Spooky Pea Soup?

The Fog (2005)

A long time ago, well, maybe not that long ago, The Fog was one of the very first horror movies I remember watching. That was back when it was often shown on HBO... and that The Fog was director John Carpenter's The Fog. It's been many, many years since I saw that original version but still I have a decent (even fond maybe?) memory of it, at least of the main events and feel of the film.

Then, a couple years ago, along came a commercial for a remake. I was intrigued. I never went to see it in the theater but finally I caught a viewing on tv.

Perhaps the best way to describe the 2005 version would be -- an interesting mess. Tom Welling, who I think plays Superman in the ABC Family(?) show Smallville, wasn't bad as the lead male character, Nick Castle. Maggie Grace, from Lost, as Elizabeth, was, well, super-amazingly cute and Selma Blair as D.J. Stevie Wayne was pretty sexy, too, but in a different way from Ms. Grace, in a way that I can't really explain only she was way attractive. Anyway... not a horrible cast but the screenplay left a lot to be desired. It failed to all bind together and flow towards a decent conclusion. On top of that, the special effects were not so great. Obviously in order to dazzle the viewer, a lot of CGI was used in order to help us be able to truly believe the ghost story. Know what? Not so much CGI was needed if the movie had better writing bringing together the story and all the characters better.

Aside from Maggie & Selma, I really liked the setting. There are just not many places in North America more beautiful than the Pacific Northwest. Aesthetically it was used here well... unless you really know how British Columbia can't truly step in for Oregon. That was just a minor infraction, though, compared to the rest of the mess that is this movie.

It's too bad that a pretty good, semi-classic was not done acceptable justice here in this 2005 remake. I wanted to like it, thought it was an almost okay watch, interesting in its own way, but just not a great movie.