The Fog (2005) |
|
The Fog (2005) |
|
|
| BUY IT |
| General | Extras | ||
| Category | Horror |
Main Menu Audio & Animation Dolby Digital Trailer Audio Commentary-Rupert Wainwright (Director) Deleted Scenes-With Optional Directors' Commentary Featurette-Whiteout Conditions: The Remaking Of A Horror Classic Featurette-Seeing Through The Fog Featurette-Feeling The Effects Of The Fog Trailer-The Da Vinci Code, The Exorcism Of Emily Rose Trailer-Into The Blue, The Net 2.0, Rent |
|
| Rating |
|
||
| Year Of Production | 2005 | ||
| Running Time | 99:02 | ||
| RSDL / Flipper | RSDL (70:52) | Cast & Crew | |
| Start Up | Ads Then Menu | ||
| Region Coding | 2,4,5 | Directed By | Rupert Wainwright |
|
Studio
Distributor |
 Sony Pictures Home Entertain |
Starring |
Tom Welling Maggie Grace Selma Blair DeRay Davis Kenneth Welsh Adrian Hough Sara Botsford Cole Heppell Mary Black Jonathon Young R. Nelson Brown Christian Bocher Douglas Arthurs |
| Case | ? | ||
| RPI | $39.95 | Music | Graeme Revell |
| Video | Audio | ||
| Pan & Scan/Full Frame | None |
English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) Czech Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) Hungarian Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) Polish Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) |
|
| Widescreen Aspect Ratio | 2.35:1 | ||
| 16x9 Enhancement |
 |
||
| Video Format | 576i (PAL) | ||
| Original Aspect Ratio | 2.35:1 | Miscellaneous | |
| Jacket Pictures | No | ||
| Subtitles |
English Czech Hungarian Polish Dutch Arabic Bulgarian Croatian Greek Hindi Icelandic Romanian Serbian Slovenian Turkish English for the Hearing Impaired English Audio Commentary Dutch Audio Commentary |
Smoking | No |
| Annoying Product Placement | No | ||
| Action In or After Credits | No | ||
Preparations are underway for the dedication ceremony that will unveil a statue in honour of Antonio Bay's founding fathers; David Williams, Patrick Malone, Norman Castle, and Richard Wayne. The small community of Antonio Bay owes its existence to these four men who brought prosperity to a town that was nothing more than a series of small timber huts prior to 1871. Few people have had reason to question where the unexplained money and wealth came from but, far from being astute businessmen, the founding fathers had made a pact to commit a terrible crime of greed.
Nicholas Castle (Tom Welling), captain of the Seagrass and direct descendant of Norman Castle, runs a fishing charter operation with the assistance of his friend Spooner (DeRay Davis). While weighing anchor after another successful fishing venture the Seagrass’ anchor snags on the bottom, disturbing the long sleeping ghosts of the clipper Elizabeth Dane.
After six months absence, Nick's girlfriend Elizabeth (Maggie Grace) is drawn back to Antonio Bay to confront her compulsive dreams of people burning and drowning. This makes life interesting for Nick who has been having a fling with the local radio station announcer, Stevie Wayne (Selma Blair).
Things start to get a little strange after the watch given to Elizabeth, by a beachcomber, mysteriously starts to work. Other personal effects are also found washed ashore by the townsfolk and when Elizabeth becomes suspicious of the unfolding events she investigates the hallmark inscribed on the back of the watch, a set of scales with a crown and the number 7.
As evening arrives the fog rolls in, allowing the betrayed ghosts of the Elizabeth Dane to take revenge on the inhabitants of Antonio Bay.
The Fog is a remake of John Carpenter’s original The Fog (1980). While place names and characters are retained, many of the plot points have been altered. Not only has the method of betrayal been altered but more than gold motivates the ghosts themselves.
The transfer is presented in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1 and it is 16x9 enhanced.
The image is sharp and the shadow detail is well defined. There is no low level noise and blacks appear black.
Colours are accurately presented with plenty of blue/greys for the ocean and white/greys for the fog. Skin colours look natural.
As mentioned above, posterization is evident in the many of the fog scenes, as can be seen when the camera pans through the fog at 20:25. The only other artefact that I noticed was some mild aliasing at the top of the cemetery gates at 52:29. There are no film artefacts and absolutely no grain.
English, Czech, Hungarian, Polish, Dutch, Arabic, Bulgarian, Croatian, Greek, Hindi, Icelandic, Romanian, Serbian, Slovenian, Turkish, English for the Hearing Impaired, English Audio Commentary and Dutch Audio Commentary subtitles are available. The subtitles are well placed and easy to read.
