The Fog
John Carpenter's well-remembered thriller gets an update in this remake from director Rupert Wainwright. Nick Castle (Tom Welling) is a charter-boat captain in the small coastal town of Antonio Bay. Castle's ancestors helped to found Antonio Bay, but while the city's mayor (Kenneth Welsh) and the head of the local historical society (Sara Botsford) are spearheading an effort to raise money for a statue that would honor the city fathers, Castle is more interested in seeing the town's rickety docks and aging sea wall replaced. However, Castle has been too distracted with personal matters to wage a campaign of his own -- he's been having an affair with Stevie Wayne (Selma Blair), a single mom who runs a combination radio station and lighthouse, while his former flame Elizabeth Williams (Maggie Grace) has returned to town to mend fences with her mother and finds herself renewing her romance with Castle. One night, Castle and his first mate, Brett Spooner (DeRay Davis), discover an antique ship's bag filled with treasure, not knowing the salvage came from a ship that sank over a hundred years before. As it happens, there's a terrible secret behind the ship's disastrous fate, and now that Castle and Davis have unwittingly awakened the watery grave, the souls of the ship's crew and passengers have come back to claim their revenge in the form of a thick and impenetrable fog. The remake of The Fog proved to be one of the last projects for producer Debra Hill, who also worked on the original film; Hill was fighting cancer when work began on the film, and she died shortly before filming commenced. more..
Director: Rupert Wainwright
Starring: Tom Welling, Maggie Grace, Selma Blair, DeRay Davis, Kenneth Welsh
This new Fog floats in on the fumes of the 1980 John Carpenter original, but the surprise is that it's arguably better.
It's virtually indiscernible from any other contemporary horror film except for, well, the fog.
Director Rupert Wainwright fails to bring any style to the material, not producing a fraction of the suspense or wit generated by Carpenter in the original even while working with a far lesser budget.
If the characters were more interesting, the long, long buildup to their night of ghostly reckoning might be suspenseful rather than tedious.
I was held in suspense throughout The Fog, aching to learn the answer to its central riddle: Why would any one remake such a crummy movie?
Worst Film
Fangoria Chainsaw Awards (2006)
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