Yet another anaemic horror retread starring a cast of good-looking TV totty.
The Fog (2005)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:64
Fresh:3
Rotten:61
Average Rating:2.7/10
Consensus: The Fog is a so-so remake of a so-so movie, lacking scares, suspense or originality.
Runtime: 1 hr 40 mins
Genre: Horror/Suspense
Synopsis: An island off the Oregon coast is the setting for this salty yarn of ghosts, lepers, betrayal, vengeance, and teen angst. A fog-enshrouded schooner from 1865 returns from the bottom of the sea to... An island off the Oregon coast is the setting for this salty yarn of ghosts, lepers, betrayal, vengeance, and teen angst. A fog-enshrouded schooner from 1865 returns from the bottom of the sea to wreak vengeance on the locals of the island, and it's up to local DJ Stevie Wayne (Selma Blair), her charter-boat-captain lover, Nick (Tom Welling, from TV's SMALLVILLE), and his wayward girlfriend, Elizabeth (Maggie Grace, from TV's LOST), to save the day. All three are related to the town's founding fathers, with whom the shipbound ghosts have an ancient score to settle. What that score is no one seems to know, but they need to find out, fast. DeRay Davis (BARBERSHOP) provides comic relief as Nick's lusty first mate, but the real scene stealer here is the fog itself, which is much more animated than in the 1980 John Carpenter original. Thanks to some nice CGI work, it slithers in, around, and under everything. Though gussied up with an angst-rock soundtrack and beautiful young TV actors, THE FOG is, at heart, a good old fashioned ghost story, replete with period costumes and inter-dimensional romance. Director Rupert Wainwright (STIGMATA) is good at capturing little details like the eerie tinkling of deep-sea fishing hooks hung out to dry, the textures of moisture-beaded shower stall doors, and the perfectly toned skin of lead actress Grace as she wanders around in her negligee. John Carpenter and his partner, Debra Hill--co-creators of the first FOG--served as producers. [More]
Starring: Tom Welling, Maggie Grace, Selma Blair, Kenneth Walsh
Starring: Tom Welling, Maggie Grace, Selma Blair, Kenneth Walsh
Director: Rupert Wainwright
Director: Rupert Wainwright
Screenwriter: John Carpenter, Cooper Layne
Producer: John Carpenter, David Foster, Debra Hill
Composer: Graeme Revell
Studio: Columbia Pictures
Reviews for The Fog
If you are a fan of the original film, this remake might interest you. It's not badly made. But why was it made at all?
The actors do their best, under the circumstances. Welling makes an engaging lead and Grace employs her trademarked wounded, fragile look (that serves her so well in Lost) to good effect and wanders around in her underwear a lot.
Never will you wish more fervently for an Adrienne Barbeau cameo, just for old time's sake. Your prayers will be in vain.
So concerned is the film with contriving at least one gratuitous jump-fright every five minutes that elements like character and story soon become lost in the fog.
The production values are above par, but as in Carpenter's original, seeing ghosts is less scary than imagining them.
With dialogue as dorky as the words new screenwriter Cooper Lane stuffed in their mouths, none of the hapless cast members could have sounded convincing.
A mediocre remake of a 1980s horror movie of the same name which wasn't that good to begin with.
A dull, stupid, boring picture, inferior in every way to the John Carpenter film it remakes, but it's bad for the same reason a lot of effects-driven movies are bad.
Pale WB-style hunks and hotties and a 'funny' black guy whose sole purpose is to say words like 'dawg' confront a CGI mist that looks like it could be erased with a couple of mouse clicks.
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