Sony Pictures released Rupert Wainwright’s remake of John Carpenter’s The Fog in 2005, a project that rode the wave of a remake surge in horror cinema. Tom Welling led the cast alongside Maggie Grace and Selma Blair, with Carpenter producing in a nod to the original.
The budget climbed to about $18 million, a sizable jump from Carpenter’s own lean start of $1.1 million decades earlier. Wainwright described focusing on how a town’s past haunts its present, a theme the film leans into as the mist rolls in.
Box-office notes
The picture opened on October 14, 2005, at the top of the North American charts with about $11.7 million, aided by a light competition slate. It eventually earned $29.5 million stateside and about $16.6 million internationally, totaling roughly $46.2 million worldwide.
Critics were unkind; Rotten Tomatoes lingered near 4%. The Village Voice called it a concession-fueled retread aimed at younger moviegoers, a sentiment many echoed at the time.
The film did better on home video than in theaters, helping Sony recoup some of its costs. That pattern of post-theatrical revenue was more reliable in that era than it is today.
Legacy and takeaways
In retrospect, The Fog remake is viewed as a case study in misaligned intentions: a cash-driven effort that didn’t quite justify itself artistically. Carpenter’s original remains a touchstone, and his influence looms larger in the horror canon than the 2005 version. Rupert Wainwright hasn’t released another feature film since, a reflection of the project’s uneven impact.
As the piece argues, remakes require a clear, inventive purpose beyond chasing trends. The industry landscape has shifted since then, and today, streaming rights and post-release income don’t rescue mediocre entries the way they once did.
Source: Original article
