Fog Remake? (1 Viewer)

[Inspector Hammer!]

I was hoping for a remake along the lines of Dawn of the Dead...i'm a foolish, foolish man!

A freind and I saw a matinee of this retched piece of seaweed on Friday and I just stood in awe of how they got just about everything wrong LOL! All of the suspense, creepiness and tension is gone, GONE I tell ya!

I rewatched the classic original a couple of nights before seeing this and that didn't help, but it wouldn't have made a difference, the original has always been one of my favorite horror films so I would have hated the remake anyway.

And yes, the same thought occured to me about Selma Blair's age and her having a kid that age, WTF! Now, I like Tom Welling, but he jumped the gun when he was making those claims about the remake, he was wrong on every count, but I forgive him because I like him on Smallville, he should be more careful about making such claims though.

The film was too LOUD! Why do horror films now just bombard the audience with constant sounds and bombastic music!? Even the fog itself made an ominous rumbling sound!

Also, they show way too much, in the original we only hear about the fate of the Elizabeth Dane and it's diseased crew, here we get it spoon-fed to us in flashbacks, part of the creepiness of the original was that 'Blake' remained mysterious, we only see his sillouette and that's it, give me that over seeing him up close like we get to see here.

I will say this, though, as much as I hated the film, it did have two things going for it and that's not saying much...one was Selma Blair, she's hot so at least us guys had her to stare at, and the second is, taken out of context that is, the ghosts were pretty creepy looking. In any other film they might have worked, here they don't when considering the source material.

It hasn't been a good week for horror for me, between this mess and those two God forsaken Return of the Living Dead films on the Sci-fi channel, I need something good to cleanse my palette, maybe i'll go watch Halloween.

In closing, this film just plain sucked ass, I wanted to walk out, but I don't drive and my freind was my ride home.

No :star:'s

 

[Ocean Phoenix]

I just want to defend Starman , which I also consider one of John Carpenter's best movies. I didn't much enjoy some of his most popular ones (The Thing and Escape From New York) and I think Starman is way better than them. I really don't understand what the big deal is about those two, although at least Kurt Russell's character in Escape From New York was entertaining. I thought the sequel was actually far superior, but I guess that's a minority opinion. My favourite Carpenter movies of the ones I've seen so far are Halloween, Starman, and Escape From L.A.

 

[Andy Sheets]

I thought this article on Fangoria was pretty funny (http://www.fangoria.com/fearful_feature.php?id=4893):

[snip]

“What we decided—since in this genre of film, the bulk of the audience is young people and today 56 percent of them are women—was to cast attractive young actors whom today’s youth could respond to,” explains David Foster, who produced the new FOG with the original’s John Carpenter and the late Debra Hill. “They respond to Tom [Welling]; his show [SMALLVILLE] has been on four or five years. He’s a really good-looking dude, you know. He’s a movie-star-looking guy, and has great popularity. Maggie [Grace, from LOST], also, we fought like hell for. We had to wait for both of them, with their television schedules. Together, they are the most attractive couple. And then Selma [Blair] is a very pretty lady, and she plays a Stevie Wayne [first portrayed by Adrienne Barbeau] without the boobs. Selma is a consummate pro, and she’s attractive and cute. DeRay [Davis’ character] is not in the original. He’s like a standup comic, but he’s a very serious actor. He’s really good. So the casting was quite specific: youth-oriented, the stars.”

[snip]

That sentiment is echoed by Davis—not because of any close calls on set, but rather because he almost didn’t make it into the second half of the film. “My initial reaction [to the script] was, ‘This ain’t right.’ It was different,” Davis recalls. “In the first draft, my character died on page 30, so I really didn’t like the damn script. The more I got into it, the more I realized they intertwined the people and made them more of a family-like group. Like, in the original, Nick [Welling] had no idea who Stevie was. Though he knew about the radio station, he didn’t know Stevie herself. And I like that they just put the twist on it. Made everybody younger. The original Nick was like 57. The original Elizabeth was a super-slut. Not her in particular—not Jamie [Lee Curtis]. But I’m just saying, she immediately gave the underwear up.

