"To one who, journeying through night and fog,
Is mired neck-deep in an unwholesome bog,
Experience, like the rising of the dawn,
Reveals the path that he should not have gone."
Is mired neck-deep in an unwholesome bog,
Experience, like the rising of the dawn,
Reveals the path that he should not have gone."
— Joel Frad Bink
Fog can be part of the ominous mood or inseparably tied to a dangerous and ''creepy'' supernatural phenomenon. This is only about the ominous mood it creates.
Maybe it's the way you feel alone in the fog, even with your companion next to you. Maybe it's how the fog seems to swallow everything and makes noise and sight unfamiliar. Maybe it's the way it curls and sways around you as if it knows you are there. Maybe it's the fact that a monster could lurk a few meters from you and you wouldn't know it.
If the environment is empathic, it should be possible to read your situation from the weather. Anyone with even a whiff of genre-savviness knows that dense fog is about as bad a sign as a howling tornado on the horizon. Is sometimes accompanied by a blood-red sky.
May overlap with Mysterious Mist. For a fog that's actively trying to kill you, see Fog of Doom. In video games, dense and ominous fog is a common visual element in Big Boo's Haunt, where it adds to the creepy and haunted atmosphere, and The Lost Woods, where it can contribute to making the player feel lost and turned around in the maze of trees. Similarly, thick spooky fog is frequently part and parcel for a Creepy Cemetery.
Examples:
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- Lonely Water: The Spirit of Dark and Lonely Water is introduced floating over a hazy lake with mist shrouding him. Since it's there to collect drowned children, his presence is very ominous indeed.
Anime and Manga
- Den-noh Coil has fog appear when obsolete space is present. It's not visible without glasses though.
- Digimon:
- In the original Digimon Adventure, Myotismon creates an Ominous Fog that cuts Odaiba off from the rest of the world.
- Digimon Tamers has the pink "Digital Field", where many of the early fights take place.
- Gyo: The setting is shrouded in a reeking fog made up of the Death Stench by the time the protagonist wakes up after being nearly eaten alive by small fish.
- In JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders, the group arrives in a town covered by a massive fog with the residents acting without emotion or feeling, until they're shown to be zombies under the control of Enya's Justice, which conjures a Fog of Doom.
- Magical Pokaan has a vampire robot that creates its own fog.
- One Piece: The geography gives us the Florian Triangle, an area of ocean covered in Ominous Fog where the number of ships which have vanished is well in the hundreds if not higher. Within it is the Thriller Bark, the gargantuan ship Gecko Moria uses as his base. The trope is slightly inverted in that the fog is actually protecting the victims of Moria, who cannot be exposed to sunlight after he steals their shadows. It's played straight at the end of the arc, which implies
that there is indeed something within the fog beside the Thriller Bark that attacks ships.
- Science Ninja Team Gatchaman: In an early episode, clouds of ominous fog cover an oceanic area where ships are vanishing. At the beginning of the episode, a character tells he does not like that eerie fog and it is creeping him out, and another character scoffs that are silly superstitions and there is nothing to be frightened of... right before they disappear.
Comic Books
- X-Men: Storm is a weather manipulator who sometimes creates a localised Empathic Environment, either subconsciously or to make some sort of point. Fog does not usually bode well.
Fan Works
- In Come Little Children, a Storm Hawks fanfic, the Sky Siren brings a fog from the Great Expanse to a terra that was populous and melodious until she attacked. With the sun obscured, the Siren preys on the terra's population until all life is dead. Afterwards, the Great Expanse is slowly continuing to grow, enveloping more land across Atmos.
- Fairy Friends:
- Near the end of "Fright Fest," fog sways and swirls around the graves in Dimmsdale Cemetery as Jermaine and his friends approach the burial ground during their trick-or-treating on Halloween night.
- As the children walk past the cemetery, a horde of zombies rise up from their graves and advance towards the kids. A gaggle of ghastly, gruesome ghosts materialize in the cemetery. Several spooky, scary skeletons creep out from their graves. Finally, a lone vampire appears in a cloud of black and red smoke.
- Thankfully, the undead creatures don't actually attack Jermaine or his friends, with the zombies performing a minutes-long, 1980s-style dance routine that they invite Jermaine to join in on.
- Near the end of "Fright Fest," fog sways and swirls around the graves in Dimmsdale Cemetery as Jermaine and his friends approach the burial ground during their trick-or-treating on Halloween night.
- Galar Grapples: Fog sways and swirls around the graves in the Old Cemetery. In "The Mourners," the Ghost-type Gym Leader Allister and two actual human ghosts appear in the burial ground. In "The Grim Neigh," Jermaine battles and captures a wild Spectrier there.
- Hear The Silence: Kirigakure is constantly shrouded in deep mist. Ameyuri tells the Konoha shinobi present for the first Chuunin Exam not to wander into it, because they might catch something unfortunate or there might be someone waiting in there.
