“The Fog” (Sony Pictures)
Back in the 70’s John Carpenter was known as the king of horror. He had made his mark with the Jamie Lee Curtis scream fest known as “Halloween.” He followed this huge success up with a lesser effort titled “The Fog.” Now some twenty-five years later this minor effort from Carpenter has been re-made. What was barely a blip on the horror scene in the 70’s is a complete waste of time in its new version.
The makers of “The Fog” don’t have the foggiest notion of how to make a good, solid scare movie. They take the basic story and mangle it while wasting the talents of such “hot” stars as Tom “Smallville” Welling and Maggie “Lost” Grace.
Welling and Grace play young lovers Nick and Elizabeth who live in an island community off the coast of Oregon. One day a dense fog creeps on to the coast near the town and strange things begin to happen. It seems that once upon a time centuries ago, the town fathers had robbed a ship full of people of their money. They then locked the people up and set the ship on fire. The ghosts of these spirits are somehow caught up in “the fog.”
Or maybe the whole town is high on drugs and the townsfolk are hallucinating the entire thing. That would be more plausible, and probably more fun. Then you could have Selma Blair’s character of Stevie being a lot more bizarre as she spins music from the local lighthouse on her own private radio station.
The special effects of the fog creeping in are okay but the haunted souls are like rejects from the “Pirates of the Caribbean.” They look like they are wearing old Halloween masks.
Welling is hunky which is all his role requires, and Grace is soulful and beautiful which is all that is required of her. Blair shows some spunk as the DJ Stevie,, but the rest of the class is sub-talented.
The movie is rated PG-13 which seems to be the trend for horror movies these days. There is violence and profanity but nothing too extreme.
“The Fog” will leave you in a fog after watching the goings on. It is painfully bland, and pitifully plotted. The only chills in the theater when I saw it were in the cold drinks bought at the concession stand.
I am a big Maggie Grace fan, but I am glad I can see her each week in “Lost” and don’t have to sit through movies like this very often.
I scored “Fog” a dense 3 out of 10.
