Film Reviews

The Fog

• Rating:
• Director: Rupert Wainwright
• Starring: Maggie Grace
• Details: US, 100mins, 15s.

As the small town of San Antonio Bay prepare for their centenary, a terrible secret from the past threatens to cancel the jovial celebrations. 100 years ago, the town's founding fathers welched on a contract that would guarantee a ship load of lepers the ownership of the town by boarding the boat, killing all on board and making off with the loot, which the town has since prospered on. But now, the ghosts of the dead are back to reap a terrible revenge on their decedents and only a small schooner captain (Welling), his girlfriend (Grace) and local radio DJ (Blair) suspect what's going on.
The Fog is an update of scare-maestro John Carpenter's 1980 classic chilling, moody slasher but any semblance to his work is here in name only (he has an executive producer credit - which means absolutely nothing). In the past, the dangers of promiscuous sex in young teens used to be the subtext of slasher movies - the kids have sex and are then killed. The Fog's subtext, on other hand, seems to be never to welch on a deal. It's a new and brave move. The Fog is a disaster from start - the continuity error in telling us the terrible events happened 100 years ago, in 1871!, to finish - the ludicrous tacked on love story between a ghost and Maggie Grace. Welling should have stayed in TV, Grace should stayed at home, and all Blair seems to have in her illustrious acting canon is a pout.

Review by Gavin Burke