The Fog

by Dennis Etchison

A novelization of the 1980 John Carpenter film.

From the back cover...

Tonight the fog that rises off the California coast is different. And deadly. A writhing icy mist pulsing with terror. It is too late to escape. Even now the people of Antonio Bay are cut off, engulfed. Along darkened streets, death searches them out. There is no sanctuary for the living. Those who are doomed will die horribly. Those who spared will suffer the endless fear of a soul-chilling night when the dead, finally, return for revenge.

Genres: Horror, Fiction, Horror Thriller, Media Tie In, Literature, Novels

224 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1980

About the author

aka Jack Martin.

Dennis William Etchison was an American writer and editor of fantasy and horror fiction. He is a multi-award winner, having won the British Fantasy Award three times for fiction, and the World Fantasy Award for anthologies he edited.

Reviews

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good novelization of a weird little cult film that I enjoyed very much. (The original with Barbeau, Curtis, Houseman, Holbrook, and Janet Leigh; the remake wasn't as good.) Etchison was a master of horror literature, and understood how to translate it from screen to page, which is an obvious reversal of the usual process. His novelized version is a quick and entertaining read, with a shiver or three along the way.

[Marvin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was a series of novelizations of 80s horror films written by Dennis Etchison and one of the few that bears his name and not the pseudonym of Jack Martin. That is probably because this is one of his best novelizations. While some of his earlier novelizations, including the Halloween series, are clearly written to pay the rent, this one enhances the film and has some nice Etchison touches...

A veil had descended over the whole coast...It wrapped itself around the sand dunes and braided through the telephone wires up on the road,sneaking over the landscape and cloaking the sea. The fog, if that what it was, was white as vanilla ice cream.

Etchison's talent for evoking eeriness and terror is all over this work, While, of course, not as original as his short fiction, The Fog is still worthwhile seeking out as a primary example of Etchison's early writings.

[Nick LeBlanc · Rating 4 out of 5]

Far and away the best novelization I have ever read. The Fog is Carpenter’s most underrated work, a masterpiece of atmosphere (literally and figuratively). Etchison does a great job capturing this aspect of the film as well as the continual bouncing between characters and storylines. Well written, faithful to the film, provides some depth and inner life, sufficiently creepy, and not corny at all—as most novelizations trend toward. A fully realized world with a creeping phantom threat, classic eldritch horror meets modern 70s slasher, a gnarly ghost story…count me in every time.

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tonight the fog that rises off the California coast is different, unnatural, a writhing icy mist blanketing the small town, concealing it’s terrors. For tonight, one hundred years later, they have risen from the dead in vengeful fury, stalking down their victims in a night of unimaginable horror.
With a back cover blurb that gives away pretty much everything, this is a workman-like adaption of John Carpenter & Debra Hill’s screenplay by the excellent Dennis Etchison (misspelled on the cover of my copy). Trying to convey a very visual idea (and while it’s a creepy film, most of that tension comes from what you see or hear) with prose was always going to be a difficult proposition and Etchison is restricted in quite a few areas, not least of which is that the characters don’t get too much depth (apart from Nick Castle, one of the protagonists, who spends his time thinking badly of the girl he’s just picked up). Set pieces move quickly, the writer is left to explain some things that slow the pace down and on paper, the fog creeping in isn’t really that worrying. Not as bad as this review might make it sound - Etchison is too good a writer for that to happen - but if you’d read this first, you probably wouldn’t rush out to see the film. Worth reading, certainly, but it’s not brilliant.

[Chris Velazquez · Rating 3 out of 5]

John Carpenter's The Fog is one of my personal favorite ghost movies. It has a great cast, superb score, and such a humble approach to itself, it's just a really well told story, and when I found out it had a novelization, I wanted to check it out.

The good point of this book is that it does capture that eerie feel from the movie. It can lag a bit but overall flows generally smoothly, and it also showcases character development on Nick, Stevie and her son Andy that we didn't get to see in the movie. If there are any downsides, one is that the character of Elizabeth (played in the movie by Jamie Lee Curtis) is not as memorable here as in the movie, she's portrayed as quite young and gets overwhelmed easily, and it gets annoying when we have to hear again and again how the character of Nick gets irritated with her, and other characters, namely Kathy and Sandy, don't get developed enough. Another thing that annoyed me personally is that some bits from the movie get adapted out, including two of the movie's most memorable scenes.