- Infinity Train: Blossoming Trail: Hop wakes up in a car that's a forest covered in fog. Turns out this Fog Car is Silent Hill but on the Infinity Train. Joy. The car is revisited in the prequel, Infinity Train: Knight of the Orange Lily and the events in the car are darker than what happens in Blossoming Trail.
- I Woke Up As a Dungeon, Now What?: Taylor's second-floor global effects include a fog which forms spooky images designed to unsettle adventurers.
- Kalos Quests:
- In "The Lure," fog sways and swirls around the graves in Dormez Bien Cemetery as Jermaine and Serena explore the burial ground looking for a Rogue Mega Chandelure and a Rogue Mega Froslass (both of whom actually appear).
- Later on, they feel like they're being watched as they return to the cemetery's entrance. This turns out to be true as the Ghost-type specialist Gwynn appears before them from out of the fog and challenges him to a battle after she senses that he loves ghosts and Ghost types as much as she does. He accepts. He wins their battle.
- After the battle, Gwynn disappears back into the fog without saying a word. He and Serena are creeped out by this, but he also thinks Gwynn's sudden disappearing act is cool.
- In "The Lure," fog sways and swirls around the graves in Dormez Bien Cemetery as Jermaine and Serena explore the burial ground looking for a Rogue Mega Chandelure and a Rogue Mega Froslass (both of whom actually appear).
- Kanto Kickups: In "The Restless Spirit," light purple fog appears out of nowhere and fills the area when Jermaine and Leaf reach the third floor of the Pokémon Tower in Lavender Town. While both Trainers think the fog is creepy, he also thinks it's cool, which causes her to glare at him. The fog remains as they explore the rest of the tower.
- The Morrigan: The story opens on Belmeria watching fog roll in over Greenhouse 54, heralding the Morrigan's attack, which is soon revealed to actually be steam created by Morrigan's cooling system.
- OSMU: Fanfiction Friction: Orla stays behind to guard The Book of Ashes while the others go to The Book Loft, a nearby bookstore. It produces a mist that materializes into a figure of her mother that looks, feels and acts like the real deal. Orla is fooled by this illusion and is quite literally stabbed in the back as a result.
- Paldea Plays: In "The MC of RIP," the Ghost-type Gym Leader Ryme invites Jermaine to a cemetery on the night of a full moon for a friendly rematch. Fog sways and swirls around the graves. A cold wind blows. Juliana tells him that she feels creeped out.
- Pure Light: The meeting between the Freedom Flyers and the main characters and Wanda takes place in a misty plain by a forest, fitting with the tense atmosphere as neither party can clearly see the other.
- Ravenloft: Outlander Chronicles: Wyatt finds himself driving home from work in this. It's the Mists, transporting him from Earth to Ravenloft.
- The Shrouded Path: Silent Hill is filled with a thick fog that makes it difficult for the heroes to see monsters creeping up on them and aids the town in separating them.
- Warriors of the World: Soldiers of Fortune: One follows Argath and his darkwing entourage around for a while, and several times the Raulus can't head off on their mission because the fog is too thick to navigate through. It serves to delay them as well as give cover for Argath's attacks.
- Welcome to Sonshine Farm!: A fog suddenly rolls in as the four road-trippers approach the farmhouse, Foreshadowing how things are going to go badly if they go there. The fog later returns when the four are being chased down and murdered.
Films — Animation
- Kitarō Birth: The Mystery of GeGeGe starts with a reporter looking for Kitaro in a fog, and after a scary warning, discovers that he's in Nagura.
- Tangled:
- A sudden fog appears (and disappears just as quickly) during Mother Gothel's Dark Reprise.
- It happens again later when the Stabbington Brothers attack Eugene and Gothel stages a rescue of Rapunzel to make her come back to the tower.
Films — Live-Action
- Cries and Whispers: The film opens with a shot of the grounds of the mansion enveloped in early-morning fog and mist. The dark and foreboding mood of the picture is firmly established.
- Dagon: Everything is fine until the fog and rain start rolling in.
- The Fall of the House of Usher (1928, France): The Usher mansion is continually fogbound, establishing the ominous, foreboding mood.
- The Fog: A mist that descends on a California beach town contains the spirits of a group of people suffering from leprosy who died in a shipwreck a hundred years ago thanks to sabotage by the townsfolk, who did not want them establishing a leper colony nearby. Now, they're back for revenge.
- Frankenstein 1970: Fog seems to be a constant presence around the castle. The film opens with Caroline being chased through the fog; Morgan says they are going to need to rethink some of the outdoor shots as he cannot film through the fog; and when Row and Rabb desperately race back to the castle, they are driving through fog.
- The Gospel According to St. Matthew: During Satan's temptation of Jesus, the tone is set when Jesus encounters Satan on a fog-bound hilltop.
