of John Carpenter's.

28:04 Lee Yeah.

28:06 Adam Bodega Bay is mentioned, which is where The Birds is set like Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds.

28:13 Adam when 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.

28:25 Chris

28:27 Adam Then you've got, you know, you've got the Edgar Allan Poe at the start.

28:31 Adam When 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.

28:49 Chris Sorry.

28:50 Adam Coleridge, Samuel T.

28:52 Adam And and there's even.

28:54 Adam Apparently there's a brick with H Hawks written on it, for Howard Hawks.

28:59 Adam the director.

29:00 Adam And 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.

29:15 Adam So, yeah, it's just absolutely fucking rammed.

29:19 Chris Yeah.

29:20 Adam And still manages to.

29:21 Adam But again.

29:22 Adam That's not the point of the film.

29:24 Adam You know, it's they weren't there for you to spot.

29:27 Adam I 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.

29:35 Adam Tommy Lee Wallace, yeah, Tom Wallace that'll do, right, okay.

29:43 Adam Chris Kurt Russell was apparently offered a part. I'm assuming that Tom Atkins would have had in it.

29:51 Chris Yeah.

29:52 Adam

29:53 Adam Sorry to say this, Lee, but Father Malone, the part was offered to Christopher Lee but he just couldn't do it.

30:01 Lee Oh.

30:02 Adam Cuz of scheduling.

30:03 Adam And we could have had a fucking Christopher Lee extended cameo in a John Carpenter movie.

30:08 Lee See, I would've loved that.

30:08 Lee But this guy plays it so well. I think he's perfect.

30:13 Chris Yes.

30:14 Adam I 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.

30:27 Adam I just think it's such a.

30:30 Chris That's such a good.

30:32 Lee That's such a.

30:33 Lee Yeah.

30:34 Lee Yeah, saying about how good it looks.

30:35 Lee The the bit with the ghost ship as well, I thought it looks incredible and it's creepy as all hell.

30:41 Chris Yeah.

30:43 Adam It's such a sustained atmosphere that they get with this.

30:46 Adam And it's everything, it's the music, it's the cinematography.

30:49 Adam I think.

30:50 Chris And it doesn't doesn't drag you down, though.

30:53 Chris It's still.

30:53 Chris No, holds action and it's like, yeah.

30:58 Adam See, 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.

31:09 Lee Yeah.

31:12 Adam Cuz 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.

31:19 Adam It's not that same.

31:21 Lee Yeah, pace and speed.

31:23 Lee But 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.

31:32 Lee It's so good.

31:33 Adam Well, well, we now know the date to be watching it.

31:36 Lee Yes.

31:37 Adam So.

31:39 Adam That 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.

31:47 Lee Oh.

31:48 Lee See, that beginning was great.

31:50 Lee But 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.

31:59 Chris Yeah.

32:00 Adam Well, 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.

32:10 Lee Yeah.

32:10 Adam It'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.

32:24 Adam It'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.

32:31 Adam To give the presence of the of the ghosts and everything.

32:39 Adam And and boat hooks are just really fucking visceral, just looking at them.

32:44 Lee Yeah.

32:45 Adam You know, you don't have to actually go that far with them.

32:48 Adam although 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.

33:00 Adam So, 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.

33:10 Adam So they added like the confrontation with the ghost coming on board and everything, which is, you know.

33:16 Chris Do you think he was originally thinking to make it like a ghost story sort of more in your mind?

33:21 Adam And 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.

33:27 Adam So 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.

33:34 Adam Is I had heard that originally it was meant to be a kids' film at one point.

33:39 Chris Oh, okay.

33:40 Adam Like I'm sure I've heard that somewhere, so I couldn't find any similar anything in like notes and.

33:48 Chris Or, you know, something creepy and yeah, that could have worked.

33:54 Adam But 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.

34:03 Adam It's not a kids' film.

34:05 Lee I'm trying to find it on my shelf. There's they did a a Disney film about a a pirate ghost.

34:11 Lee And I'm pretty sure Blackbeard was in that.

34:14 Adam Bound to be.

34:16 Lee Was it wasn't there one like Blackbeard rides again or something like that.

34:18 Lee Yeah, it's called something like that.

34:19 Lee Yeah, yeah, and I bought it last year and saw it.

34:21 Lee I 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.

34:28 Lee You bastards.

34:31 Adam Yeah, they do seem to have the link up the shit. The also that lighthouse.

34:36 Adam I could fucking live there.

34:40 Chris Yeah.

34:41 Adam I could never watch The Fog again.

34:44 Adam But I could live there.

34:46 Adam I 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.

34:58 Lee

34:59 Adam and that staircase is 313 steps long. That's right, folks.

35:06 Adam You only get the best best facts on this show.

35:09 Chris God.

35:10 Adam that's it.

35:11 Adam But it's like.

35:12 Lee I can't lug in all that gear up there every day.

35:15 Adam It's like 900 feet.

35:17 Lee God.

35:19 Adam They reckon it's like it's the equivalent of 20 stories high.

35:23 Adam And you like you can go and visit that.

35:25 Adam You can go and visit as a historical museum, the lighthouse.

35:29 Adam Unless the winds exceed 40 miles per hour and then they have to close the stairs because they're fucking dangerous.

35:35 Chris Oh my gosh.

35:37 Adam But yeah, it's such a weird, yeah, just a lovely sort of weird little location.

35:42 Adam also I will say one thing that happened once, people could pause films.

35:47 Adam in the journal and I clocked it.

35:51 Adam You can do it.

35:52 Adam when 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."

36:07 Adam It's time to bring in the new girls with big tits, tattoos and shaved beavers.

36:14 Lee Oh.

36:14 Chris Wow.

36:16 Adam And obviously, no one is ever going to see that.

36:20 Adam It's on screen for less than a second.

36:22 Chris And and.

36:22 Lee I'll be looking out for that next time.

36:25 Lee Oh, and there will be next time.

36:27 Adam Seriously, it was it's just so cuz it's still it's still written lovely, but you know.

36:32 Lee Yeah.

36:34 Lee Excellent.

36:35 Lee Right, so yes, I think this is definitely a recommend from all of us.

36:39 Lee Is that fair to say?

36:41 Chris Yeah.

36:43 Adam Oh yes.

36:45 Chris Oh, yes.

36:46 Lee Excellent.

36:47 Lee Right, so thanks ever so much for listening everybody.

36:48 Lee Go and check out The Fog.

36:51 Lee If you've not seen it before.

36:52 Chris Oh.

36:52 Lee Oh, am I breaking up?

36:55 Chris Shouldn't have listened this far.

36:57 Lee yes.

36:58 Chris Yeah.

36:59 Lee And so our next episode is going to be Session 9.

37:03 Lee and we'll be back in a fortnight's time with that.

37:05 Lee Thanks very much for listening.

37:06 Lee Good night.

37:07 Chris Good night.

37:08 Adam Good night.