Hello, my friends. The witching hour is upon us as various decorations, costumes and treats of all kinds are in their final stages of preparations. While the haunting figures of old continue to soar ever higher within the autumn skies, the horrors that’re forever connected to a certain California-based town has reached its fever pitch in terms of absolute terror. As for what final horrors will emerge from the eerie mist, I welcome you all back to the final entry of…
Over the last three chapters, we’ve seen this small slice of the Golden State get tormented by both familiar and unexpected specters of its past. As for those who’re now caught in this chilling maelstrom, we have a female podcaster returning to the same town that her parents Nick & Elizabeth met on that fateful time back in 1980. She and her eventually-bumped off team would come across the grown-up son of the local radio DJ and his family, yet his mother and her boyfriend would ultimately meet their gruesome end at the hands of our featured spooks. Our main group would ultimately find out that while Captain Blake is still bringing his signature dread upon them, he’s actually working alongside an equally-ancient evil that looms over the town who turned out to be John Machen. He claims to be related to Andy’s daughter before he takes her mother Jamie away, to which our three remaining protagonists then head out to Spivey Point in order to finally bring this supernatural terror to rest once and for all. With all of that out of the way, let’s finally have this final chapter walk out of the smoky unknown.
Published in May 2024, writer Steve Ekstrom and artist Marco Foderà are still present to fully bring this four-part tale into our reality. As for how our current crisis will reach its completion, let us wade our way back inside in order for us to find out.
Issue 4 begins with Andrew driving his small group towards the center of town in order for them to reach the harbor. Jamie asks her dad whether that hooded man is actually her great-grandfather, to which Andy says that he isn’t especially since John Machen passed away 42 years ago. Annie then brings up Captain Blake’s different behavior where even the fog itself seems to have come alive, to which Andrew says that Blake is still in charge of not just his crew and the un-dead Father Malone, but also every last being that’s “inside the fog”. Castle then assumes that the dozens of otherworldly creatures are all of the people that went missing in Antonio Bay over the decades before reminding Andy that he discovered Mr. Machen deceased within his home alongside his various trophies in said estate. She then brings up that she found out about it via a police report that was posted onto a dark web site and even discovers that he was aware of John Machen being a Satan worshipper who believed in the occult, along with the fact that Wayne never told Jamie about this. Casey then asks him why he never shared this to his own kin, to which Andrew essentially says that it was a traumatizing experience from his childhood. Annie then asks him if they’ll be able to make it through the town in order for them to reach the harbor as Andy says that it has a single access and that his boat is the only thing that will help them reach Spivey Point. As they continue to talk about Casey’s potential “great-grandfather”, they’re suddenly approached by him alongside not only his supernatural creatures, but an undead Stevie Wayne as well.
Machen then tells them to get out of their truck in order to “join” them as Andrew decides to drive into them. However, they wind up phasing through the sinister figure before Castle notices how eerily quiet things have just gotten. They then come across a massive swarm of shadowy beings before the engine in their truck suddenly cuts off and is unable to restart. Andy gets out and tries to open the hood to see what’s wrong with the motor, but he quickly decides against it once the creatures swarm at him as he manages to get back in the vehicle and close the door. The beings then pound away at the truck while Andrew attempts to get it started again. He ultimately manages to get it up and running as he proceeds to drive off, yet the apparitions are able to hang on as Andy suspects that they’re somehow draining the truck’s battery and that they have to get them off.
As such, Annie hangs out of the window and proceeds to fire at them. Unfortunately, the vehicle’s battery becomes completely dead as Andrew tells the ladies that they’ll have to run towards the harbor. Shortly after Castle manages to shoot a few more of the opposing beings, our remaining trio proceed to dash onto the dock. From there, Machen appears and realizes that they’re heading to Spivey Point as our main group reach the boat and sail off.
Andy then tells Annie to reload all of their weapons since they’ll be unable to unmoor themselves once they’re attacked. She then asks him how they’re going to stop Machen, yet he thinks that they won’t be able to and that their best option is to flee. She then wonders how they can kill anything that “seems to be made out of fog”, to which he simply mentions that Captain Blake and his undead crew are a curse not just onto Antonio Bay but its original settlers. As such, he believes that Machen must also be bound to the town. He then says that his mother is now dead and that he thinks that his wife has also suffered the same fate, to which he vows to keep his daughter safe since she’s all that he has left. Once Casey rejoins the group, Annie gets dismissed before she then spots the Elizabeth Dane sailing in their vicinity. Meanwhile, Andrew tells his baby girl that she must flee with Castle and contact the Coast Guard if something bad ever happens to him. Annie is hesitant to comply, yet he tells her that she must do this for her Nana. Annie then returns and warns them that the fog is closing in on them and that the Elizabeth Dane had suddenly appeared on their starboard side while riding alongside them. From there, a sense of dread comes over Andy as he now fears that they’ll wind up stranded out in the water as a result of the fog reaching the engine and draining it of its power. As such, he feels like they’re not going to make it out alive. With the fog having completely surrounded the boat, Andrew then says that it’ll overtake their vessel before he tells Castle that while he doesn’t know her all that much, he’s forever grateful towards her parents for saving him on that fateful night back in 1980 since it ultimately allowed him to form his family. As such, he promises that he and his daughter will return the favor to Annie so that she can inform the outside world on “the horrible truth about Antonio Bay”. From there, the fog cuts out the boat’s power before Castle gives him his shotgun due to him being a better marksman. Andy then tells the two ladies to stay close to each other before he’s then met upon by Marchan.