- Great Expectations (1946): Spooky fog helps set a foreboding mood for Pip's first encounter with Magwitch the escaped convict in the graveyard, and his second encounter, when he brings the food and the file that Magwitch told him to get.
- Inherent Vice: The Kudzu Plot is starting to get pretty thick indeed by the point where private eye Doc Sportello meets Coy Harlingen, who was reported dead, in a fog-bound alley. Coy tells him of an even deeper criminal conspiracy involving heroin smuggling.
- Insomnia: The first chase leads the protagonist, the police, and the murderer into an unexpected fog field. The poor sight leads to an Accidental Murder (or implied Unfriendly Fire in the remake).
- Jurassic Park III: An entire sequence takes place in an area filled with this. Some of the fog around the upper level of the area clears well enough for Alan Grant to see that the area is a huge aviary...which can only mean that whatever is in there is 1) able to fly and 2) huge...and then one of said flyers snatches up the kid they were trying to save.
- King Kong: In all versions of the story, the approach to Skull Island is shrouded in fog.
- The Last Voyage of the Demeter. The crew of the Demeter batten down all the hatches except one, then set up an ambush for Dracula for when he emerges at night to feed. Dracula however uses his powers to create a fog that conceals him from the snipers waiting in the rigging (he can't be killed by bullets, but they do damage him).
- Lost Creek: In one Nightmare Sequence, fog is outside of Peter's house when he opens up the door.
- MonsterVerse:
- Godzilla (2014): San Francisco is wreathed in gray fog throughout the scene where Godzilla and the MUTOs arrive in the city, and it does quite a bit to create an unnerving and ominous atmosphere- especially because it allows the massive Kaiju to somewhat-convincingly hide and appear without warning. For example, the only warning of Hokmuto’s arrival is disabled fighter jets falling out of the cloud cover due to his EMP ability- right before the Giant Flyer himself dives out of the clouds as well.
- Kong: Skull Island: The Boneyard with the remains of Kong's parents is covered in yellow-colored smoke, and a Skullcrawler takes advantage of the smoke's cover to relentlessly stalk and hunt the human cast. At night, as Conrad and Weaver look for Marlow's boat from atop a high cliff, a thick fog rolls in and they see Kong approach them with Glowing Eyes.
- Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019): Ghidorah's Weather Manipulation which generates a gigantic, otherworldly tempest wherever he goes causes eerie, billowing clouds of fog, mostly notably during his Big Entrance at Boston.
- Pacific Rim: Trespasser makes landfall in San Francisco through thick white fog, which obscures the Kaiju's approach until it's too late for the civilians on the Golden Gate. The scene is rather similar to the one set in Manhattan in Godzilla (1998) and seems to have partially inspired the one in Godzilla (2014) above.
- Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl: One of the features of the Aztec curse seems to be a perpetual fog that follows the Black Pearl around.
- Planet of the Vampires: The titular planet is shrouded in this; even infrared lasers have trouble seeing through it. According to director Mario Bava this was as much to obscure the No Budget set than for horror reasons.
- Shredder Orpheus: The Furies are backlit with a heavy rolling fog that casts them and their weapons in silhouette as they prepare to kill Orpheus.
- Sleepy Hollow (1999): This is a common occurrence throughout the movie, and is quite atmospheric. One notable scene has the fog rolling in at night and putting out the torches before the titular horseman appears.
- Under the Bed: When the monster is about to appear, one thing that can happen is that the room fills up with fog.
Folklore
- The Yōkai Kuchisake-onna is said to roam especially during ominously foggy evenings, looking for helpless victims.
Literature
- Black Dawn: The Dark Kingdom is constantly filled with eerie, swirling fog and mist that blots out the sun, likely an effect of the spells that keep the place hidden from outsiders. The fog finally dissipates in the end, once the slaves are freed.
- The Bone Maker: One perpetually misty mountain valley is so infested with lethal monsters that the locals assume anybody who enters the mists is as good as dead. The heroes exploit this to cover their tracks, but have some very near misses there themselves.
- A Dearth of Choice: The Dungeon adds omnipresent fog to its underground chambers as a design choice, both to add spookiness to its undead theme and to provide cover for ambushes.
- Demon City Shinjuku: Fog appears when the Big Damn Heroes reach the center of Shinjuku.
- Discharge! (gelefant): Fog sways and swirls around the graves in the first cemetery Gina/Ghost Girl and Jermaine visit in "Haunted Heroine".
- Dracula is implied to have created a fog around the ship taking him to England, preventing the captain from seeking sanctuary at another port once his crew start dying. According to the Captain's Log he's unable to even tell if it's daylight.
- Earth's Scariest Monsters!:
- Fog sways and swirls around the graves in the already-Creepy Cemetery Isabelle and Jermaine walk through at the beginning of "The Undead King".
