The Fog
Directed by	Rupert Wainwright
Produced by	John Carpenter David Foster Debra Hill
Written by	Cooper Layne
Based on	Characters created 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 (2005-10-14)
Running time	100 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$18 million
Box office	$46,201,432[1]

The Fog is a 2005 horror film directed by Rupert Wainwright starring Tom Welling, Selma Blair and Maggie Grace. It is a remake of John Carpenter's 1980 film of the same name, revamped to be more 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, were producers of this version.

Plot [edit]

The movie starts in 1871 on the island, Antonio Bay, off the coast of Oregon. The island's residents are planning to meet with William Blake, the leader of a colony of lepers who purchased half of Antonio Bay for his people, at the rocky coastline of the island. However, four of the Bay residents, Patrick Malone, Norman Castle, Richard Wayne, and David Williams, double-cross the colony taking all their belongings, including their money, and set the leper clipper ship the Elizabeth Dane on fire and let it sinks, killing everyone aboard. On their way back to the island, Williams is dragged by one of their victims into the water until he apparently escapes.

In 2005, 134 years after the incident, the residents of Antonio Bay honor their founding fathers (the same men who had set the Elizabeth Dane ablaze) for their act of "defense" of the island, and the town's anniversary is a few days towards celebrating. Meanwhile Nick Castle, Spooner, and two other anglers are fishing off its coast. They disturb a bag full of valuables including a pocket watch and a hairbrush, which were once on the Elizabeth Dane.

After the discovery of these objects, Nick Castle runs into former girlfriend, Elizabeth Williams, who had moved away six month prior. She joins him in his truck, and they drive to get parts while listening to a radio show. On the way, something shatters all the windows of the truck. Then, Father Robert Malone arrives and appears drunk, shouts "conspiracy and murder!" but Nick and Elizabeth do not know what he's refers. While they in the store, a homeless man, Machen, discovers the pocket watch. He takes a lighter and shows Elizabeth a symbol on the back, one of the three, is a set of scales.

Meanwhile, at the lighthouse, radio show host Stevie Wayne gets a call from Dan saying he spotted a giant fog bank off the coast. Spooner, Nick's cousin Sean, and two young women are partying on Nick's boat. The fog envelops them, their ship's engine stops, and the gauges break. Spooner sees a clipper ship in the fog. The men investigating and the women stay inside, frightened. The fog creeps inside, and one of the women draws a set of scales on the window. Violence suddenly erupts on the boat by unknown attackers, the women die after being thrown through the windows and Sean is stabbed in the eye. Spooner's scream is heard as the fog engulfs the boat.

Not wanting to be with her estranged mother, Kathy, Elizabeth stays with Nick. Elizabeth has been having a dream about the events around the Elizabeth Dane, despite having no recollection of being in the ship before, which has urged her to return to seek answers. She searches the Internet, but her computer blacks out when she comes to the topic and the words "Dane" appear on the screen. She then hears a loud knocking at the front door. She walks outside and finds nothing, but as she walks down to the beach, she sees the fog. Nick goes after her and takes her back into the house.

The next day, Nick's uncle, Hank, calls him about the disappearance of his ship Seagrass. Nick and Elizabeth take a boat out to sea and find the abandoned ship. Nick finds Sean's dead body, and Elizabeth, the bodies of two young women in a net. The couple continues to explore the ship and discover a half a tank of gas and that the engine works. Elizabeth goes into the hold and finds Spooner in a freezer, still alive. Once they all arrive back at the island, the town mayor, John Malone, father of Father Malone, suspects Spooner of the murders and tells them, he needs to hear his alibi.

Elizabeth goes to the library and finds a book full of hallmarks: She finds a symbol, the scale that has been mysteriously appearing. She discovers that particular hallmark represented a trading colony north of Antonio Bay. She also finds a buried journal at the docks, which belonged to one of the founders, Patrick Malone. Through these objects, she learns with Nick the story of the Elizabeth Dane, and realizes the founders had the town built with the fortune they had stolen from the ship, but kept this secret from their families and other residents.

The ghosts of the Elizabeth Dane rise to seek revenge against the descendants of the founders. The ghosts go after Stevie's young son Andy and her sister Connie at her home and Stevie herself at the lighthouse, they kill Connie but Nick and Elizabeth get to Andy in time, and Stevie seemingly manages to escape. However, they discover that the ghosts are luring them to the town hall where they reveal the founders' murderous secrets. After the spirits kill Hank Castle, Kathy William, and the Malones, Elizabeth Dane's captain William Blake's ghost seeks Elizabeth. However, despite her relation to David William, Elizabeth discovers that she is also a reincarnation of the woman Blake had loved and was one of her ancestor's victims, thus explaining why she dreams about the Elizabeth Dane. Blake kisses Elizabeth, and although she dies, her spirit transforms into the previous incarnation of herself and disappears with Blake's spirit, much to Nick's horror.

The film ends with the survivors (Nick, Stevie, and Andy) continuing to deal with the traumas resulted by the Elizabeth Dane's attacks and the truth about their families' history.

Cast [edit]

• Tom Welling as Nicholas "Nick" Castle
• Maggie Grace as Elizabeth Williams
• Selma Blair as Stevie Wayne
• DeRay Davis as Spooner
• Kenneth Welsh as Mayor Tom Malone
• Adrian Hough as Father Robert Malone
• Sonja Bennett as Mandi
• Sara Botsford as Kathy Williams
• Cole Heppell as Andy Wayne
• Jonathon Young as Dan O'Bannon
• Rade Sherbedgia as Captain William Blake
• Korie Ferguson as Ms. Watkins

Production [edit]

The film was green-lit by Revolution Studios before the finishing of the script. 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. StudioCanal, which owns the rights to the original film, assisted in the film's production in exchange for French distribution rights.

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.

The original film's makers, John Carpenter and Debra Hill, expressed 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.

Reception [edit]

The Fog was widely considered an unsuccessful remake of the original 1980 movie,^[2] with the Hollywood Reporter stating that the movie "lack[ed] the scares necessary to satisfy its target audience",^[3] and Variety commenting that "interest lags between the grisly deaths, and, worse, none of the characters generates rooting interest."^[4] The film was rated D- by Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly.^[5] To date, the film has a Rotten Tomatoes rating of 5 percent 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."^[6] Metacritic reported the film had an average score of 27 out of 100, based on 16 reviews.^[7]

The film was not screened for critics before its release.

Box office [edit]

In the US, the film grossed a modest $11,752,917 on its opening weekend but still managed to secure the number one 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.^[8] It had a final domestic gross of $29,550,869, and a total worldwide gross of $46,201,432.^[9]

Music [edit]

1. "Prologue" – 2:31
2. "God's Country" – 0:38
3. "Anchor Lockup" – 1:51
4. "It Wants Us" – 2:20
5. "The Hallmark" – 1:27
6. "Shower Love" – 1:12
7. "Elizabeth..." – 2:52
8. "Boathouse" – 1:36
9. "Statues" – 2:00
10. "Lights Out" – 1:31
11. "Island History" – 1:43
12. "The Search" – 3:18
13. "Burned Image" – 0:46
14. "It's Here" – 3:39
15. "Crime Aboard" – 2:42
16. "Tragedy on the Elizabeth Dane" – 3:18
17. "The Reckoning" – 1:50
18. "The Fog Recedes" – 1:41
19. "Epilogue" – 1:17

Songs featured in the motion picture, but not in the commercial release

• "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

Awards [edit]

Fangoria Chainsaw Awards [edit]

References [edit]

External links [edit]

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