Welcome again to another entry of "Movie Reviews...", where today we get to cover the topic of Originals Vs. Remakes. Although people think that there has been a recent upsurge in remakes, a little known fact is that remakes have been around as long as the pictures themselves. "Ben-Hur", for example, was filmed TWICE (1907, 1925) before the epic with Charlton Heston was shot in 1959. Foreign films are re-imagined for domestic soil frequently as well, so the complaint that there isn't an original idea left in Hollywood may, in fact, be true. Now it's up to the film industry to take what they have and make it as appealing to the masses as possible. In 2011 alone, there are at least 50 films that qualify as remakes or sequels to existing franchises. I am a fan of originality, but I also like eye-candy, so if a remake is done well and is faithful to the original, without altering too much, I don't mind them. So, in order to save myself the time of having multiple entries on a certain title, I've decided to review "Originals" and "Remakes" together in the same space. Kicking off this new and unique feature is "The Fog".
One guy is based on the other, I can't tell which.
John Carpenter's big screen follow-up to "Halloween" was "The Fog" and, like the previous film, featured Jamie Lee Curtis, although not as the main star. That distinction went to Carpenter's wife, Adrienne Barbeau, whose role in the movie was designed specifically for her. Also in the cast, keeping it a family affair, was Janet Leigh, also known as Jamie Lee's mother. The film is set around a small California fishing town called Antonio Bay, whose history holds a dark secret: it was founded on the blood money of a rich leper who was looking to set up a colony in the area 100 years prior and was lured to death with his crew by the town's forefathers. Now the town is preparing to celebrate its centennial, and some vengeful ghosts are preparing for payback. Carpenter is supposed to have gotten the idea for this film while on a promotion tour of the U.K. for "Assault on Precinct 13", while visiting Stonehenge and seeing an "eerie fog" one afternoon, and also partly drew from the 1958 movie "The Trollenburg Terror". Though not as outright scary as "Halloween", it is a creepy film, and feels just like a good ghost story should. It is also very well acted, which helps when the pace is a bit lagging, which is going to happen when dealing with a slow-moving fog and all of the back story exposition.
Probably a better Superman, too.
In 2005, this remake was green-lit by the studio after only eighteen pages of the script were finished. Some of the core elements of the original story are still on display here: lepers, murder, ghosts...that's about it. They did keep the name of the town, I'll give them credit for that. In the original, there were six founding fathers that lured the ship to its doom on the rocks, the remake whittles the number down to four, and they actively go to the ship to destroy it, which makes you a big fan of the ghosts the entire movie. This version features pretty-boy Tom Welling in the role played by Tom Atkins in the original. Welling's performance was being filmed at the same time as his T.V. series "Smallville" was wrapping up shooting for the season, so much so that co-star Selma Blair joked that there were two cameras running for his scenes, one for the movie and one for "Smallville". Speaking of Blair, she does a fair job in the Barbeau role, although it is most likely she wasn't married to the director of this version to get the role. The tone and the violence of this version was lessened in order to get the PG-13 rating needed to cater to the teen demographic, so the over-all creepiness and gore of the original is replaced with quick and cheap scares, and leaves it as one-dimensional. You really don't care who lives or dies, just as long as the vengeful ghosts get what's rightfully theirs. There's even the obligatory twist thrown in as an afterthought.
So, if you haven't been able to tell, I prefer the original to the remake in this case. Carpenter's version stands the test of time and can now be considered a horror classic and can bear repeated viewings. The remake can be watched , but can't hold a candle to its predecessor. You really won't miss anything by just watching the original and skipping the remake.
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