This is an RSDL disc with the layer change occurring at 70:52. I did not notice the layer change on my equipment.
| Sharpness |  |
| Shadow Detail | |
| Colour | |
| Grain/Pixelization | |
| Film-To-Video Artefacts |  |
| Film Artefacts | |
| Overall | |
The audio transfer is excellent.
The following audio tracks are available; English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s), Czech Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s), Hungarian Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s), Polish Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) and English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s). I listened to the default English Dolby Digital 5.1 and the English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 tracks.
The dialogue was always clear and easy to understand. I did not notice any problems with audio sync.
The wide ranging musical score by Graeme Revell is quite capable of accommodating the quieter romantic moments as well as the fast paced action sequences.
Like any good horror movie, The Fog relies heavily on the audio track for ambience. The surround channels remain active throughout the movie, creating an atmosphere of suspense and providing one or two jumps along the way.
The subwoofer supports the low end of the frequency spectrum without ever drawing attention to itself. The ghostly hammering at 78:56 and 84:58 is quite effective as it booms across the room to ratchet up the suspense.
| Dialogue | |
| Audio Sync | |
| Clicks/Pops/Dropouts | |
| Surround Channel Use | |
| Subwoofer | |
| Overall | |
The menu is preceded by the usual anti-piracy ads that, thankfully, can be skipped through. The animated menu is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1 and it is 16x9 enhanced. It is also accompanied by a Dolby Digital 2.0 audio track.
Rupert Wainwright’s commentary is standard fare and includes a few snippets of information for those willing to listen.
All featurettes are presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1 and they are accompanied by an English Dolby Digital 2.0 audio track. Subtitles are available in English and Dutch.
Presented by producers David Foster and John Carpenter, director Rupert Wainwright and writer Cooper Layne, this featurette discusses the differences between the remake and the 1980 original. Not only are the ghosts motivated by a different type of revenge, but the advances made in CGI have allowed the fog to take on a character of its own, so it is no longer just a medium for the ghosts to travel in.
John Carpenter tells how he had a desire to see The Fog (1980) remade, but under a new director, and David Foster, who produced John Carpenter’s The Thing, was keen to get involved from the outset. An interesting comment made by John Carpenter was that he feels movies created more than 15 years ago are “old” and need to be remade so that they appear “fresh”.
Also discussed was their plan to employ young, good looking actors who would appeal to the younger audience that horror movies are traditionally marketed to.
The final featurette takes a look at the special effects employed during the making of The Fog, from the prosthetics used to the CGI fog and fire effects.
The deleted scenes are presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1 though they contain 2.35:1 footage. They are accompanied by English Dolby Digital 2.0 and English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 audio tracks, as well as English and Dutch subtitles.
There are seven deleted scenes that can be viewed with, or without, the director’s commentary. Although the deleted scenes primarily deal with character development there are a couple that offer additional effects or visual enhancements. As explained by director Rupert Wainwright, although one scene was cut due to cost factors and another at the behest of the studio, the majority were simply dropped for reasons of pacing.
The CGI fog and fire effects are a bit rough in a couple of the scenes, but this is because they were cut before being finalised.
The disc also includes theatrical trailers for The DaVinci Code, The Exorcism Of Emily Rose, Into The Blue, The Net 2.0 and Rent.
There is censorship information available for this title. Click here to read it (a new window will open). WARNING: Often these entries contain MAJOR plot spoilers.
NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.
The Region 4 version of this disc misses out on:
French Dolby Digital 5.1
French subtitles
The Region 1 version of this disc misses out on:
The Region 1 and Region 4 discs can be considered equal in all regards, except for the foreign language support options.
The video transfer falls short of reference quality due to mild posterization in many of the scenes depicting fog.
The audio transfer is excellent.
Although there is a broad selection of extras available on this DVD, there isn't any more than we have come to expect from recent releases.
| Video | |
| Audio | |
| Extras | |
| Plot | |
| Overall | |
| Review Equipment | |
| DVD | Pioneer DV-533K, using Component output |
| Display | InFocus Screenplay 7200 with ScreenTechnics 100" (16x9) screen. Calibrated with Digital Video Essentials (PAL). This display device is 16x9 capable. |
| Audio Decoder | Built in to Amplifier. Calibrated with Video Essentials. |
| Amplification | Denon AVC -A11SR |
| Speakers | Jamo D6PEX wall mounted Speakers and Powered Sub (7.1) |