“I watched [the 1980 FOG] maybe 50 times before I even got here,” Davis continues. “I didn’t get the part and then look at it. I was actually on the audition next to a guy, and he said, ‘Hey, is this some kind of remake?’ And I got offended, like, ‘What the…? This is THE FOG!’ That was the scariest movie when I was young. You can watch it nowadays and it still has its moments, but it’s going to be even better with all the new special effects. You never know what’s coming from where.”

 

[Alex Spindler]

Lots of people really damned the movie beforehand and had to be dragged screaming to see it. Little wonder they hated it.

It was just average. It certainly wasn't harmed for being PG-13 as it managed quite a body count with some good and creepy effects (and a knife to the eyes, which are subsequently sewn up was well done).

Selma Blair was probably the best in the movie, as they obviously didn't cast her to channel Adrienne Barbeau but she still had a fair radio voice and nicely tense drowning scene. The effects were pretty good for the ghosts, although the fog ranged from great such as flowing down a hallway like water or obscuring a graveyard to terrible like the shots of it coming through a car vent or advancing and retreating on the island.

The story, at its base, is still good. A nice revenge from beyond the grave story which it shares with the original is unfortunately delivered to us terribly. A critical diary is found through some kind of divine intervention (were the ghosts trying to get their story told? They didn't seem to care) and the amazing discovery of photographs in plain sight in a diner tell the rest of the story. And the resolution of the story still confounds me. Maggie Grace is somehow descended from the lepers on the boat, where the person she looks like is shown as drowning...but her ancestor was one of the four founding fathers?
.

The good is that it contains some good scenes. The crash and near drowning in a car, the massacre on the boat, and the surreal scene of a table with place settings on a beach before being dragged under the surface.


Certainly not as good as the original, but better than most of the horror that gets released like Cursed and Darkness Falls. I'd say a C+.

Also, Selma Blair is 33. I'd say having a 10 year old is more than reasonable. Heck, in some of our states there at be a chance she could be a grandmother.


With regards to remakes, I'd imagine it would be hard to be successful but I would be curious what someone with some talent could do with Big Trouble in Little China and The Thing. I hold both in very high regard, but they're pretty fertile territory. In the hands of someone who can build suspense and tension well, The Thing (or even an inspired sequel) could be the grounds for a good film. And I think it was Carpenter himself said that BTiLC was ahead of its time bringing asian action to a contemporary film (ala a proto Matrix). If it were to be a literal translation, I think the hardest part would be finding a anyone who could do Egg Shen and Lo Pan, as both actors brought such charm and humor and I can't think of working Asian-American actors that have that same kind of feel. I suppose Ken Watanabe would make a nicely sinister Lo Pan, but wise old Egg Shen?

It's interesting that Stephen Chow was mentioned because I think he has the sensibility and talent for a film like this but without an American lead, I'd have to think the movie would lose the 'alien world through familiar eyes' feel that Jack Burton gives us.

 

[Greg_S_H]

Hey, there's a unique twist! I'm pretty tired of seeing such young faces every time I see a modern movie. In the glory days of Hollywood, you actually got to watch adults when you went to the movies. Look at Humphrey Bogart. He looked like a guy who had been around, knew the score. If he was ever young, you wouldn't know it to look at him. That seemed to be the rule in Hollywood back then rather than the exception. Somebody said a lot of it has to do with modern skin care techniques keeping people looking young longer. I don't know, maybe that's true; I recently saw a movie with Steve Forrest, and his character was said to be 30-years-old. I could hardly believe it. He looked much older than that. He was actually 35 at the time the picture was released, but 35 was a much different thing in 1959, apparently.

 

[Mikel_Cooperman]

Why does Hollywood think that everyone has to be under 30 to make money in Hollywood. No wonder so many are getting plasit surgery these days.

 

[Robert Ringwald]

If you're over 29 in Hollywood... ancient. It's ridiculous.

