The Fog (2005 film)

The Fog
Directed by	Rupert Wainwright
Produced by	John Carpenter David Foster Debra Hill
Written by	Screenplay: Cooper Layne Based on the original film written by: John Carpenter & Debra Hill
Starring	Tom Welling Maggie Grace Selma Blair Rade Šerbedžija DeRay Davis Sonja Bennett Kenneth Welsh Adrian Hough
Music by	Graeme Revell
Cinematography	Nathan Hope Ian Seabrook (underwater)
Editing by	Dennis Virkler
Studio	Revolution Studios
Distributed by	Columbia Pictures (Sony Pictures Entertainment)
Release date(s)	October 14, 2005
Running time	100 minutes
Language	English
Budget	$18 million (estimated)
Box office	$46,201,432

The Fog is a 2005 horror film directed by Rupert Wainwright and starring Tom Welling, Selma Blair and Maggie Grace. It is a remake of John Carpenter's 1980 film of the same name, but this time made more in the vein of a "teen horror film" (it was rated PG-13 whereas the original film was rated R).

Both Carpenter and Debra Hill (who co-wrote the original film with Carpenter and produced it) were producers of this version.

Plot

In 1871, a group of men from Antonio Bay (off the coast of Oregon), conspire to mislead and murder the crew of the Elizabeth Dane, a clipper ship sailing from Alaska. The Dane is carrying a group of lepers seeking sanctuary, and is captained by William Blake. Blake is a wealthy man infected with leprosy who made an agreement with the islanders to buy half of Antonio Bay for use as a leper colony. However, when four of the islanders meet with Blake onboard the Dane to complete the deal, the islanders double-cross the lepers, loot the ship and then set it on fire, killing everyone onboard including Blake and his wife.

134 years later, in the present day, a young woman named Elizabeth Williams returns to her family home on Antonio Bay after a six month absence. Her arrival coincides with the unveiling ceremony of a new statue outside the island's town hall, dedicated to the four "founding fathers" of the community. A series of bizarre events then occur as several items (including an antique watch and an antique hairbrush) are washed up on the beach, a strange symbol depicting a set of scales begins to appear all over town, and several gruesome deaths take place. After almost drowning in a harbor boathouse, Elizabeth inadvertently finds an old diary buried in the wall of the boathouse. The diary belonged to Patrick Malone, the great-great-grandfather of Father Malone, the town's current priest. Patrick Malone was also one of the founding fathers of Antonio Bay, and one of the men who conspired to murder the crew of the Elizabeth Dane in 1871. The wealth that was stolen from the Dane then allowed the town to be built and the island to become the thriving community that it is today.

This series of events is accompanied by the arrival of a mysterious supernatural fog that rolls in from the sea and envelops the island. The fog brings with it the ghostly crew of the Elizabeth Dane, who have risen up from their watery grave to take revenge on the town for what its "founding fathers" did to them over a century earlier.

Cast

• Tom Welling as Nick Castle
• Maggie Grace as Elizabeth Williams
• Selma Blair as Stevie Wayne
• DeRay Davis as Spooner
• Kenneth Welsh as Tom Malone
• Adrian Hough as Father Malone
• Sonja Bennett as Mandi
• Sara Botsford as Kathy Williams
• Cole Heppell as Andy Wayne
• Rade Sherbedgia as Captain William Blake
• Matthew Currie Holmes as Sean Castle
• Meghan Heffern as Brandi/Jennifer

Production

The film was green lit by Revolution Studios before the script was completed. Tom Welling still had three weeks filming left on the fourth season of his TV series Smallville when he commenced work on The Fog. His co-star Selma Blair joked that they kept two cameras running during Welling's scenes, one for The Fog and one for Smallville.

Selma Blair did almost all of her own stunt work for the film, and spent 12 hours in a water tank (with only short surface breaks) for two straight days to shoot her underwater scenes.

Although set on an island off the coast of Oregon, location work for the film was shot further up the coast in Canada. It was partially shot in and around Cowichan Bay, British Columbia, and the majority of the beach scenes were filmed in Tofino, British Columbia. The scenes of the town of Antonio Bay were filmed in Fort Langley, British Columbia.

StudioCanal, which owns the rights to the original film, assisted in the film's production in exchange for French distribution rights.

The original film's makers, John Carpenter and Debra Hill, expressed an interest in remaking the original film on the film's DVD commentary. They are both credited as producers for the remake. It was one of Hill's final projects before her death from cancer in 2005.

Songs featured in the motion picture

• "Sugar, We're Goin Down" - Performed by Fall Out Boy
• "Salome's Wish" - Performed by The Booda Velvets
• "Vibrate" - Performed by Petey Pablo
• "Take Off Your Clothes" - Performed by Morningwood
• "Nighttime" - Performed by Petracovich
• "Feels Just Like It Should" - Performed by Jamiroquai
• "Invincible" - Performed by OK Go
• "What Died" - Performed by Nichole Alden

Reception

The film was not screened for critics before its release. Upon its release, it was very poorly received. To date, the film has a Rotten Tomatoes rating of 5% and is the 66th worst reviewed film on the website; the site's critical consensus states [that] "The Fog is a so-so remake of a so-so movie, lacking scares, suspense or originality." Metacritic reported the film had an average score of 27 out of 100, based on 16 reviews. The Fog was widely considered an unsuccessful remake of the original movie made in 1980, with the Hollywood Reporter stating that the movie "lack[ed] the scares necessary to satisfy its target audience", and Variety commented that "interest lags between the grisly deaths, and, worse, none of the characters generates rooting interest." The film was rated D- by Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly.

Box office

In the US, the film grossed a modest $11,752,917 on its opening weekend, but still managed to secure the #1 spot for that weekend due to a general decline in box office revenues at that time (had the film opened with the same amount a year earlier, it would have only made fifth place). It had a final domestic gross of $29,550,869, and a total worldwide gross of $46,201,432.

External links

• Official website
• The Fog at the Internet Movie Database
• The Fog at AllRovi
• The Fog at Box Office Mojo