The Fog review

If Hollywood can remake a John Carpenter classic (Assault On Precinct 13) semi-decently, you'd think updating a lesser effort from his prime would be a breeze - especially with the man himself on board as producer. Alas, The Fog 2005 is a mediocre makeover: never 'good', but not laughable enough to qualify as a guilty pleasure.

Rolling with the same premise - a paranormal pea-souper is out to avenge the sins of a small harbour-town's past - it replaces the original's suspenseful simplicity with a drifting plot, clichés (die, bikini babes!) and scurvy sea-spectres that look like holdovers from Pirates Of The Caribbean. The ride, that is. Some of the 'Boo!' bits aren't bad, while the easy prettiness of leads Tom Welling and Maggie Grace is offset by Selma Blair's husky DJ. But it's mostly grey and gaseous: talk about a mist opportunity...