- In "Ghostly Goals," Jermaine and the Ghost Getters explore a nearby large forest that's rumored to be BOTH cursed AND haunted. The forest is blanketed by thick fog.
- Friday the 13th: Eric Morse's Tales From Camp Crystal Lakenote all feature a yellow fog which seems to make everyone feel more negatively, lubricating the lethal intentions of whoever finds the hockey mask as well as the Final Girl.
- Gone with the Wind. After suffering hunger and cold during the Reconstruction, Scarlett has a recurring dream of running through a mist. The dream comes true after Melanie's death when Scarlett runs home to her mansion in the hopes of reconciling with Rhett. Rhett winds up leaving her. Ominous, indeed.
- The Hour of the Dragon: Valerius curses the fog until he realizes it would hide his advance.
- Lord Peter Wimsey: In ch. XI of Clouds of Witness, Lord Peter and his man Bunter interview a not very helpful witness who lives in a hut on the moors and then “like two Cockney innocents, Lord Peter and Bunter set forth at a brisk pace down the narrow moor-track toward Grider’s Hole, with never a glance behind them for the great white menace rolling silently down through the November dusk from the wide loneliness of Whemmeling Fell.” They wander around sightless for some hours, completely unaware that not far away, invisible in the fog, is a large and often fatal bog of quicksand. Until...
- The Mist, obviously, being a massive cloud of fog filled with a variety of extradimensional horrors. Even when the monsters are not attacking, the ever-present fog strongly emphasizes the isolation of the survivors and the alien nature of the world outside.
- Mistborn: The Original Trilogy features metal-burning magic-users who have a certain affinity with the concealing mists that form from nowhere at nightfall, which commoners fear. When the all-powerful, immortal Lord Ruler is assassinated, the mists begin to emerge during the day, last for weeks, form ghosts, and kill people. Though that was to "snap" the skaa peasants and awaken their magic powers so they could fight in the final battle.
- Old Kingdom: Fog can be a cover for the Dead, for whom sunlight is dangerous.
- Rebuild World: The "colorless mist" is a phenomenon in which a strange, transparent fog descends over an area. It's extremely hard to perceive with the naked eye, only blurring the edges of objects in one's vision, but it's also extremely dangerous, as it scrambles radio, electromagnetic radar, sounds, and smells. Guns will suffer a unilateral drop in effectiveness, electronic locks will cease to work, and all forms of long-range communication will be filled with static. Naturally, this makes things exponentially more difficult for a hunter, even if it also reduces the effectiveness of the monsters' tracking systems.
- The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde: The fog is symbolic of the mystery of Hyde, and sets up the dark and ominous atmosphere of London, especially the immoral slum of Soho.
- Ominous fogs and mists are a part of the fantasy trilogy beginning with The Weirdstone of Brisingamen, continuing in The Moon of Gomrath and ending — more metaphorically and symbolically — in Boneland. The dark lich Grimnir rises out of Lindow Moss bog in a twilight mist; the battles are fought in fog and mist and snow; and the adult Colin wrestles with the symbolic fog that has settled over his early life and memories, blotting out good and bad together save for flash-frame glimpses.
- A Wizard of Earthsea: Duny (who later becomes Sparrowhawk) uses a fog control/illusion spell to confuse invaders and save his village.
Live-Action TV
- Mea Culpa's intro has the host being led through many hallways in a prison (to reach a particular prisoner whose story he wants to hear), all of them choked in roiling fog. Due to the intro's iconic status in Chile, people sometimes joke host Carlos Pinto is followed everywhere by this same fog, even off-camera.
- Stargate Atlantis: Justified in "Whispers", in which the monsters create the fog as a predatory mechanism.
- Star Trek: The Original Series: The fog in "Catspaw" is weird because, as Spock points out, there is no water anywhere in the region.
- Supernatural: In "Monster Movie", a shapeshifter is killing in the manner of 1950s movie monsters, so has a handy bucket of dry ice to provide this.
- Thunderbirds: In "Danger at Ocean Deep", unreported mist cloaks the Mediterranean when both Ocean Pioneer vessels traverse it with a cargo of liquid alsterene. It's implied to be the first signs of the chemical reaction caused by the alsterene and sea fungi OD-60, which progresses to interfering with radio transmissions, to intensifying the onboard nuclear reactor, and finally destroying the ship outright.
- Ultra Series: Some Kaiju can produce this stuff to conceal their presence.
- Return of Ultraman: Sadorah/Sadora/Sadola/Sadolar can create fog with a secretion from its body. A particularly useful ability as it's not a very strong kaiju and relies heavily on striking at foes from a distance with its extendable pincers.
- Ultraman Tiga: Magnia, as a Shout-Out to Stephen King. The alien parasites that compose its body are perpetually shrouded in fog as they move around allowing them to latch onto hosts by surprise and turn them into zombie-like beings.
