By Owen Quinn author
Copyright AVCO embassy Pictures
I was recently made aware of just how many movies and television shows the younger generation have never heard of, never mind seen. So to that end, we look back at some characters you really need to see before you kick the bucket.
I adore the Fog and while watching it recently I realised the real heroine of the movie was not Jamie Lee Curtis. Jamie only got on the movie poster because of her recent success from Halloween. The true heroine is DJ Stevie Wayne who spends a lot of her time in the lighthouse. If it wasn’t for Stevie then some of the characters including her own son would not have survived the attack by Captain Blake and his ghostly crew.
Played by Adrienne Barbeau, Stevie is a single mother raising her son Andy who is minded by Mrs Kobritz when Stevie is broadcasting. Judging from the photos her husband has died so she bought the lighthouse radio station in Antonia Bay. From the lighthouse, Stevie has a clear view of the surrounding area which is pivotal to her role in the movie. As Antonio Bay celebrates its 100th birthday, weird things begin to happen. Andy finds a piece of wood on the beah that he claims was a gold coin then turned into the wood. Inscribed on it are the words the Elizabeth Dane. She doesn’t realise it at the time but this is the name of Blake’s ship which the town’s founders led to crash on the rocks after betraying him.
Bringing it with her to the radio station, it suddenly leaks water and her equipment explodes on fire as a terrifying voice comes from the microphone swearing angry vengeance demonically. She is the one they call when she mentions the fog report and she is helpless to save weatherman Dan who has a crush on her but she keeps refusing to date. This is most likely because she is still grieving her husband.
What the Fog cleverly does is have different story strands going on before they come together in the movie’s climax. Andy and Mrs Kobritz are trapped at Stevie’s home, the town is celebrating its anniversary with a statue and candlelight procession, the crew of the Sea Grass have bene murdered but only one body recovered from a ship that is rusted with sea water erosion overnight, a dead body revives and Nick Castle (Tom Atkins) and hitchhiker Elizabeth Solley are central to unravelling the Sea Grass mystery. On top of that alcoholic priest Father Mallone (Hal Holbrook) finds a journal hidden in the walls of the church. In it his grandfather, one of the founding members of the town admits what they did to Captain Blake and his crew in order to prevent them spreading leprosy. He tells it to event organiser Kathy Williams and her assistant. All these pieces are brought together when the Fog attacks.
Trapped in the lighthouse Stevie is able to see it coming. She begs someone to get to her house and rescue Andy from the Fog. Nick and Elizabeth get there but the Fog is everywhere and Mrs Kobritz is dead. With seconds to spare they get Andy out but Stevie’s frantic calls over the radio echo as the ghosts close in. With her son safe, Stevie is able to give a second by second account of which parts of the town the Fog is and what streets are safe. It is through her direction that Nick, Andy, Kathy, Elizabeth and her assistant make it to the church where they learn the entire story of the strange happenings.
Stevie then faces the ghosts alone as they attack to the lighthouse. She fights heroically to the end and it is the very people she saved by sending them to the church that save her by giving Blake his gold and saving the town. The movie then ends with a monlogue from Stevie warning people the Fog could come again and for any ships at sea to look across the water and look for the Fog.
Adrienne Barbeau carries off the role perfectly and is the true heroine of the story. In a way the events have made her the watcher at the end of the world, looking out over the ocean, ever wary of seeing that glowing fog approaching Antonio Bay again.
Not all heroines need a gun or laser rifle; sometimes all they need is a brave heart and a microphone.
The Time Warriors and Beyond 