I blame the public for most of it though. The same girls who complain about the tiny 20 year old actresses are the first ones to comment on the "ugly best friend who's fat."

But you can have an attractive young actor who can ACT!

Example, Selma Blair. Tom Welling couldn't emote if he tried...

 

[Mikel_Cooperman]

I havent seen the movie but this review is probabaly better than the movie.

http://www.aintitcool.com/display.cgi?id=21562

I think Tom does a fine job in Smallville but with a bad script you cant blame him. You can maybe blame him for agreeing to do it though.

 

[SarahG]

I'm still wondering why Selma Blair did it? Is her career suffering?

 

[Jordan_E]

Not until after this mess...

 

[Tino]

I sure do. Prince Of Darkness is by far Carpenter's WORST film. Bad on every level imo.

An incoherent mess with terrible acting and a worse story, if you can call it that. Torturous to sit through. Saw it once when it was released in theaters and that was one time too many!

To compare it with Starman, one of his very best, is in my opinion, absurd.

Jeez

 

[Mikel_Cooperman]

I think his worst was that Vampires movie a few years ago. Ugh that was bad.

Ashame he can't get back on track. What happend?

 

[Jordan_E]

I nominate Memiors of an Invisible Man as Carpenter's worst picture.

 

[Inspector Hammer!]

I nominate Christine as one of his best.

Vampires was his worst for me, and They Live isn't far behind that. With the exception of one hell of a fight scene, the film, and Roddy Piper's aweful one liners, leaves me cold.

 

[Justin_S]

I've gotta disagree with this one though. I love They Live, and would rank it right up there in the midst of Carpenter's greatest works. On the other hand, Vampires is pretty lackluster, though I think he's done worse. I already stated my dislike of Dark Star and Starman, but his Village of the Damned remake is pretty damn weak too.

 

[Tino]

Hey that's cool Justin. I doubt however that many Carpenter fans would agree with you.

 

[mattCR]

Letterman summed it up:

(Clipped from the Lateshow website)

This movie was terrible ;( I can't believe I paid anything to see it. :frowning:

 

[Ocean Phoenix]

Wow, I forgot They Live ! Whoever mentioned that as one of Carptenter's best is right. It's fun, and shouldn't be taken too seriously. I can't believe I forgot it when listing my favourite movies of his, since I like it as much as any of the others except for Halloween, which is my definite favourite. I liked Memoirs Of An Invisible Man too, but I saw it a long time ago, so I'm not sure if I'd still like it seeing it again. It's ridiculous how there's a quote from Roger Ebert about The Fog when he didn't even get a chance to see it, because it was not screened for the press! It was only mentioned on "Ebert and Roeper" to complain about it not being shown to the press, and award it "the wagging finger of shame"!

 

[Lyle_JP]

Tino,

I'm a Carpenter fan, who largely agrees with everything Justin said and disagrees with a lot of what you said. So try not to speak too much for "most of us".

My opinion (for those who care):

His Finest Works:
Halloween
The Fog
Escape From New York
The Thing
Big Trouble in Little China
Prince of Darkness
They Live
In the Mouth of Madness

His Good Works:
Assault on Precinct 13
Christine
Starman
Vampires

His Lesser Works:
Dark Star
Memoirs of an Invisible Man
Village of the Damned*
Escape from LA
Ghosts of Mars

* Sometimes "Village" finds it's way to my His Good Works list. It depends on my mood. There are so many little things in this movie I really love. It just never becomes the sum of its parts for whatever reason.

The only film he has made which I would characterize as simply "bad" is Ghosts of Mars. I'll re-watch Escape from L.A. plenty of times before I'll spin up "Ghosts" again.

-Lyle J.P.

 

[Michael Elliott]

Jeez, I need to start going to the movies. Even if the movie was bad it would still be pretty funny to see grown men being dragged into a theater kicking and screaming. I mean seriously, is someone holding a gun to your head while dragging you or are they holding someone you care for hostage until you go see this film?