- Ultraman Nexus: Banpira is a Giant Spider that fires fog from an organ located above its head. Combined with its incapacitating sonic screech, ability to spit a rope of webbing to snag human prey, and wipe memories of its existence with a flash from its eyes, and you've got some especially ominous fog with this guy around.
- Ultraman Orb gives this as the signature ability of the Ultraman 80 monster Hoe. In his appearance in the series, Hoe is able to produce fog to shroud its presence, bringing a sense of dreary despair to the characters who fear Orb will be defeated by the monster.
- The Untamed: Yi City is wreathed in fog and inhabited by Xue Yang.
- The Vampire Diaries: A sure sign that Damon is near. This hasn't shown up recently; it's unclear whether it's been dropped or if Damon just hasn't felt the need for a while.
- The X-Files. In "How the Ghosts Stole Christmas", Scully wryly notes the presence of ominous fog outside a creepy old house and (correctly) guesses that it must be haunted.
Professional Wrestling
- Draculetta was accompanied by it in Wrestlicious, although it was a CG effect rather than something physically there for the live audience.
- Juggalo Championship Wrestling: Cemetery fog follows in the wake of Evil Dead, the first Heavyweight Champion.
- Pro Wrestling NOAH: Many, most obviously company founder Mitsuharu Misawa. Samoa Joe's entrance wasn't just preceded by ominous fog to an even more ominous remix of his TNA theme, which is appropriate since he's basically a Misawa expy.
- The Undertaker: Besides the darkness and the awesome creepy music, the Undertaker in Deadman form also has a good deal of fog covering the entranceway as part of his terror-inducing entrance.
- WWE SmackDown: Upon his debut, Boogeyman was accompanied by fog that wasn't just ominous, but odorous.
Tabletop Games
- Deadlands:
- This ability is available to the Harrowed, particularly those who were ominous in life, or closely tied to nature. It has little, if any, effect on game mechanics. But boy, is it creepy!
- One of the setting's monsters is a "Mourning Mist", essentially a mobile, self-aware fog-cloud... that causes people enveloped in it to commit suicide.
- Dungeons & Dragons:
- Eberron: The Mournland is an (ex-)country made of mist and spooky sounds.
- Heroes of Horror: Lampshaded in the at the end of a list of ways to turn up the paranoia factor.
- Rocket Age: Going down into the fog of Venus is an excellent way to die from the pressure, or get eaten by something unseen and slimy. Ganymede also has an area covered by the Black Fog, which is actually volcanic gas.
- The Strange: R639 resembles a Seattle in December without power and one where everyone has vanished. Cloud cover is constant, grey and oppressive, and a seeping damp chill pervades everything.
Theatre
- The 39 Steps: Generously Lampshaded. The Heavies are hunting protagonist Richard Hannay and his unwilling sidekick, Pamela, across a Scottish moor. One of them comments on the thick fog — which isn't present, but the line is the cue for fog machines backstage to activate.
- Benjamin Britten's operas Billy Budd and Peter Grimes have scenes with ominous fog.
- Hamlet: The old king's ghost first appears on a foggy night, rolling in from the nearby Baltic Sea.
- Macbeth: The witches chant "Fair is foul, and foul is fair. Hover through the fog and filthy air." (Also, the witches live on a moor, and Scottish moors are prone to fog.)
"Look how suddenly it's come down... out of nowhere."
Theme Parks
- The Psycho Path Maze: The last room of Psycho: Through the Mind of Norman Bates, a haunted house from Universal Studios' Halloween Horror Nights 1999, took place in an oversized bathroom with steam giving off this effect.
Toys
- BIONICLE: The swamps of Karda Nui are shrouded in fog, which is so thick that it can't be seen through even with X-Ray Vision. During the Visorak invasion, a thick green mist blocking out the sunlight is also mentioned.
Video Games
- Abiotic Factor: The Flathill universe, an expy of Silent Hill, is perpetually covered in a thick fog that obscures the Composers — towering, skeletal creatures that relentlessly hunt you once they've seen you. Even after escaping that universe and returning to the lab, the fog begins to leach over periodically, covering the entire base in an even thicker fog for a day. Instead of hiding towering monsters, the fog is now home to smaller, but no less unnerving, Symphonists, who are completely blind but have excellent hearing.
- Alan Wake: You spend most of the game running through (natural) fog-shrouded forests. Every so often, the wind will pick up and the fog turns pitch black. From a story perspective, it indicates the Dark Presence is nearby, while from a gameplay perspective it indicates that you're about to be swamped by the Taken. Both are effective at escalating the tension.
- Alice: Madness Returns: There is an ominous fog in the Hyde Park sequence. To get out the player must follow the lamps. Besides their light, there is nothing but the fog and the darkness.
- ANNO: Mutationem: Freeway 42 is shown to always be covered in fog long after it became a Ghost Town with residents barely around, and the remnants remaining had evolved into savage mutants.
