The Fog
(JAMES HERBERT)
ABSTRACT - JAMES HERBERT ? THE FOG. 1975 New English Library - A dark and extremely violent horror story with more deaths per page than most of its kind, even by Herbert?s standards. In London, a small earthquake breaks the seals on toxic waste gas cylinders that have been buried in the earth. The hero of the story is overcome by the mysterious glowing fog, and he goes completely insane, murderously so. Fortunately for him, he is captured, and hospitalised until his rage passes. He recovers and he is then told that as he has already survived the fog, he is immune to its effects. This is fortunate for all but him in that the Fog has in the meantime extended to cover much of London, creating a great deal of psychotic behaviour. A farmer is trampled to death by his cows. A flock of pigeons do an Alfred Hitchcock type of assault on a man. People also go mad and kill each other in extreme ways. The hero is sent into the city to rescue people and he ends up trying to survive his way through a very dangerous landscape in limited visibility with deranged lunatics everywhere. The chapters now take on a basic formula. In One, someone who is made kills someone else, or lots of people. For example a schoolteacher tries to molest one of his female students who castrates him with garden shears. The hero in the next chapter goes to a house, and knocks on the door. When he hears no direct reply, he looks through the letterbox, and sees a man walking towards the door with a recently severed head in his hand. There is relatively little plot now; just a series of deaths and survival stories in quick succession, but Herbert is very good at building up a character who is thus doomed to make us care about them just before they perish horribly. Entertaining, eye popping horror from a true master of the craft.
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