Antonio Bay, California is celebrating its centennial. Father Malone (Hal Holbrook) discovers his grandfather's journal from 1880. It reveals that the six celebrated founders of the town sank a ship called Elizabeth Dane and then stole its gold. The owner Blake had wanted to establish a leper colony. Instead the six used the money to build the town avoid having the leper colony nearby. Strange things are happening in the town. Single mom Stevie Wayne (Adrienne Barbeau) is the radio DJ in the lighthouse. Nick Castle (Tom Atkins) picks up hitchhiker Elizabeth Solley (Jamie Lee Curtis) and then all the windows in his truck shatter. A fog bank comes over a fishing boat and apparitions kill everybody. Nick and Elizabeth sleep together. An apparition comes to kill but the clock strikes 1 am and the witching hour ends. The apparition disappears. Kathy Williams (Janet Leigh) is the organizer of the centennial and she refuses to believe Father Malone and the curse.
This is a rather slow horror and not that scary. It has a spooky quality to it mostly from Carpenter's music and the isolated seaside location. The story is pretty simplistic at its core. It's killer ghosts. The whole exposition with Hal Holbrook reading the diary isn't the most exciting. It's most remembered for Adrienne Barbeau as the sexy DJ. She definitely has the voice for it.
This is a rather slow horror and not that scary. It has a spooky quality to it mostly from Carpenter's music and the isolated seaside location. The story is pretty simplistic at its core. It's killer ghosts. The whole exposition with Hal Holbrook reading the diary isn't the most exciting. It's most remembered for Adrienne Barbeau as the sexy DJ. She definitely has the voice for it.