In 1871, as an eerie mist was rising over the sea, four men committed an unspeakable crime. The crew and all the passengers of a clipper ship sank to a watery grave. Their lives lost, their names forgotten, their stories remained unfinished and untold as an impenetrable fog concealed the murderers’ grisly secret for several generations.
Now the restless spirits of the dead surface, determined to reveal the past and bring this perfidious crime to light.
When Nick Castle (Tom Welling, in the role originated by Tom Atkins) captain of the charter boat captain Sea Grass and his first mate Brett Spooner (DeRay Davis) unknowingly hook their anchor on an old sea bag wedged between rocks on the ocean floor and spill its contents, they trigger a series of terrifying events that will have deadly consequences on their small island, Antonio Bay. Artifacts from the past begin washing ashore — an old gold hairbrush, an antique pocket watch, a gold music box — and the vengeful spirits of their previous owners are unleashed on Antonio Bay.
“The past is literally being washed up into the present,” says director Rupert Wainwright, “so weird things start appearing. As more and more of these items appear, we slowly begin to realize that two worlds are destined to collide.”
Yet even before these ghostly personal effects surface, the past and present are already in conflict within the small population of Antonio Bay. The generations are divided about using the town’s limited financial resources on a statue honoring four of its heroic founding fathers — Patrick Malone, David Williams, Norman Castle and Richard Wayne. Nick Castle, a direct descendent of one of the town’s founders would rather see the money invested in repairing the town’s dock and sea wall — much to the displeasure of Antonio Bay’s elderly mayor, Tom Malone (Kenneth Welsh) and Kathy Williams (Sara Botsford), the town’s historian.
Elizabeth Williams (Maggie Grace) returns to Antonio Bay to visit her mother Kathy, from whom she has become estranged since Elizabeth abruptly moved away. Her ex-boyfriend Nick still cares for her — even though she left town without telling him — and he and Elizabeth tentatively reconnect.
“Elizabeth and Nick’s relationship is very much about piecing things back together,” explains Maggie Grace. “Neither of them is entirely sure where it’s going or what’s happening. We just know that they care about each other very much. It’s about remembering the romance they shared. While she feels justified in her decision to leave town, even though it caused Nick pain, there’s also a sense of regret.”
In the original film version of The Fog, directed by John Carpenter, Elizabeth (played by Jamie Lee Curtis), is an outsider who hitches a ride into town and is caught in a nightmare not of her own making. In the updated version, Elizabeth also hitchhikes into town, but she was born and raised there, which strengthens the film’s past-meets-present theme. “Elizabeth has a history on the island. She’s invested in the people, and she has unfinished business with Nick,” says Grace. “She’s also descended from one of the town’s founding fathers, so she’s implicated in a more significant way. While she still serves the same purpose as in the original movie, Elizabeth is a very different character in this version.”
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