- Bug Fables: The Forsaken Lands are set in perpetual dense fog produced by the factories of the Termite Capitol, and as a result, it's very hard to navigate through them (which serves as in-universe justification for why this level serves as The Maze). The Giants' Lair also has a dark purple fog in the lower levels inhabited by the Dead Landers, though the exact source and nature of this fog is never made clear.
- Coffee Crisis: One stage inexplicably have a fog hitting the city streets, obscuring much of your view as you try fending off alien enemies.
- The Dead Mines: The toxic gas in the abandoned mine is normally nonlethal since the character is wearing a protective helmet. When the gas gets thicker as the player starts sealing off pipes, it turns into Fog of Doom.
- Deadly Premonition: The Red World is filled with dark purple fog which seemingly animates Shadows and makes them hunt whoever is alive within the area. It is actually a hallucinogenic gas that has been unleashed upon Greenvale in the 1950s as part of a military scientific experiment and has long seeped into the soil, only re-emerging during rainfall.
- Demon's Souls: An ominous fog is what caused Boletaria to be overrun with monsters. In-game, harder sections of the dungeons are marked by walls of fog. If you see one in a large passageway, a Boss Battle awaits you on the other side. The fog sectioning off the game world also applies to its Spiritual Successor Dark Souls.
- Diacrisis: It's pretty foggy outside the prison due to a snowstorm. As a result, it can sometimes make it hard to see anything out there.
- Echo Night: Beyond features fog that makes the ghosts you're trying to help very hostile, forcing you to try and find ways to avoid or clear it out.
- Evil Awaits: The exterior of Castle Archvale is constantly shrouded in mist, and you'll frequently be ambushed by zombies and assorted monsters hiding inside.
- Fallout 4: Far Harbor has "the Fog", a heavily radioactive fog that rolls over Mount Desert Island. The Fog is dangerous on two accounts: the monsters in it and itself. The Fog is often very thick and therefore shrouds the monsters that live in it such anglers (mutant anglerfish), gulpers (very big and very hungry mutant salamanders), fog crawlers (gigantic amphibious shrimp), and hermit crabs (who are so big that they use tankers for shells). The Fog itself has a detrimental effect on the mind, driving them insane and turning normal people into the cannibalistic Trappers if they live that long, as well as being chock full of radiation from the Atlantic ocean (which made the monsters in the first place). The Fog is a natural occurrence though as of late is has been growing larger and thicker, blanketing the entire island in it. The People of Far Harbor (post-War Bar Harbor, Maine) believe that the Children of Atom (a cult that worships the atom as a god) has made it worse while the Children see it as a blessing for their faith. Regardless, people are forced to live in rings of fog condensers to save themselves.
- Fire Emblem: The mountain-based stages are sometimes covered in fog that drastically reduces your party's chance to proceed freely *and* hides enemies from you. You either bring a Thief into the party, get some Torches, or use the Torch staff to solve the problem.
- Into the Radius has a thick fog surround Pechorsk Radius. Only safe way to travel between rare clear areas is to follow ropelines setup by explorers.
- Kentucky Route Zero: Large outdoor portions are set in foggy, poorly-lit areas, both adding to the subtly uncanny atmosphere and shrouding some parts of the scene until the player character gets up close.
- Kirby Super Star: In Ultra, the True Arena's rest area gets covered in fog upon reaching the Final Four.
- The Legend of Zelda:
- The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass: Fog rolls in on the ghost ship to emphasize its eeriness.
- The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom: The Lost Woods around Korok Forest are perpetually surrounded by a thick white fog to signify the mystical nature of the place. If Link veers off the intended route, it covers the screen and he is warped back to where he started. This is not Fog of Doom as this effect does not harm Link, and it's more of a defense mechanism to keep outsiders away from Korok Forest than it is actively malevolent. In Tears of the Kingdom, one of Ganondorf's plagues turns the fog black, which completely bars entry from any direction except from deep below.
- Leisure Suit Larry 2: Looking for Love (in Several Wrong Places): The dense fog on Nontoonyt Island that appears and dissipates rather rapidly is a smokescreen for Dr. Nonookee's evil schemes.
- Loch Ness: Sometimes, a fog will roll in over the loch, making it harder for you to see anything, least of all a Loch Ness Monster who will attack anyone who intrudes upon her territory.
- Metroid Dread: The damaged E.M.M.I.-01P emerges from a foggy hallway to attack Samus.
- Minecraft: The render distance fog serves to cover the landscape away from the player, particularly in the less stable early versions. While this was a by-product of lower-end PCs requiring the game to set the fog range closer to the player for stable frame-rate, the limited vision makes it hard to discern whether there are monsters waiting outside the players vision until they attack.
- Monster Hunter (PC) has the "Fog" levels, where the game decide to throw indoor fog into the stage. Since it's a maze game where everything's in overhead view, you'll be often obscured by the fog while trying to find the correct weapons to use against the various monsters.
