Future of ‘Fog’ looks cloudy

By John Schulter

More movie remakes have come out this year than ever before. The Amityville Horror, Charlie and The Chocolate Factory, and Herbie: Fully Loaded are just a few of these films that we’ve seen on the big screen. There are mixed results, however, and many seem to end up as disasters. This holds true for The Fog, starring Tom Welling (Smallville) and Selma Blair (Cruel Intentions).

A remake of the classic 1980s film, The Fog may sound like an interesting horror flick, but ultimately turns out to be utter chaos.

When the film begins, the people of Antonio Bay are celebrating the town’s four founding fathers for turning what was once a deserted area into a beautiful and populated community. Their descendants still live in the town and don’t seem to be too interested in the celebration, especially Nick Castle (Welling). His girlfriend Elizabeth (Maggie Grace) abandons him, and he is left alone, trying to make ends meet as a fisherman with his buddy Spooner (DeRay Davis). Elizabeth soon comes back and, with the help of Antonio Bay’s radio station host Stevie Wayne (Blair), they attempt to discover why a mysterious fog is wreaking havoc. As they discover more about the fog, they unravel a mysterious secret that endangers their lives as well as the town’s past.

This movie had potential. The storyline was pretty interesting and the actors had the chance to really elevate their characters. The scenes involving the ocean, beautiful sunsets and the lighthouse, along with the cool and dark look, were appealing and fit right in. Unfortunately, everything else in this movie was bad.

The visual effects were atrocious. The fog arrived as if it were a tidal wave, and a child was seen running from it. Also, that child’s babysitter was shown combusting into a crispy corpse. These are some examples of the many highly unrealistic sequences in the movie.

The actors were not convincing in their roles at all. The clean-cut Welling, portrayed as a fisherman, was a ridiculous concept to even think about. His stereotypically annoying friend, Davis, failed to provide comic relief. Grace just looked shocked the whole time and added nothing to this dreadful film. Blair’s performance fell short toward the end. In the original film, her character was much more heroic and vital to the outcome of the movie. In this remake, it seemed that she spent the whole time running. She appeared to be afraid and took a back seat during the very little action that occurred throughout the film.

The ending was the most unrealistic and appalling sequence in The Fog. Do not even look at the poster for this movie, let alone shell out money to see it, because you will most likely be disappointed. All in all, The Fog will leave viewers in a blur.