The Fog
(Film - 1980 CD - 1984)
Music Composed By John Carpenter
Varese Sarabande
Part Number VCD-47267 Length 34:0501. Matthew Ghost Story (2:45)
02. Main Title Theme (5:00)
03. Walk To The Lighthouse (2:40)
04. Rocks At Drake's Bay (2:24)
05. The Fog (3:20)
06. Antonio Bay (4:25)
07. Tommy Tells Of Ghost Ships (2:24)
08. Reel 9 (11:00)
Music Composed And Performed By: John Carpenter
Recording Engineer: Jim Cypherd
Synthesizer Programming: Dan Wyman
Music Coordinator: Bob Walter
Stereo Re-Mix By: Alan Howarth
Recorded At Sound Arts Studio
Mixed At Electric Melody Studios
The Fog
(Film - 1980 LD - 1995)
Music Composed By John Carpenter
Image Entertainment Laser Disc
Part Number ID28465SUThe score is isolated on the right (mono) analog channel.
Side One
Chapter 02 One More Story Before Twelve:
Music Cue 01
Chapter 04 Music Cue 02
Chapter 06 Music Cue 03
Chapter 07 Music Cue 04
Chapter 08 Music Cue 05
Chapter 11 Music Cue 06
Chapter 12 Terror On The Trawler:
Music Cue 07
Chapter 14 Music Cue 08
Chapter 17 Music Cue 09
Chapter 18 Music Cue 10
Chapter 21 Music Cue 11
Chapter 22 Music Cue 12
Chapter 24 Music Cue 13
Chapter 26 Music Cue 14
Chapter 27 Music Cue 15
Chapter 29 Music Cue 16Side Two
Chapter 30 KAB Promos: Music Cue 17
Chapter 32 Music Cue 18
Chapter 35 Music Cue 19
Chapter 37 Music Cue 20
Chapter 38 Music Cue 21
Chapter 40 The Waiting Game:
Music Cue 22
Chapter 41 Music Cue 23
Chapter 43 Music Cue 24
Chapter 45 Music Cue 25
Chapter 47 Disconnected: Music Cue 26
Chapter 49 Music Cue 27
Chapter 51 Music Cue 28
Chapter 53 Music Cue 29
Chapter 55 Music Cue 30
Chapter 58 Music Cue 31
Chapter 59 Music Cue 32
Chapter 61 As Suddenly A It Appeared…:
Music Cue 33
Chapter 63 Music Cue 34
Chapter 64 End Credits: Music Cue 35
The Fog
(Film - 1980 CD - 2000)
Music Composed By John Carpenter
Silva Screen
Part Number FILMCD342 Length 56:4001. Prologue
02. Theme From "The Fog"
03. Matthew Ghost Story
04. Walk To The Lighthouse
05. Rocks At Drake's Bay
06. The Fog
07. Antonio Bay
08. Tommy Tells Of Ghost Ships
09. Reel 9
10. Main Theme - Reprise
11. The Fog Rolls In
12. Blake In The Sanctuary
13. Finale
14. Radio Interview With Jamie Lee Curtis
About THE FOG
The Fog was my fourth feature film (sixth if you count Someone’s Watching Me and Elvis, two made-for-television movies) and was meant to be an homage of sorts to H.P. Lovecraft, M.R. James and other writers of great ghost tales and the supernatural. The screenplay was written in February and March of 1979 by Debra Hill and myself. Along with Tommy Lee Wallace, the production designer and editor, Debra and I scouted carious lighthouses along the coast of California and settled on the magical moody lighthouse and surrounding wind-swept plains of Point Reyes National Seashore, just forty miles North of San Francisco as the setting known as Antonio bay in the screenplay.
I shot The Fog in April and May and took a ten day vacation to Tahiti with my brand-new wife, Adrienne Barbeau. When I returned, I rushed in to the editing rooms at Samuel Goldwyn Studios to consult with Tommy Lee Wallace as to how the picture was cutting together.
It was a disaster. Quite simply, the picture didn’t work.
Numb with a horrifying loss of objectivity, I finished the editing and went to work on a musical score that I hoped would somehow ‘save the picture’. We dubbed The Fog in September, and finally watched the finished product. The movie I had made was clunky, clumsy and awful. The music was heavy-handed and obvious. I wanted to pack up and leave town. This was the lowest point I can remember in my professional career.
With a mighty Herculean effort, Debra Hill, Tommy Lee Wallace, and myself re-wrote, re-cut, re-shot and re-scored the picture. In one month.
I went back to Sound Arts Studio in central Los Angeles and quickly began composing and recording new tracks. Dan Wyman, my creative consultant on Assault On Precinct 13 and Halloween, was at my side programming the synthesizers, keeping a critical eye on my multi-tracked performances and maintaining quality control over the long hours of recording and mixing. And, our of all this frenzy, re-working and re-structuring. I produced what I consider to be one of my best scores.
What was missing from both the movie (the first, aborted version) and its score - a lightness of tone, a softer, understated fear - was achieved. My favorite theme is associated with Stevie Wayne (Andrienne Barbeau) as she walks down the cliff-side steps to her lighthouse/radio station. It consisted of three lines, a high flute melody, a mid-range counterpoint and a low bass support. At the beginning of the second act, as Andy (Ty Mitchell) discovers a strange piece of drift-wood on the rocks at Drake’s Bay. I used a bell/harpsichord ‘round’. Reel 9, ten minutes of an elaborate chase as Tommy Atkins, Jamie Lee Curtis, Janet Leigh, Nancy Loomis, Hal Holbrook and Adrienne are trapped by the fog, was held together by an equally long piece consisting of a bell/heartbeat driven by rising and falling synthesized tones.
Finally the new version of The Fog was dubbed and I saw the final answer print in December, about one month before the picture was due to open. I now felt the picture worked. The Fog opened to some-what mixed reviews but was a commercial success. Bob Rehme, then president of Avco Embasssy Pictures, sent me a framed page from Weekly Variety showing The Fog number one of the top ten pictures in the country. I still pause by this particular piece of framed vanity and stare at the title and remember, with a chill, how close I came to the edge.
John Carpenter