He proceeds to gloat about Andrew’s “married” life while calling his “great-granddaughter” a “spirited beauty” before he then says that while they were able to stir up Captain Blake, he’ll deal with the undead sea man right after he smites our main group. Upon her dad’s silent orders, Casey proceeds to to slip away before he informs Annie to stay close to him since their foe isn’t aware where they are yet. Afterwards, Andrew and Castle emerge with their guns drawn before they’re then approached by the Elizabeth Dane as Blake surprisingly jumps from his ship and sides with our duo. As such, Machen sends his shadow creatures at the undead captain as they easily rip him to pieces. With Antonio Bay and its “restless souls” under his control, Machen then demands to know where his great-granddaughter is at before Casey emerges and fires a shot at his head. With the undead being easily withstanding the attack, Andy tells Annie to head into the wheelhouse in order to restart his boat and put the throttle at full-forward since his daughter was able to hook up their gas-powered generator.
Castle proceeds to do so as the boat manages to take off, yet Machen is able to reach Casey and grab onto her hair. Andrew then decides to sacrifice himself as he charges into Machen and tackles him, causing both figures to fall off the side and land into the water. Afterwards, she tearfully tells Annie that they have to go back and find her father. However, Castle tells Casey that they have to keep going to order to flee from the fog and get some help for the surviving residents of Antonio Bay. And so, the series ends with our two ladies approaching a nearby shoreline as they look to acquire some badly-needed assistance from the proper authorities.
Overall, this was a harrowing climax filled with terrifying twists, imposing turns and some potential that was ultimately left unfulfilled. Just like the ultimate peak from the same-name film, our central characters find themselves secluded in a singular area surrounded by the undead at all sides. This comic manages to capture the helpless and horrifying state that loomed large within the movie as overwhelming supernatural forces threaten to mutilate our primary players. Just like the film, the central group has limited means with how they can properly fight back against the otherworldly figures. Unlike the movie where returning the plundered gold that’s been forged into a cross to Blake was able to calm the primary evil for that moment, there ultimately wasn’t any true strategy other than to flee and get some help from across the sea. In a similar fashion, the final body count gets capped off with a single man from the central cast of characters meeting their end during a confrontation with the main supernatural figure. Also on a similar note, the conclusion of this tale follows the tradition of a John Carpenter-helmed story by having the narrative conclude on an ambiguous, uncertain and open ending. As a whole, there’s plenty of climactic chills to keep its readers engaged throughout. However, it also left a few elements unresolved or had their potential not realized in ways that could’ve been approached. One of them was bringing Father Patrick Malone back as an undead ally to John Machen and Captain Blake. He was a prominent supporting character in the film, yet not much is done with him this time around other than for certain spooky moments. Maybe Steve Ekstrom could’ve found some minor detail about him and ran with it in a productive way, yet the beheaded priest ultimately doesn’t get too much to work with for this entire situation. Another disappointment was with Stevie Wayne, especially since this series kept up the same problem that the movie had in that she doesn’t interact with much of the main cast aside from her own son. While it was a clever idea to not just give her a boyfriend but have it be Bennett Trammer who was an incredibly minor character in the initial film (and was also played by Adrienne Barbeau’s then-husband John Carpenter, which really makes this an example of art imitating life), both of them aren’t given much to do aside from their town-based jobs before they’re both bumped off. Even when we do see Stevie as Machen’s undead minion, she’s given nothing to do in the climax. As such, this comic series wound up compounding a movie-based problem as we’re now forever deprived of the opportunity of seeing how Stevie would’ve interacted with the rest of our principal players. Finally, we have our primary antagonist. I will say that it was an interesting choice to take a minor character who was added into the opening scene in order to set the movie’s creepy atmosphere and do something unexpected like this. Seeing how Captain Blake proved himself as a major threat in the initial cinematic entry however, one does wonder how Machen is able to have commanding presence over the undead leper leader. While the notion of the unexplained does help make certain things become more frightening as a result, I feel like a proper explanation beyond the small details provided in the police report shown at the end of the prior issue would’ve made for an understandable revelation. Not to mention, the effectiveness of his Machen’s shadow creatures makes one wonder why he doesn’t just send them towards Andrew and Annie seeing how they decimated Blake with ease. As for the effective way that Machen is taken down, it does parallel the film where dealing with the primary supernatural foe also causes his minions to vanish as well. Despite a somewhat underwhelming climax and a few elements not being fully utilized, this was still a well-paced tale backed by likable characters, well-handled artwork and plenty of supernatural chills to satisfy longtime fans both during & outside the Halloween season. While it isn’t exactly as well-put together as we would’ve wanted, it’s still a worthwhile read for anyone who’s already a fan of the 1980 cult classic as it makes enough advancements to the initial premise while integrating its new elements to help make this piece of horror material worthy of rolling into your conscious reading life.
The Fog (created by John Carpenter & Debra Hill) is owned by StudioCanal, Amazon MGM Studios, Sony Pictures Television, Lionsgate Films and Scream Factory.
