Today, as our Florida weather shifts from one extreme to the other during the winter months, we will be discussing fog, namely its overall effect in books, movies, life. It’s considered creepy, it’s considered cool, and it generally gives off a supernatural or horror vibe whenever we come across it regardless if we already know its because the temperature lowers to the dew point and winds remain low, it still evokes a sense of weirdness.
Throughout our lives, weather-related issues tend to be showcased on a never-ending loop reel in movies and books and has become something we are more than accustomed to as the main cause for trouble, issues, death or just the storyline having a jumping point to move it along. It has its merit and can be seen as creating a mood or directing a scene. Fog is no exception and can be seen as doing it all.
At night time, fog is seen as containing the villain, being the driving force of confusion, or simply setting the mood or feel for the movie. In books, it does the exact same thing only in those instances we are offered up a chance to be a part of it, to touch it, have it close in on us, to impede the characters we’re following. It contains the fear factor, an encroaching blanket of impenetrable whiteness that leaves a misting and cool dusting across bare arms and legs.
In this image by Martin Kucera (2005), typical Florida fog can be thick and hinder even when it is already daylight. It’s not the weather phenomenon that scares us, it is our knowledge of fog, what we’ve grown to know about it and how it has been used in books and movies that scare us the most. Its never the fog solely as we were always taught through life, it’s what is within the white dewy blanket that we should be afraid of.
A disappearing path, a road that seems to be erased before you. Escaping the evil or driving right into it, no one can escape the feeling that fog brings to the table in books and movies and should always be something to consider as the environment in our written works is very important, especially what could be lurking deep within the white.
You may have snow, but the creep factor of Florida fog will always be the stuff of nightmares for many of us down south and for many a reader of horror and the supernatural.
Have a comment, like, love, or suggestion? Drop me a line and say “hi” or randomly wave in the fog, I may not see it, but something will. 😉 Happy Holidays to all, and Happy Hauntings!- KJF
Photo Credit-Martin Kucera (2005) http://www.floridalightning.com/cold_front_nov30.html
The Bearded Scribbler 