The Fog
Genre: Horror/Thriller
Director: Tommy Wirkola
Writer: Jack Slipter
Based on the 1980 film
Cast: Annasophia Robb, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Evan Rachel Wood, Ashley Judd, Ray Winstone, Lucas Till, Robbie Coltrane, Shawn Ashmore, James Marsden
Plot: Set in a Northern California fishing town called Antonio Bay, the town
is about to celebrate its centennial on April 21, 1980, and are having a
celebration led by Kathy Williams (Ashley Judd). However, the
centennial is also marked by ominous events, including the appearance of
a glowing fog that spreads over land and sea.
In the first
scene, on the night before the town's celebration, a group of children
seated around a campfire on a beach, are entertained by a ghost story,
told by 'old' Mr. Machen (John Lithgow) (exactly at the stroke of
midnight), the resident elderly fisherman. The story being told is
indicative of the history of the town's formation, which is being
discovered at that exact moment by the local priest, Father Malone (Ray Winstone), when he finds the diary of his grandfather (who was also the
town's priest).
The diary later reveals a dark secret unknown to
the current inhabitants where, in 1880, six of the founders of Antonio
Bay (including Malone's grandfather) deliberately sank and plundered the
Elizabeth Dane, a clipper ship owned by Blake (James Marsden), a wealthy
man with leprosy who wanted to establish a colony near Antonio Bay. The
six conspirators lit a fire on the beach near treacherous rocks, and
the crew of the clipper, deceived by the false beacon, crashed into
them. Everyone aboard the ship perished. The six conspirators were
motivated both by greed and disgust at the notion of having a leper
colony nearby. Antonio Bay and its church were then founded with the
gold plundered from the ship.
The mysterious fog contains the
vengeful ghosts of Blake and the clipper's crew, who have come back on
the 100th anniversary of the shipwreck and the founding of the town to
apparently take the lives of six people (symbolic substitutes for the
six conspirators).
This same night, three local
fishermen, Williams, Wallace and Dick Baxter (Lucas Till) are gruesomely
murdered by supernatural attackers after the fog covers their boat. Just
prior to their deaths, Al and Tommy are standing on the deck of the
boat and can see a ghostly looking ship pulling along side theirs,
through the dense, but glowing fog.
At the same time, Nick Castle
(Jeffrey Dean Morgan) drives down a country road and picks up a hitchhiker
called Elizabeth (Annasophia Robb) who claims to be on her way to
Vancouver. While the two drive towards town, the radio and headlights of
the car start to fail, as the windows of the truck are blown out. At
the same time, various odd phenomena begin to happen around the sleeping
town (chairs move, television sets turn themselves on, gas stations
seemingly come to life).
A short time later, Nick and Elizabeth
have arrived at Nick's coastal home and are relaxing when a heavy knock
is heard at the door. Making his way to open the glass, front door, Nick
sees an odd light shining outside, illuminating a shadowy figure. The
clock strikes 1AM, and it's face suddenly cracks, just as Nick opens the
door, only to see there is no one there, and the fog has dissipated.
The
following morning, while in her bungalow next to the beach, the local
radio DJ Stevie Wayne (Evan Rachel Wood) is lying in bed when her young son,
Andy, returns to the house showing her a broken plank of wood he has
discovered. It reads "DANE." Intrigued by the piece, Stevie keeps it and
takes it with her to the lighthouse, where she is preparing for her
next show and listening to various promotional tapes for her station.
Stevie sets the plank on top of the tape player that is playing the
promotional spots, and while she is momentarily distracted, the plank
begins to seep water. The water spreads and causes the tape player to
short. Suddenly, Blake's voice emerges from the tape player swearing
revenge, the words "6 Must Die" appear on the plank, and the plank
bursts into flames. A shocked Stevie immediately extinguishes the fire.
Afterwards, Stevie checks the plank only to find that it once again
reads "DANE."
