STAR RATINGS EXPLAINED
Unmissable
Excellent
Good
Poor
Tragic

POSTER ART

Click poster to enlarge

More posters to select

FILM DETAILS

Certificate 15

Cast Tom Welling Selma Blair Maggie Grace.

Directors Rupert Wainwright.

Screenwriters Cooper Layne.

Running Time 100 minutes

LATEST FILM REVIEWS Seasoning House, The Renoir Stories We Tell East, The Shun Li And The Poet 5 STAR REVIEWS Stories We Tell My Neighbour Totoro Gatekeepers , The Stoker In The House

The Fog (2005)
Horrific, but in completely the wrong sense.

Tweet

Plot
Beware, oh residents of Antonio Bay. Just as celebrations for the community’s centenary kick off, a mysterious, vengeful fog rolls in, dragging in its wake a past so terrifying, only computer effects dare reveal it. Spooned into the pea-souper: a hunk (Welling), a girl (Grace) and a lighthouse radio DJ (Blair)...

Review

John Carpenter’s 1980 original is a broody, insidious little chiller, a nautical ghost story with flashes of slasher and some cold scares ordered slow and certain. Presumably the cashflow ain’t what it used to be, because, 16 years on, Carpenter’s capped a producer credit on his own remake. Some day, this’ll come back to haunt him.

Happily, director Rupert Wainwright appears to have calmed down since the hilariously over-directed Stigmata. Unhappily, he still doesn’t appear to have graduated from Horror Elementary. Prepare yourself, then, for a flatpack horror so predictably assembled it stands up for half an hour then crumples the moment the dreaded dry ice descends on a boat of partying bimbos. Clearly, with ancient curses come even more ancient clichés.

The Fog rolls around like Scream never happened. Not necessarily a problem — hokey can often be a teen horror’s saving grace. But other than a granny getting vaporised over the washing up, it’s not even fun. Wainwright’s way too interested in the next visual to help out his small-screen leads, rendered helpless, aimless but most of all gormless against the slick, bland blitz of computerised ghosts and phoney loud jumps. DVD limbo beckons...

Write Your Review
To write your review please login or register.

Your Reviews

Average user rating for The Fog (2005)

RE: One star is generous....

The Fog (2005) The second remake in the same year for some of Carpenter's old classics and it doesn't seem like a lesson was learnt. The age old saying of less is more goes begging yet again folks. This glossy remake simply offers nothing that the original doesn't offer in a better way. There are no real thrills, chills or scares anyway in this extremely poor remake. Not to say that the original was really scary, it wasn't, but it had great atmosphere and more importantly was for an o... More

Posted by Phubbs at 16:34, 10 October 2012 | Report This Post

One star is generous....

It's absolute bollocks...... ... More

Posted by Carfax at 12:28, 07 April 2012 | Report This Post

One star is generous....

It's absolute bollocks...... ... More

Posted by Carfax at 12:28, 07 April 2012 | Report This Post

FOG

Not a bad film overall but it is a bit too similar to the original. Also this movie has one of the worst DVD commentaries, the director just basically describes what is going on in each scene, rathe than tell us anything interesting about the shooting of the film. ... More

Posted by CIW at 02:06, 28 October 2008 | Report This Post

Pretty lame

But not the worst film I've ever seen. The ending at least tried to be different (the extra star is for the shot of Grace in her undies). ... More

Posted by Caster at 11:09, 06 April 2006 | Report This Post

John Carpenter should be embarressd

A pathetic remark of a classy chiller. the end effects are cheap and why does everyone get thrown through glass? This should be a cert 12A. And why oh why the sloppy romantic link at the end? a total waste of my money and time. suger coated, flimsy, stereotype cast rubbish. Does not deserve a nationwide cinema release. Watch the original insted. Bigger scares and better effects on Buffy. ... More

Posted by mikkydub at 09:46, 06 March 2006 | Report This Post

RE: Fog (2005), The

Not sure when it's released here - but there are ways to see it I believe! The Fog (Rupert Wainwright's 2005 version) is interesting: giving you backstory on Blake's men and their Leper's plight. Still set in Antonio Bay, but not exactly 200 years on from the murderous pillaging of the original. Full of cheap frights and signposted scares, this adds little to the party of crap remakes out there. There's even a scene in the morgue where a body gets up from under a cloth! But, the ... More

Posted by BenClay2005 at 00:22, 17 January 2006 | Report This Post

RE: Fog (2005), The

L: Movie Dude has that been released over here yet? sp;   Dont think it has but for christs sake leave it well alone...why the need for all of these shite remakes it makes my blood boil... ... More

Posted by mungodubs at 14:30, 16 January 2006 | Report This Post

RE: Fog (2005), The

has that been released over here yet? ... More

Posted by Movie Dude at 02:05, 16 January 2006 | Report This Post

CURRENT HIGHLIGHTS
		David S. Goyer And Zack Snyder On Man Of Steel Secrets Spoiler warning: The writer and director spill some super-sized beans...
		Rila Fukushima On The Wolverine The film's Yukio on working with Jackman and working as a hitman...
		The Empire Podcast: Joss Whedon Special Much ado about Avengers 2...
		Full Q&A: Steven Spielberg And George Lucas On Hollywood's Future 'We're in a mess but of the chaos will come some amazing things'
		Man Of Steel Interviews: Henry Cavill, Amy Adams, Zack Snyder, Michael Shannon & Antje Traue The cast and director of the Superman reboot spill the beans...
		Exclusive: Empire Meets Dan Stevens The Summer In February star talks celebrity Downton fans and things he's rubbish at...
		Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa Trailer Breakdown What happens when the chat hits the fan?

Get the Empire iPad edition today Subscribe and save up to 44% on annual digital subscription Print & digital packages Buy single issues Subscribe to Empire magazine today Get six issues of Empire for £15 and save up to 37% All subscription offers

Follow @empiremagazine