The Fog (2005)

Director:

Rupert Wainwright

Writers (WGA):

Cooper Layne (screenplay)
John Carpenter (1980 screenplay) ...

Release Date:

14 October 2005 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Mystery | Thriller | Horror

Tagline:

From The Makers Of "Halloween"

Plot:

A quiet seaside town is engulfed by a thick fog precisely one century after a boat sunk just off the coast under mysterious circumstances.

Plot Keywords:

Island | Fog | Ghost | Revenge | Leper

Cast

Tom Welling	...	Nick Castle
Maggie Grace	...	Elizabeth Williams
Selma Blair	...	Stevie Wayne
DeRay Davis	...	Spooner
Kenneth Welsh	...	Tom Malone
Adrian Hough	...	Father Malone
Sara Botsford	...	Kathy Williams
Cole Heppell	...	Andy Wayne
Mary Black	...	Aunt Connie
Jonathon Young	...	Dan The Weatherman
R. Nelson Brown	...	Machen (as Rnelsonbrown)
Christian Bocher	...	Founding Father Patrick Malone
Douglas Arthurs	...	Founding Father David Williams (as Douglas H. Arthurs)
Yves Cameron	...	Founding Father Richard Wayne
Charles Andre	...	Founding Father Norman Castle (as Charles André)

Also Known As:

Le brouillard (Canada: French title)

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for violence, disturbing images and brief sexuality.

Runtime:

100 min | Philippines:99 min | USA:103 min (unrated version)

Country:

Canada | USA | France

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS

Certification:

USA:PG-13 | Australia:M | UK:15 | Ireland:15A | Philippines:PG-13 | Germany:16 | Czech Republic:12 | Sweden:15 | Singapore:PG | Argentina:13 | USA:Unrated (unrated DVD version) | Malaysia:18SG (uncut version) | Malaysia:U (cut version) | Finland:K-15 | Hungary:16 | Portugal:M/16 | Iceland:16 | South Korea:15 | France:U (with warning) | USA:TV-14 (tv rating) | Canada:14A (Ontario) (Canadian Home Video rating) | USA:PG-13 (NO. 41468) | Netherlands:16

Filming Locations:

Bowen Island, British Columbia, Canada

Company:

Revolution Studios

Trivia:

The film was green lit by Revolution Studios before the script was written.

Goofs:

Continuity: While partying on the boat, Spooner walks past the girls on the left side, but is on the right side in the next shot.

Quotes:

Elizabeth Williams: Let's go back home.
Nick Castle: And have some crazy sex?

Movie Connections:

Featured in "The Rotten Tomatoes Show: Fast & Furious/Adventureland/Sugar (#1.6)" (2009)

Soundtrack:

Sugar, We're Goin' Down

The first tomato can be thrown at the screen two minutes after the opening credits

I wasn't angry about The Fog remake until I heard that it was going to be released by Revolution Studios, a company known to house crap movies. From then on, my hopes weren't that high, and they sank even lower when I saw the trailer. It looked to much like Boogeyman or Darkenss Falls rather than an atmospheric, imaginative, horror production like the original.

The original Fog deserves to be a cult classic and is a great film, but I thought it could have used a couple of improvements. It was not John Carpenter's best effort, but it still was an 8 out of 10 movie. This remake had potential because it could have corrected some of the plot holes from the original. Not surprisingly, the modernized Fog created new loopholes in the story and in addition had a terrible script.

The characters here were clichéd. The naive young girl who sees "horrible things" happening and who is befriended by her "hot ex-boyfriend". There is even a token black guy who serves as the "comic relief" for the film. Why can't they have black heroes in horror movies? Every character is seen in some state of undress, including Stevie Wayne, a mother of a young teenage boy named Andy, who struts around in panties in front of her son (I thought that was funny). I'm surprised Andy's old nanny wasn't shown strutting around in her undies while cleaning the dishes.

The leper colony ghosts were not scary. They were all see through, and instead of a giant fishing hook, Father Blake carried a cane (WTF??), not for support while walking, but for a scene near the end of the film where flying glass shards contribute to the death of a character. Also, the fog in this film is all CGI, and is not nearly as menacing as the one in the original was.Father Malone's character in the original was a major contributor to the story, because he represented the sins of the founding fathers. In this one, he's just a stupid old drunk who has a minimal impact on the story and plays more like the typical "old lady who can see the future" kind of character. Also, why aim for a PG-13? It's obvious the filmmakers wanted to put some gore in this, and they did, because there were many deaths that involved people being maimed and/or set on fire, not necessarily in that order. Only a few more drops of blood and it would be R.

There are two good things though. There is one pretty shocking death scene that was cool and there were some cool cinematography shots. The eerie image of the sailors on their ship in the fog gave me the chills. There was also a really creepy ghost who was only shown in shadows (you never saw his face) and who wore a top hat. It would have been interesting if they showed that ghost more, but alas, they shied away from it.

And don't get me started on the ending. It's supposed to be a shocker, but it's extremely predictable. It also makes everything that preceded it make little sense. What was the point of that? Stevie Wayne's cheesy closing monologue was even cheesier than the concluding monologue in House of the Dead.

Overall, this dreadful remake ran shy of where it could have won the race.