History Film / TheFog

** Subverted. Stevie's panic slowly starts to increase but she keeps her act together long enough to warn people about the fog and to fight off the ghosts. This is a JustifiedTrope--she is trapped in a lighthouse while her home and her son are left at the mercy of undead pirates and all she can do is spread warnings over the radio with no guarantee that she'll be heard.

** Subverted. Stevie's panic slowly starts to increase but she keeps her act together long enough to warn people about the fog and to fight off the pirates. This is a JustifiedTrope--she is trapped in a lighthouse while her home and her son are left at the mercy of undead pirates and all she can do is spread warnings over the radio with no guarantee that she'll be heard.

* HorrorDoesntSettleForSimpleTuesday: The ghosts strike on the town's 100th anniversary celebration.

* DrowningMySorrows: Father Malone is found drinking in his study on the evening of the festival.

** There are Creator/HPLovecraft references in the place names "Arkham Reef" and "Whateley."

* CatScare: When Nick and Elizabeth are on the ''Seagrass'', tension is built up to a locker that's about to spill open (and the audience knows three people died on the ship). The door opens...and a pile of equipment falls out. Then Tommy's corpse falls on Elizabeth.

* GlowingEyesOfDoom: Blake's (the leader of the ghosts) [[RedEyesTakeWarning red eyes]].

* JumpScare: Father Malone suddenly jumps out of his confessional booth in the silent church, scaring the bejesus out of Kathy.

* NothingIsScarier: The slow build-up at the beginning of the film where, after midnight, things inexplicably start to go crazy as a bad omen. There's no cause given and no explanation and the incidents in question just... happen.

* GhostShip: Three examples. The ''Seagrass'' and the ''Resa Jane'' (the brig Nick talks about, [[spoiler:which also seems to have fallen victim to the ghosts]]) are examples of the trope, and the ''Elizabeth Dane'' is a rather literal example.

''The Fog'' is a 1980 American horror film directed by Creator/JohnCarpenter (his first big-screen feature following [[Film/Halloween1978 a certain other horror film]], and like that one co-written with Debra Hill), starring Creator/AdrienneBarbeau, Creator/JamieLeeCurtis (and her mother, Creator/JanetLeigh), Creator/HalHolbrook, Nancy Loomis, Charles Cyphers, John Houseman and others.

* ArtisticLicenseReligion: Father Malone's grandfather, another Father Malone, was one of the town founders. Malone is an Irish – and presumably Catholic – name, and Catholic priests typically don't have children. There are Irish Protestants of course, but most of them have ministers, rather than priests. A Catholic man can also become a priest after being widowed, so it is ''technically'' possible for his grandfather to have been a priest, but more likely Carpenter just hoped [[FridgeLogic nobody would notice.]] The family may have been Catholic originally and chosen to convert but his descendants became Catholic again, had children out of wedlock or left the priesthood after the events of the wrecking.

* ArtisticLicenseReligion: Father Malone's grandfather, another Father Malone, was one of the town founders. Malone is an Irish - and presumably Catholic - name, and Catholic priests typically don't have children. There are Irish Protestants of course, but most of them have ministers, rather than priests. A Catholic man can also become a priest after being widowed, so it is ''technically'' possible for his grandfather to have been a priest, but more likely Carpenter just hoped [[FridgeLogic nobody would notice.]] The family may have been Catholic originally and chosen to convert but his descendants became Catholic again, had children out of wedlock or left the priesthood after the events of the wrecking.

* WeHardlyKnewYe: We're introduced to three sailors – Al, Dick and Tommy – who listen to Stevie's broadcast and get a few lines and development... until they become the first three victims of the ghosts. Each of them has a connection to another protagonist: Al is the husband of Kathy Williams, Dick is a friend of Nick's (and he searches the boat for him) and Tommy's brother plays little league with Andy.

* WeHardlyKnewYe: We're introduced to three sailors – Al, Dick and Tommy – who listen to Stevie's broadcast and get a few lines and development... until they become the first three victims of the ghosts. Each of them has a connection to another protagonist - Al is the husband of Kathy Williams, Dick is a friend of Nick's (and he searches the boat for him) and Tommy's brother plays little league with Andy.

* WeHardlyKnewYe: We're introduced to three sailors - Al, Dick and Tommy - who listen to Stevie's broadcast and get a few lines and development...until they become the first three victims of the ghosts. Each of them has a connection to another protagonist - Al is the husband of Kathy Williams, Dick is a friend of Nick's (and he searches the boat for him) and Tommy's brother plays little league with Andy.

* RelatedInAdaptation:

* GhostlyChill: The ghosts cause the temperature to drop sharply when they appear (the thermometer on the ''Seagrass'' was stuck at twenty degrees).

The small coastal northern California town of Antonio Bay is about to celebrate its 100th anniversary. Among its denizens are Stevie Wayne (Barbeau), who runs her own radio station, and Kathy Williams (Leigh), who is in charge of the centennial celebrations. New in town is Elizabeth Solley (Curtis), an aspiring artist who has hitchhiked up from Santa Barbara. Everything seems peaceful enough in Antonio Bay, but on the night of the ceremony, a mysterious fog rolls in – and the fog wants victims...

No relation to Creator/JamesHerbert's horror novel [[Literature/TheFog1975 of the same name]], or with Creator/StephenKing's novella ''Literature/TheMist'' and its film adaptation.

The small coastal northern California town of Antonio Bay is about to celebrate its 100th anniversary. Among its denizens are Stevie Wayne (Barbeau), who runs her own radio station, and Kathy Williams (Leigh), who is in charge of the centennial celebrations. New in town is Elizabeth Solley (Curtis), an aspiring artist who has hitchhiked up from Santa Barbara. Everything seems peaceful enough in Antonio Bay, but on the night of the ceremony, a mysterious fog rolls in... and the fog wants victims...

''The Fog'' is a 1980 horror film by Creator/JohnCarpenter (his first big-screen feature after [[Film/Halloween1978 a certain other horror film]], and like that one co-written with Debra Hill), starring Creator/AdrienneBarbeau, Creator/JamieLeeCurtis (and her mother, Creator/JanetLeigh), Creator/HalHolbrook, Nancy Loomis, Charles Cyphers, John Houseman and others.

->''Is all that we see or seem, but a dream within a dream?''

* CoitusEnsues: Nick and Elizabeth hop into bed literally about half an hour after they've met, before they even know each other's names too.

* DeathBySex: Almost pointedly averted -- perhaps due to Carpenter's [[Film/Halloween1978 last film]] having arguably established the trope, which [[https://aiyonna.wordpress.com/2018/11/18/john-carpenter-returns-to-usc-for-40th-anniversary-of-halloween/ baffled him]]. [[spoiler:One of the first scenes involves two characters having anonymous casual sex after knowing each other for about an hour, which in another horror movie would instantly mark them as future victims. It's barely dwelled upon and both characters survive unharmed.]]

* ShooOutTheClowns: [[spoiler:Dan]] is killed by the ghosts when the fog rolls into town.

* ShooOutTheClowns: [[spoiler:[[PluckyComicRelief Dan]] is dragged off into the fog by the ghosts/zombies as they begin to directly attack the town.]]