However, in the long run, despite its flaws, I do believe this to be a decent novelization for John Carpenter's classic film. It's a fast read and it kept me entertained, so I'll likely revisit it in the future. Plus look at that lovely cover art!

[Mikepottz · Rating 4 out of 5]

A vaporous shroud of a fog covered a ship 100 years ago full of gold. A fog that seemed to have come from hell itself, legend has it that it will come back and horror like that night will seek its revenge. A fog moving against the wind engulf a boat at sea. A grotesque body looking like a monster netted from the deep sea is found. The deck is completely dry but the body was covered in seaweed, water oozing from the mouth and nose like it had drowned all puffed up and bloated. The fog was glowing, a churning tube of radiant energy. The fog freezes the telephone lines, breaking all connections from the outside. Out of the fog a stringy black hand reaches out and covers a ladies mouth, lifting her like a ragged doll. An evil deed by people a hundred years ago guiding a boat full of gold and lepers is shipwrecked and the gold stolen. Atmospheric setting of a small ocean town, melancholy flowing through the pages of a well written book.

[Mike (Hail Horror Hail) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Solid writing. Solid novelization.

[Mark · Rating 2 out of 5]

After viewing his first cut of The Fog, John Carpenter was disappointed with himself.
He claims the movie was boring, uneventful and not scary.
He had to go back and shoot new sequences to spice up the narrative. The result is the movie that fans know and love.

I'm guessing that this novelization was based on the screenplay before Carpenter improved his movie.

Boring, uneventful and not scary pretty much sums up this book.
It's surprising how for a Horror story, there is very little horror in The Fog. And I don't mean the Horror scenes are unmemorable (well, they are unmemorable), I mean that nothing happens in the book until the last chapter.

It is strangely readable though. I credit this to the characters who are likable and identifiable.
The memory of the great cast that played them doesn't hurt either.

It's clear that Etchison knew he had a whole lot of nothing to work with here: the majority of the book is padding.
Many paragraphs are dedicated to the thoughts of the characters that contribute absolutely nothing to the plot.
He also keeps putting off the presence of the Fog. Yes, it's always in the distance over the ocean, but is pretty much absent for most of the story.
Instead we basically get endless scenes of characters merely wondering what's going on with the fog and missing ship and what not.

The Fog is not one of Carpenter's best movies, but it's a very iconic movie due to his unique filmmaking style.
Here, we just have a book with just about nothing going on.

[Don Roff · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fairly average novelization of the classic John Carpenter film. Being a fan of THE FOG, though the film's narrative has some structural flaws (which Director John Carpenter admits), I was hoping Dennis Etchison's efforts would smooth over those bumpy cinematic elements and add some character development as well as some additional ghostly thrills. Unfortunately, much of Etchison's prose feels forced--and clunky--in many passages as he fills up many pages with superfluous "character building," like Stevie Wayne reminiscing about her former home, Chicago, without adding much of interest or empathy to round out the character. Nick Castle's character (played by Tom Atkins) is brutally unsympathetic as he bed the young Elizabeth Solley (played by Jamie Lee Curtis but written younger in the book) and is irritated with her through most of the story, which is disheartening. Mostly I'd recommend this quick and dirty adaptation of THE FOG strictly for the sake of nostalgia. As I was finishing the book, I listened to Carpenter's film score to help make the scenes of "suspense" in the book more suspenseful. It helped a little. Recommend only for die-hard fans of THE FOG, otherwise, stick with the film.

[Benjamin Stahl · Rating 1 out of 5]

When someone writes a novelization of a shitty movie, one begs to question why anyone would want to read it. I couldn't answer that question, because I don't know why I chose to read it. It was there for twenty cents, and so I thought "why not?". Well the book was pretty darned awful: nothing particularly interesting happened, and it felt like Dennis Etchison (whoever the hell he is?) was just told to write exactly what happens in the movie down onto paper. There is no sense of realism with these characters, no form of belief in what is happening. This was a listless book, based on a listless movie. Sometimes those publishers confuse me...