- Monster Hunter (2004): The Swamp (renamed Old Swamp in Freedom Unite) has thick purplish fog on areas 1, 2, 4 and 9 that can block your view of enemy monsters and the area in general.
- Mystic Defender: The second stage, set in an abandoned, haunted temple, is constantly covered by fog.
- No Umbrellas Allowed: Fog rolls into Ajik City during the final week, and people comment on how unnatural it is. The overworld theme also changes to a more sinister one to indicate that the fog's getting worse in the following days, and a few of your customers start forgetting why they visited your shop. By the end of the week, it's revealed that the fog was laced with Fixer, which ended up Fixing the population up to 60% the whole time, hence the amnesia of some of your customers.
- Observo: After the power goes out, a fog starts shrouding the area outside the hotel.
- Outer Wilds: The entire planet of Dark Bramble is composed of twisting, confusingly connected tubes filled with white fog that obscure nearly everything, including thorns that can damage your ship and the game's only living enemies. The player must navigate entirely by sounds and by moving towards glowing lights which can either be useful destinations or more enemies, while hoping to avoid a fatal crash or getting eaten.
- PAGUI: Both installments have fog obscuring every outdoor area, just as the streets are alive with vengeful ghosts and spirits. Especially in the graveyard level when you're attacked by the Hanging Ghost who keeps floating in and out the mist.
- The Path features ominous fog when you approach the lake in the woods.
- Persona 4: Murders occur when the fog is heaviest. In the latter parts of the game, it never goes away. The game is centered around finding the truth in the fog, which means finding the true culprit and bringing them to justice (although if you look deep into the game's philosophy and symbolism, it's a lot more than that). Also, the fog is used as a symbol of what humanity desires (in the eyes of Izanami) — hope, despair, and emptiness.
- Phlegethon: Each and every outdoor level is clouded in thick fog, and fittingly enough the game is set in hell. There are zombies and assorted monsters waiting in the fog to chew you up for good measure.
- Pokémon:
- Hey You, Pikachu! had the foggy Olivine Lake that you traversed to rescue lost Poliwag from a Haunter, which was sometimes difficult to see because of the fog.
- Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire: Dense fog covers most of the haunted cemetery Mt. Pyre.
- Pokémon Diamond and Pearl introduced fog as an in-battle weather effect, which lowers Pokémon's accuracy. The HM Defog cam get rid of it, but, with a bit of trial and error, it's possible to find your way through without the move.
- Pokémon GO features "weather boosts", where real-world weather conditions increase the spawn rate and stats of a given set of types. Fog boosts Dark- and Ghost-types, in keeping with this trope.
- Prince of Persia: Warrior Within: There's a foggy area filled with many enemies the player must pass through before reaching the final boss.
- The Secret World: Heavily used throughout beginning zones, where the coming and going of an unnatural fog is a major element in the plot. A number of more dangerous things in the storyline are accompanied by thickening of the fog as well.
- Silence of the Sleep: The mental facility is located high up and is constantly surrounded by rain and fog, making it impossible to leave safely.
- Silent Hill, with fog originally added to hide the graphical limitations of the Playstation, is one of the more obvious examples, and eventually grew to become one of the central parts of the atmosphere; in fact, Silent Hill 2 for PC would never run on a GeForce 4 MX card because the fog was so goddamn detailed. It makes the gameplay terrifying, shows that the setting is terrifying, and is also caused by the town's terrifying nature. The review in UK's Official PlayStation Magazine actually praised the original Silent Hill for being a rare example of a good use of fog.
- The Skeleton: Dense Fog Mode covers the map in fog, which the trailer states makes it harder to see the skeleton.
- Skolios, which takes heavy inspiration from Silent Hill, has a fog surrounding the train station the game takes place in; if Cora tries to leave, she's looped right back to it. The nighttime has the fog disappear, but trying to leave the station then gets Cora killed by the darkness.
- Slide in the Woods: After your second trip down the slide, you see that the forest is shrouded in fog, whereas it was a bright sunny day just before you got into it. This is meant to show that the slide is not what it seems.
- Spider-Man (2000): Dr. Otto Octavius's Evil Plan involves having fog being pumped into the city to make the New York citizens less resistant to symbiotes.
- Sunless Skies: Captains who have angered the god called the Burrower Below may be afflicted with "the Burrower's Breath", a blinding, copper-tinged fog that leads their vessel astray. Given that it signifies the wrath of a continent-sized, spacetime-eating dragon-goddess, many sailors are prepared to commit Human Sacrifice to appease her.
- Super Mario Bros.:
- Super Mario RPG: On the map screen in the remake, the Mushroom Kingdom and Rose Town become enveloped in a dark fog when they are attacked by the Smithy Gang.
