People in the Movie: Tom Welling (TV’s Smallville), Maggie Grace
(TV’s Lost), Selma Blair (Hellboy, The Sweetest Thing, Cruel Intentions)
Director: Rupert Wainwright
Pigeonhole: Thriller / Horror
The Basics: This is a remake/
reboot of the 1980 John Carpenter film of the same name. The residents of Antonio Bay island, a small
fishing village and tourist location off the coast of northern California (or
Oregon), are about to celebrate the unveiling of a statue honoring their 4
founding fathers, Patrick Malone, David Williams, Richard Wayne, and Norman Castle. A mysterious fog rolls in one night, and the
town starts to experience some strange happenings, that soon escalate up to
murder. It appears the town’s original
prosperity was built on a disturbing secret, and now the descendants of the
founders all become entangled in this ghostly revenge story.
Recommendation: This movie is
somewhat difficult for me to reconcile.
It has its good points and bad, which I will detail below. ‘PG-13’ rating is for semi-violent images,
and a scene of sexuality. In my opinion,
the movie is exactly what it appears to be: a PG-13 rated thriller, light on
the horror, relying on the attractiveness of the leads and some pretty decent
effects to offset the poor acting and shaky story. I would give it chance, but I understand how
many people hold a negative opinion of the movie. The 'Unrated' version is not noticeably different than the theatrical cut.
My Take: The fact that John
Carpenter and Debra Hill were involved with the film is what led me to see
it. The 1980 version was an entertaining
indie-budget, R rated horror film, while this installment is more of a big
budget Hollywood “romantic thriller” that was
pointed towards a teen audience.
**spoiler alert** So to cut to the
chase, the “secret” is that Antonio Bay’s 4 founding fathers, back in 1871,
sold half of the island to a rich man named William Blake who was going to set
up a leper colony for a small group of people from their former community in
British Columbia. Malone, Williams,
Wayne, and Castle take a row boat out to meet Blake’s ship, the Elizabeth Dane,
in the bay but rather than welcome the new residents, they intentionally trap
all the passengers below decks, steal all of their gold and valuables, and set
fire to the ship killing everyone on board.
Basically this was a devious 19th century heist, but it seems
that the 4 held this secret and no one was the wiser in Antonio Bay
The
now-descendents of these “criminals”, and the main characters of the film are:
Nick Castle (Welling), who is local fisherman and charters boat rides;
Elizabeth Williams (Grace), Nick’s girlfriend who has recently returned from a
6 month trip to New York; Father Malone, the local priest who seems to know
about the prior conspiracy and is now drowning his guilt in alcohol; and Stevie
Wayne (Blair), a single mother who is the local DJ and broadcasts her show out of
a lighthouse.
The
fog we soon learn is a medium in which in the ghosts of these doomed
passengers, led by William Blake, are seeking their revenge on Antonio Bay for
their murders those years ago.
What I Liked: The special effects
were eye catching. Even though some of
the better effects moments were digital, it worked without going overboard and
created an ominous environment – not scary, but at least ominous.
-
The flashback scenes to 1871 that were interwoven as the story unfolded were
entertaining, and offered a nice counter-perspective to the crime that was
committed against them, purely because they had leprosy.
-
The soundtrack was very good. The top 40
pop music being played, as well as the score worked very well, and I would
consider this one of the highlights of the film.
-
Tom Welling was a decent enough as Nick and seems to come off as the working
class hero sort. I would call his
performance “not noticeable”, which is probably a good thing here.
What was Lame: The story felt more
like a romance novel, and the production was like a TV show on the CW. In my opinion, it came off as formulaic and
predictable, like everyone was going through the motions, but no one was really
scared or worried as the events unfolded.
-
Maggie Grace had “Laura Dern syndrome” throughout the film. She had the exact same expression on her face
despite any action going on at different times.
And let me be clear – she was not expressionless; it is more of a
confused/ concerned look regardless
of whether she was supposed to be happy, sad, or scared. Being the lead female character, I expected a
lot more.
-
Selma Blair should have been the most interesting character as Stevie, but she
was not believable as the single mom.
The pop music DJ role I could buy, but she was not convincing as a
mother in fear for her child’s life as the plot got towards the end. I should note that could have been direction,
not acting. It is also implied that Stevie
was seeing Nick while Elizabeth
The ending: I have not decided
yet, but this film could make the ‘worst movie endings’ list. It is revealed the Elizabeth Williams is the
reincarnation of William Blake’s wife, so as the ghost of Blake is standing in
the graveyard with proof of the original deception, which he gives to Nick, Elizabeth
decides to go be with Blake, and dissolves into a ghost - much to Nick’s
dismay. Cheesy is the best word I can
muster to describe the scene.
Side by Side: The original, of
course, wins out. Because the effects
were low budget, everything felt more real and organic. While I might call the original dated now, it
is still good for scares because Carpenter created tension with timing, music, and
environment and the actors all filled their roles very believably.
Final Thought/Extras/For Fun: Carpenter and Debra Hill who both created the original
produced this newer version, although Hill died shortly before filming began…
No comments:
Post a Comment