The Fog (DVD)

Advantages: Theme tune, characters, and childhood memories
Disadvantages: Only 5 episodes on DVD, animation is an acquired taste

...If you're a child of the 1980s like myself, I'd be surprised if you don't remember Willy Fog. Although it was originally shown in Spanish in 1983, it was first shown in the UK in 1987 when it was on Children's BBC, and dubbed over in English. I think the series was popular in many countries, I remember watching an episode in Italian when on holiday in Venice! The series has 26 episodes, and the first five are on this dvd. I bought the set (of five) as each one came out, but now you can buy a box set with all of the episodes which might be more convenient (put it this way, you can't just buy this one dvd as you won't find out what happens). However, I didn't mind the wait between dvds. After all, when it was shown there was only one episode per week. As a 5-6 year old, the 26 weeks seemed to go on for a lifetime! For me (and... Read review

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Advantages: Superb musical score, hugely atmospheric, powerfully unsettling, simple but effective plot
Disadvantages: None

...John Carpenter is a master of tension and suspense. In the hands of a lesser director, The Fog would have been just another generic horror film, (see the execrable 2005 remake if you don't believe me) but Carpenter instead manages to create an oppressive and unsettling film with his mix of eerily-lit shots, brooding off-screen menace and his trademark pulsing synths that ebb and flow throughout, gradually building up anxiety in the viewer on an almost subconscious level. The story takes place in the sleepy Californian coastal town of Antonio Bay, a settlement that is said to have been formed in 1880 by a group of men who caused a local ship to be wrecked by lighting a beacon and driving it onto the rocks, causing crew to drown before plundering the ship of gold and using it to establish the town. The local church houses a huge gold... Read review

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Advantages: I was scared once
Disadvantages: Strange special effects, no character development

...An island off the coast of the US is about to celebrate the hundreth anniversary of its founding when an unexpected bout of fog strikes, leaving three dead and one seriously injured. Stranger things are afoot; objects mysteriously appear on the seashore, things that seemingly have the magical power to burst into flames despite having been underwater for centuries. Nick Castle and his girlfriend, Elizabeth, slowly begin to piece together the story of their forefathers, who allowed the death of a boatful of lepers so that they could set up the island without any of the 'unclean' on it. Now, it seems, the lepers are coming back to seek their revenge by means of the fog...Can justice be done without more death? I seem to have caught up with five years of remakes in the past month or so; The Fog 2005 is a re-make of the 1980 John... Read review

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