- New Super Mario Bros. Wii: There's an ominous dark purple advancing wall of fog moving throughout level 8-1, which One-Hit Kill any player characters (and maybe enemies) on impact. The best advice is to run.
- Mario Party 6: The minigame Something's Amist pits two dueling characters in a foggy area surrounded by trees with glowing eyes in the midst of a forest during late night. The objective is to gather gemstones placed in the floor, which cannot be seen due to the fog's extreme density. Whoever manages to scoop three gemstones first wins; but if neither manages to do so after five minutes, the minigame ends in a tie.
- Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games: The story mode of the 3DS version involves Bowser and Eggman utilizing fog machines to cover the town in Phantasmal Fog, which can create evil duplicates of characters, create illusions and even choke people.
- Terraria: The Graveyard mini-biome, created when sufficient gravestones are placed close together, is shrouded in constant fog and low-lying clouds to emphasize its creepy and literally haunted atmosphere.
- Touhou Koumakyou ~ the Embodiment of Scarlet Devil: The story involves red fog clouding the sun, though it doesn't show up on your screen.
- Trails Series:
- In Chapter 4 of The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky SC, Estelle and the others arrive in Rolent to see the town covered in a mysterious fog causing people to act strangely.
- In Chapter 2 of The Legend of Heroes: Trails through Daybreak, an ominous fog suddenly covers the town before masked men suddenly emerge.
- Undertale: An icy mist fades in and obscures the screen in the area where you fight Papyrus.
- Valheim:
- Dungeons and ruins haunted by skeletons are often surrounded by blue fog.
- The ghost invasion event covers the area in thick mist that both hinders vision and makes you cold.
- Mistlands is one of the end-game biomes, and many parts of it are covered in thick mist. When approaching a Mistlands zone from another biome, player may sometimes face a wall of impenetrable fog.
- Wick takes place in a forest steeped in fog.
- Xenoblade Chronicles 3: Black fog interferes with communications equipment, but also heralds the Annihilation Events, when large portions of the landscape simply disappear. Worse, there is no indication of when the Annihilation Event will occur; it could happen hours, days, or even years after the black fog appears.
Visual Novels
- The Many Deaths of Lily Kosen: A mysterious fog bank appears before school one day, and can lead into one of the highest kill counts in the game — Victoria, Hannah, and the protagonist can all potentially die in the ensuing scene. The fog's sudden appearance and disappearance is never explained.
Webcomics
- Derelict, engulfing her boat.
- Magience: The area around Sir Erran's is permanently foggy.
- Thistil Mistil Kistil: a misty fjord.
Web Originals
- The Slender Man Mythos: A common element; it's very common for a foggy picture of trees to have just one tree, just one that looks a bit off. Then you see a man-shaped object among the branches.
- There is no GATE; we did not fight there: During a supposedly safe patrol into the Thousand Needles, Kytheus and his friends grow uncomfortable when an ominous mist surrounds them, leading him to request more scouts to move ahead at the bemusement of the leading centurion. As it turns out, Kytheus was right to be suspicious as their legion cohort is ambushed by hundreds of Drex soldiers.
- Vampires SMP: Oakhurst and its surrounding regions has a very foggy climate, with Shelby commenting how easily one can get lost around there. After Pearl climbs a nearby mountain, she also notes she can't see very far into the horizon even at such a vantage point. Even under the moonlight, it doesn't get much clearer than that. Fitting for a vampire haunt of a Ghost Town.
- The Weather: The theme of "Spooky Fog": a series of spooky scenes, each one accompanied by a layer of thick, creepy fog.
Western Animation
- Avatar: The Last Airbender: Katara can create fog for cover at a moment's notice. Fog rolling inland is ominous to those who don't know a waterbender's about. Also parodied in a dream Aang had: he makes a dramatic entrance by kicking in the door, snapping his fingers, and fog rolling in.
- The Liberator: A platoon of American soldiers is fighting the Germans in World War II Sicily. The opening scene has Sparks and the men advancing nervously through a fog-bound plain. Sure enough, the Germans pounce on them from behind the fog.
- Regular Show: In "Terror Tales of the Park IV", Pops' story has the group is too scared to leave the park because they don't know what is beyond the fog that surrounds it.
- Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!: Invoked in "Go Away, Ghost Ship". The mysterious fog that accompanies the "ghostly" Redbeard's pirate ship is produced by dumping blocks of dry ice into the water.
- The Simpsons:
- The fog that turns people inside out at the end of "Treehouse of Horror V".
- Parodied in the "Treehouse of Horror IX" short featuring werewolf Flanders. "Guess I forgot to put the fog lights in!"
- Star Wars: The Clone Wars: In "Lair of Grievous", the imposing entrance to the titular creepy hideout is hidden by a thick fog before Knight Nahdar Vebb pushes it aside with the force. It's a hint that the mission is not going to go as smoothly as expected, and it does indeed turn into a horrifying experience with only a single survivor.
