In the night before the little town’s 100th birthday, the town priest discovers a diary of his grandfather from which it becomes clear that the town was only built after misleading a ship of settlers, crashing it into the shore and stealing the gold hidden in its trunk. The town father are murderers, and 100 years after the deed, the ship comes back, wrapped in the fog fatal for its detiny, and the crew seeks to take revenge on the killers’ families. In a triangle between the local radio station, located in the signal tower, the town’s boirthday party venue and and father Malone’s church, people start running from the fog, hoping to escape from Blake’s men’s revenge.
Another piece of history: this was officially the first film I ever sneaked in being underaged for the film rating. It was a “16” and I wasn’t, and so the images of Blake’s pointed knife stabbing the eyes of the poor fellow on the boat the first time we encouter the Elizabeth Drake, keeps haunting me. Or made me a misogenyst outlaw. Or something else I cannot spell.
Hal Holbrook and Adrienne Barbeau (see The Fog, nice body) and Jamie Lee Curtis and Janet Leigh (aren’t they cousins or some’in?) and John Capenter and and and. John Carpenter’s original score is more prominent here than ever, and I remember owning a record with all of his soundtracks which make a nice lullabye. Each time I watch the film I have to crefully re-construct the story, because the first time around I was just lost on the complexity of gold gained, gold lost, lepre colonies, six must die, but didn’t, and how the hell could they build the town with the stolen gold if Granny Father malone made a golden cross out of it and hid it in the church walls? Never mind. The scene where the Nanny gets captured by the zombies and the one where Adrienne Barbeau scrambles up the lighthouse and we get a nice and completely arbitray shot at the maggots crawling over one of Blake’s men… perfectly entertaining even today.
thomas4cinema 