Oct 22 2005
The Fog, remade.
In 1980 John Carpenter directed a film titled “The Fog“, it followed the commercial success of “Halloween” by two years, and while it was not Carpenters best work (a position still held by “The Thing” in my humble opinion) it was a solid spook film.
I’d seen previews recently of a remake of “The Fog” due out, and had added it to my might watch list feeling that it was a movie that could benefit from a retelling, but fearing for the execution of the deed none the less. We saw the remake last night, and all my fears were realized on the big screen.
The remake sticks fairly close to the original (hell, even the dialogue was comfortably familiar) although a few key characters have been rewritten for reasons that are not entirely clear. The ghosts themselves arrive not on the 100 year aniversary of the town, but rather when a bag of their artefacts is disturbed on the sea floor, the “ghosts” don’t wipe out all the descendants of those that betrayed them but rather attack the town piecemeal, eventually becoming satisfied when they’ve killed off a couple of the descendants, and whisked away another who resembled the dead leper leaders wife. The fog itself alternates from being a mild visual impedement to an all powerfull supernatural force for no reason.
I didn’t really like this movie, can you tell? The greatest flaw, the most significant error in this film is its refusal to adhere to it’s own logic. I don’t mind a willing suspension of disbelief, it’s a horror movie after all, but throwing in a “twist” at the end, one thats only vaguely been alluded to is a cheap cop-out.
Give it a miss folks, trust me.
The Thing is still the best Carpenter movie out there. I heard the fog remake was pretty cruddy from other people too, I guess that just leaves Doom now to watch.
-Mike
I was tempted to catch Doom instead, but wanted to see (call it morbid curiousity) what they had done with the movie.
Honestly however, a remake and a movie based on a video game…we paid $40 for those options?
That’s why I didn’t go to Doom opening night and went and got Land of the Dead instead. Since I knew I’d be happy with my purchase.
Well Mike, you’re wiser than me. I bought LOTD (just about to throw the movie on again as we speak) and went to see a film.
The most recent outings have been rather disappointing…
Lord of War - Good gun porn, story was passable, the Interpol agent bit kept irritating me.
Exorcism of Emily Rose - Uh, occult courtroom drama, enjoyable but wish it had not been billed as a “horror” movie.
The Cave - Underwater alien, seen it, nothing new to the table.
There were a couple others, but the fact that I can’t remember them doesn’t speak well of their impact on me.
-sigh-
Yeah I saw the Cave, it kept me entertained for a bit. But the movie I really liked in theaters was Serenity. SciFi Western Hybrid with good commentary on religion and society.
Have a good time watching Big Daddy wreaking havoc on the yuppies.