Meanwhile, Nick and Elizabeth charter a boat and
embarch on a search for the missing fishing boat, called the Sea Grass.
Soon, they find the boat where the fishermen were killed. After looking
around the deserted boat, they go below decks, and Elizabeth finds the
eyeless corpse of Dick Baxter, the youngest of the three fishermen. They
then take Baxter's body to the local coroner's office to be examined by
Dr. Phibes (Robbie Coltrane). Phibes, who is perplexed by the body's
advanced state of decomposition, takes Nick aside to ask him about the
circumstances of the body's discovery and leaves Elizabeth alone in the
autopsy room with Baxter's corpse. The body becomes momentarily
re-animated by a ghost. It rises from the steel autopsy table, grabs a
scalpel, and walks over to Elizabeth. As Baxter's corpse moves closer to
Elizabeth, she screams, and the body drops to the floor, lifeless once
again. Elizabeth's screams bring Nick and Phibes rushing back into the
autopsy room, where they see that the corpse has scratched the number
"3" into the floor with the scalpel.
Back in Antonio Bay town
center, the town's celebration begins. At the same time, Dan (Shawn Ashmore), the local weatherman, and Stevie talk over the phone. Stevie
expresses her apprehension about the strange glowing fog that is moving
toward the town. Dan then hears a knock at the weather station's door
and leaves Stevie on the phone while he goes to answer it. Dan is killed
when he opens the door and one of the ghosts impales him through the
throat with a hook, and Stevie listens in horror.
Just when the
ghosts of the fog cut the phone lines as well as sabotage the power for
the entire town, Stevie begins her radio broadcast and begs someone to
get to her house and save her son when she sees the fog roll up to the
house. Nick and Elizabeth hear this over Nick's truck radio and go to
help. Back at Stevie's house, a strange knock comes at the door. The
elderly babysitter goes to answer it and tells Andy to go to his room.
When she opens the door the ghosts come out of the fog and impale her on
their swords and hooks. The ghosts then go after Andy. Nick arrives
just in time and takes Andy in his car. A minute of tension begins when
Elizabeth, driving Nick's truck, attempts to flee with him, but gets
stuck in a road pothole as the fog surrounds the truck and the ghosts
slowly emerge towards them. At the last second, Elizabeth managed to
free the truck from the pothole and drive in reverse, away from the
ghosts and out of the fog.
As the celebration in town comes to an
end, Kathy and her assistant drive home in the same car. When they turn
on the radio they hear Stevie repeatedly telling people to stay away
from the fog as it is dangerous. When the fog appears, they drive away
from it. They then hear Stevie saying the only safe place is the church,
which they go to. Nick, Elizabeth and Andy hear the same message and
they too go to the church. They all meet in the church as well as Father
Malone, and they hide in the small back room. While they are in the
room, Kathy and Father Malone find some of the stolen gold, which has
been melted into a cross. Blake's ghost and his crew begin to break into
the room. Knowing he is the offspring of the last conspirator, Father
Malone confronts the ghosts with the golden cross in an attempt to
sacrifice himself and save everyone else.
Back at the lighthouse
the fog rolls in and several of the ghosts try to attack Stevie. She
climbs onto the roof with the ghosts in hot pursuit. The ghosts slowly
close in on her and get ready to attack.
Back in the church,
Blake's ghost grabs the golden cross. The golden cross starts to glow
and the church rumbles as the light emanating from the cross becomes
brighter and brighter. Only seconds before Blake's ghost and the cross
disappear in a flash and a thunder Nick manages to pull Father Malone
away from the cross. With Blake's ghost the other ghosts are suddenly
vanished too. The fog disappears and all of the town's people are saved.
Later
that night when Father Malone is alone in the church, he asks himself
"Why not me Blake?", at that moment the fog reappears with Blake and his
men. Blake swings his sword at Father Malone's head, decapitating him
as the screen cuts to black.
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