[Beauregard Shagnasty · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am taking off points for the needlessly unpleasant attitude of Nick Castle, one of the the main characters. He beds the girl and then treats her with seething contempt throughout the rest of the book. It reads almost like the author got dumped by his girlfriend while adapting the screenplay and he added all the nasty inner dialogue to what is basically a likable character. I was very turned off by that aspect of this book.

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Fog by John Carpenter is my favorite movie of all time. I have been wanting to read this book since I first watched the movie in 2020, when I was 17. I wasn't able to actually get my hands on the book, however, until I was 20. I thoroughly enjoyed the book, however it should be known, and as it should come to no one's surprise, it is quite different from the movie. One change that I personally felt added to the story was the thought process behind who the ghosts sought to kill. In the original film, it seems as though the ghosts are simply killing at random, however the book adds the context of their victims being ancestors of those who were responsible for ending their lives one hundred years ago. It was mostly faithful, and didn't take much away, nor did it add anything that ruined the story. More depth was given to the characters and added some more tension not previously there. I still enjoy the movie more than the book, but the book is not too shabby.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

This adaptation of the 1980 Carpenter film The Fog is a fun read. The story is a yarn of sorts, ghosts from 100 years ago return in a fog to reap havok on Antonio Bay CA. Captain Blake was a leper betrayed by 6 conspirators including a clergyman. He brings his zombie like crewmen back to exact revenge.

As in the superior novelizations of Halloween and Dean Foster's The Thing, Etchison here does a fine job of adding a few details Carpenter omits in the film. We learn Stevie and Andy's background and more about Elizabeth, played by JL Curtis in the film.

I would have been interested in a bit more on Blake and his backstory, and how he gained the ability to return. While not a pirate per se, his image is one of horrordom's more intriguing personas. Recommend.

[KAggie97 · Rating 2 out of 5]

Starts out great. The pace is quick, and the events to come are served up nicely.

Then it falls apart.

Needless internal dialogues about insignificant situations and flat-out boring prose. Usually a book based on a movie will add additional information about what is seen on-screen. This book? Not so much.

The end seems to appear out of nowhere; it's as if the author woke up from a nap and started typing again. While the descriptions are explicit and the action frenetic, it ends too quickly. An average book at best. Very dissappointing.

[Serena · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very good novel interpretation of John Carpenter’s classic film. I liked reading the thoughts of some of the characters that we don’t get to see in the movie. Very suspenseful and action packed. Some moments went on longer than I prefer but maybe that’s just me. Definitely recommend.

[Livingdeadpunk · Rating 3 out of 5]

As tense as the movie.

[Aaron the Pink Donut · Rating 3 out of 5]

quick easy read. slightly different then the movie in a number of ways; which made for a fun surprise.

[P.S. Winn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Eerie feeling to this read as the people of Antonio Bay find themselves stuck in the fog. I think if you liked Stephen Kings' The Mist, you should check this out.

[Michael Holland · Rating 5 out of 5]

A chilling adaptation of a classic horror movie. I think the imagery in the book will give me more nightmares than the movie did. Great read.

[David Irons · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great novelisation that builds on the original screenplay and gives you genuine chills. It captures the atmosphere of the movie perfectly - recommended.

[Simon Jones · Rating 3 out of 5]

Awesome novelisation. Loads that is different and expanded on from the actual film. I prefer the film though.

[Daniel Stainback · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was more enjoyable than I expected it to be.

[Michael Dolan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good book, similar to the movie in many ways, while it misses out some great scenes from the movie it adds more detail to scenes as well, over all a very strong book.

[Ben · Rating 3 out of 5]

A slightly above average adaptation that keeps the basic story elements and characters while enhancing the whole in small ways. Still, Carpenter's classic zombie pirate B-movie is the better entertainment.

[Charles · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a novelization based on the movie by John Carpenter. It's as good as the movie, which is one I really like.

[My work is never done · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Novel version of the 1980 Horror Movie "The Fog" by John Carpenter, I hear it's really good like the Movie and I cant wait to read it!

[Gina Sandoval]

Quick, easy, entertaining read.