Bovie Movie

A righteous police officer investigating the disappearance of a young girl comes into conflict with the unusual residents of a secluded Scottish isle in this unsettling, intelligent chiller. Brought to the island of Summerisle by an anonymous letter, Edward Woodward’s constable is surprised to discover that the island’s population suspiciously denies the missing girl’s very existence. Even more shocking, at least to the traditionally pious law office, the island is ruled by a libertarian society organized around pagan rituals. Repelled by the open acceptance of sexuality, nature worship, and even witchcraft, the officer takes an antagonistic attitude towards the people and their leader, an eccentric but charming English lord (Christopher Lee). The officer’s unease intensifies as he continues his investigation, slowly coming to fear that the girl’s disappearance may be linked in a particularly horrifying manner to an upcoming public festival. Anthony Shaffer’s meticulously crafted screenplay creates a thoroughly convincing alternative society, building tension through slow discovery and indirect suggestion and making the terrifying climax all the more effective. Performances are also perfectly tuned, with Woodward suitably priggish as the investigator and horror icon Lee delivering one of his most accomplished performances as Lord Summerisle. Little noticed during its original theatrical run due to studio edits and a limited release, the film’s intelligence and uncanny tone has since attracted a devoted cult following.

John Carpenter’s well-remembered thriller gets an update in this remake from director Rupert Wainwright. Nick Castle (Tom Welling) is a charter-boat captain in the small coastal town of Antonio Bay. Castle’s ancestors helped to found Antonio Bay, but while the city’s mayor (Kenneth Welsh) and the head of the local historical society (Sara Botsford) are spearheading an effort to raise money for a statue that would honor the city fathers, Castle is more interested in seeing the town’s rickety docks and aging sea wall replaced. However, Castle has been too distracted with personal matters to wage a campaign of his own — he’s been having an affair with Stevie Wayne (Selma Blair), a single mom who runs a combination radio station and lighthouse, while his former flame Elizabeth Williams (Maggie Grace) has returned to town to mend fences with her mother and finds herself renewing her romance with Castle. One night, Castle and his first mate, Brett Spooner (DeRay Davis), discover an antique ship’s bag filled with treasure, not knowing the salvage came from a ship that sank over a hundred years before. As it happens, there’s a terrible secret behind the ship’s disastrous fate, and now that Castle and Davis have unwittingly awakened the watery grave, the souls of the ship’s crew and passengers have come back to claim their revenge in the form of a thick and impenetrable fog. The remake of The Fog proved to be one of the last projects for producer Debra Hill, who also worked on the original film; Hill was fighting cancer when work began on the film, and she died shortly before filming commenced.