John Carpenter - John Carpenters Fog (14 tracks) +Album Reviews

Scary as h...!

Jesper Mikkelsen | Denmark | 11/10/2002

(4 out of 5 stars)

"If you like this movie and watched it numerous times(like me) youre gonna love being able to listen to the music isolated, and getting scared even without Carpenters pictures. It simply works just as well without the movie, and therefore is also ideal for listening while reading a good scary book!"

Anyone check the laserdisc?

Ogre | Florence, AL USA | 11/15/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"For all of the whining about this release, I'd like to point out that Carpenter made ALL of the music cues available as an isolated audio track on the laserdisc of THE FOG. Therefore, the complete, unedited soundtrack has already been available for several years and is quite easy to transfer to cassette or CD.

Secondly, kudos to Silva Screen for such a luscious re-release of this fine Carpenter score. As with their PHANTASM release, this further proves that they take both soundtracks and their fans seriously enough to do the best job possible."

Dry ice not included

N. P. Stathoulopoulos | Brooklyn, NY | 01/10/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The original Varese Sarabande Fog disc is tough to find, and rather short. This 'Expanded' edition is not perfect, as has been pointed out by several reviewers, but it is quite welcome.

There are issues, but it's mostly due to what is omitted. There is still missing music here, but it's more complete and satisfying than the original disc.

As for the sound, it's true, it doesn't sound the same. The same is true of the excellent (and better) rerelease job for Escape from New York. Compared with the older, shorter release, the Escape CD sounds clearer, as if remixed considerably, but I don't think that's too much of a problem. If you love both scores, you might want to track both versions down (just don't break the bank finding the out of print discs) and compare them, as they are indeed different.

As for The Fog, it was a nice little ghost movie--the kind that is completely absent today from movie screens--and Carpenter's score is spot-on. While I believe Escape is his first, true complete film score (instead of repetition of the same cues over and over at different tempos) The Fog provides excellent atmospherics, particularly the main theme and that haunting piano that accompanies the fog's slow-roll into town. The scoer, in general, sounds like a chilly, gray fall day. As a bonus, we have John Houseman's opening story, and also a Jamie Lee Curtis interview from the period where she talks about being a horror scream queen, and also about the craft of film acting.

For Carpenter fans, it's a no brainer. I wish they'd included all of the music from the film, and re-did the liner notes, but still, it's a good disc, well worth it for the fan."

Nice, but not at this price

Robert Buchanan | Wisconsin | 10/09/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Those who are as comfortable as I am with the exhaustive repetition of John Carpenter's other early scores should enjoy this. To complement the film's slow pace, this music is far more subtle and deliberate than any of his other musical works. Like Carpenter's "Halloween" score, the main theme (which is more satisfactorily reworked into two shorter reprises) and numerous other movements stretch a few simple motifs into surprisingly long tracks. This isn't to suggest that the music of this score isn't good - most of it is. But it's best implemented in the context of the film's soundtrack.

Overall, this is a middling score for Carpenter. It's certainly better than his latest scores (which are as dismal as the movies they've accompanied), but it doesn't favorably compare to his music for "Escape from New York," "Halloween" or "Assault On Precinct 13." Apparently, Carpenter's skill as both a composer and a director have simultaneously waned in recent years.

If you're looking for the complete theatrical score, this isn't it. For that, search Soulseek for an excellent homemade soundtrack ripped from the isolated audio track of the Laserdisc edition of "The Fog." This generous offering compiled by an anonymous fan includes every theme and cue from the film, even the smooth jazz and other easy listening music played on the radio station in the film. It's flawed and unusual in many respects, but true fans of the movie are sure to love it. If you're looking for a more conventional listening experience, this "expanded edition" isn't a bad selection, either. The remastered sound is excellent, and it's interesting to hear how long many of the unedited tracks are; while "Reel 9" is effectively creepy, its repetition borders on tedium. This album features a few tracks cut from the film, but also excludes one or two movements, along with a number of cues.

This is far, far better than the muddy, woefully incomplete Varèse Sarabande release, but I don't recommend that you buy this OOP disc for the exorbitant prices that used copies are presently being offered for on Amazon. You'd be better off downloading this album on a file-sharing network to preview it and purchasing the tracks that you like from Silva Screen's website.

Two non-musical additions on this disc include the spooky ghost story (voiced by John Houseman) that opens the film, and a period interview with Jamie Lee Curtis that's cleverly bookended by two of the many Antonio Bay radio station bumpers heard in the film. In it, she briefly discusses her role in the movie and conveys some insights regarding film acting as she veers into faint histrionics. What an entertainer!"

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