Movies at Home: The Fog, Halloween and Kiss Me Deadly

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The John Carpenter 1980 film The Fog is showing its age. Written with Debra Hill, it starred Adrienne Barbaux, Janet Leigh, and newcomer Jamie Lee Curtis. The first of these was excellent as the radio DJ. But the special effects for the fog and what comes with it were disappointing and tame by today's standards. 

Another John Carpenter movie, this time way more scary. 1978's Halloween is the first in what is now a whole industry created around this story. I had never seen it before, and what was impressive for me were the exterior shots of the Haddonfield township, the light, and the cinematography. But this all changes in the dark. We know from that scary introduction why young Michael Myers was locked up, but here we are fifteen years later, and the results of his escape are all so predictable. We see the "deserted" Myers house, and then over someone's shoulder on the evening of Halloween. 

It's a very young Jamie Lee Curtis who takes centre stage. She is very good. And I was surprised to see Donald Pleasance in a major role. I had not expected that. There are shots of children out trick or treating, but only from a distance. But it's that car that we know so well that appears all over the place. It's when it gets dark that it gets scary. In one house a mother cries, "There's no one out there." But we know better.

Kiss Me Deadly was one of the recommended films in David Thomson's book "Have You Seen ...." where he called it "magnificent". It is the first of those Mike Hammer movies from 1955. Directed by Robert Aldrich and starring Ralph Meeker, the cinematography in black and white is quite something. There are scenes that would not look the same in colour with those high camera angles and the exceptional lighting. The acting is quite stylised by today's standards, but the plot rattles along as private eye Mike Hammer tracks down the villains. There is some violence that would not be made today, but what an ending.