WARNING: This Review May Contain Spoilers
Here’s to another film from the mind of John Carpenter. This is may be the second time you’ve heard his name but I can promise you it won’t be the last as this isn’t the only one of his films that someone decided needed to be remade….
Use of the Innocuous
I think everyone is wondering what I mean by this, and truthfully when watching the original film and voicing my thoughts aloud – I had to explain to my mum what I meant. Towards the start of the original The Fog, there is a whole scene where seemingly normal things happen but make you jump – like the brick falling in Father Malone’s study. This, along with the fridges shaking in the supermarket can all be explained by something basic and normal. However, I think in the remake, they make the bad omens a little more obvious – like the death of the dog for example.
Importance of the Original Opening Story
The great thing about the opening of the original The Fog, is that the telling of just a simple ghost story is setting you up for what is about to happen in the next 90 minutes without you actually realising that is what’s happening. The story of the Elizabeth Dane is important to the main storyline because it is the whole reason behind the fog coming to Antonio Bay but I think that overcomplicated it a little bit. Having watched the original directly before the remake, I was able to figure out that we were being shown the fate of the Elizabeth Dane in the opening scene but I was still slightly confused.
It’s the not only thing they overcomplicate in my opinion but I’ll get to that in a second.
Hero to Victim
This change to the story actually really annoyed me. In the day and age where we are currently crying out for strong female characters – they took away one that I believe could have fit into this category. Stevie Wayne is the island’s radio broadcaster in both versions of The Fog. The reason I want to point out that, in my opinion, she is the hero of the original film is that if it wasn’t for her voice over the airwaves – remaining cast may never have made it to the church as they would not have known ahead of time which way the fog was travelling. I also feel that this makes you more worried for her character towards the end of the film.
However, in the remake instead of staying in her light house and protecting the whole town – she chooses to leave and go find her son, which incidentally nearly gets her killed. By doing this, you lose the strength that is instilled in the character in the original film.
Statement of the Obvious
This is one of my biggest issues with a lot of films – not leaving certain things for the audience to work out for themselves. For example, it isn’t made clear until the very end that anyone is related to those who stole the gold (you know, the whole reason the fog is attacking in the first place) until it is openly mentioned by Father Malone at the end but the eagled eye of us watching will notice that the journal he finds is by a Patrick Malone, clearly a relative. Alternatively, in the remake – it is mentioned in Stevie Wayne’s opening speech that she is related to one of the founding fathers of Antonio Island.
Which takes me on to my next point rather nicely….
Overcomplicated Plot
So, as I mentioned the plot for the original The Fog is pretty simple. Some smugglers steal gold from others and they decide to wreak their revenge after they’re dead – and only the returning of the gold makes it all go away (or so you think, unexpected ending!) Now, this clearly wasn’t good enough for the director of the remake because they seemed to think it was a little too simple. Oh no, instead they decided that it would be a fight over land and one group seemingly double-crossing the other, killing men, women and children before building on said land.
What makes it even more complicated is the ending, and that takes me on to my final point…
The Strange Case of Elizabeth
I think I must have repeated the words ‘I don’t get it’ for about half an hour after I finished watching the remake of The Fog. Don’t get me wrong, I had to some extent figured out that Elizabeth would be the connection to making the fog go away (I sort of noticed that it was the same actress on the ship in the flashbacks, and the dreams had to mean something), but the ending just had me staring at the screen with a confused look on my face! She kisses the ghostly leader that has been terrorizing the island and ends the film as a ghost herself! Were we supposed to believe that she had been dead all along, or was this supposed to be the spirit of the dead woman leaving Elizabeth’s body? If that was the case, where was her body at the end of the film?
In Conclusion
I think it’s pretty obvious what I am about to say here from what you have just read to get to this point (and many remake articles that have come before) but formality says I need to end it this anyway. Without a doubt, I prefer the original. Maybe it helps that I am a fan of John Carpenter’s work anyway but the film just makes more sense. Obviously, as I always say, watch both and make your own opinion.
