Buy it... only if you are absolutely familiar with Graeme Revell's usual, ambient sound design and enjoy the vague environment it embodies.

Avoid it... if you seek the imaginative use of theme and low-budget sound design employed by John Carpenter himself for the original 1980 film.

Revell

The Fog: (Graeme Revell) When did it become cool and/or fiscally viable to remake John Carpenter's already suspect horror movies of the 1970's and 1980's? One that certainly didn't need a remake was The Fog, a 1980 film from Carpenter that depicts a small coastal town haunted by ghosts of a shipwreck that take their revenge by embodying themselves in a killer fog. In the somewhat faithful 2005 remake, that deadly condensation manages to cause spontaneous fires, attacks by killer seaweed, and the always popular demise of a character via uncontrolled garbage disposal. There is no amount of ridicule that can adequately describe just how hideous this remake is; without the stylistic ingenuity of Carpenter's direction, the new version of The Fog fails despite a significantly higher budget. Even Carpenter's involvement as a producer could not steer the film past its critical doom and box office floundering. This had to be one of the projects in which you knew the dismal outcome of the picture, but that didn't stop composer Graeme Revell from jumping on board for yet another Carpenter remake. At least Revell's score for Assault on Precinct 13 was interesting; The Fog is more likely going to dull Revell's reputation for providing basically effective music for the horror genre. Perhaps the problem with The Fog is just that: everything involved with the project was pulled from stock shelves, including Revell's score. Employing only himself as a performer for the project, Revell attempts to create a style that plays a conservative roll... one that doesn't step on the feet of the original's score. Unfortunately, what this teaches us is that the same imaginative style that Carpenter brought to his films through his direction was also pertinent to Carpenter's own scores for those films, and Revell's modern ambient designs don't compare.

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Some credit does need to go to Revell for not completely neglecting the sound of the original. Carpenter's usual piano played a haunting role in the original, and Revell is sure to use it (or a similar keyboard variant) to present the performances of his title theme throughout. Likewise, the use of synthesizers to simulate the drawing in of a breath, meant to represent the ominous approach of the fog, is another nod to Carpenter's original music. And like Carpenter, Revell does use some repetitious bass sequences during horrific chases or killing scenes. Revell also does more than the film basically required by offering the title theme loyally throughout the score; the simple, alternating motif is an easily identifiable aspect of a score that will otherwise be noted for its bland sound design. Revell is at the forefront of ambient sound design. Some call it industrial sound, for many of the synthetic elements have a metallic aspect to them, but in any case, Revell's talents seem to be employed for films like this simply for the fact that he can alone create a unique texture of sounds in his electronic library. Unfortunately, these sounds resemble traditional sound effects rather than music, with the tempo of the music often lost or vague. Most of The Fog is an exercise in exactly this kind of library usage, and it isn't enjoyable to listen to. Revell receives a rating higher than the minimum simply for the consistent use of a theme that pays tribute to the original film, but The Fog is plagued by a surprising lack of imagination despite all these tools at Revell's disposal. Scenes that are supposed to be cool receive dull underscore, a stock love theme exists for an intimate shower scene, and the killing sounds are as old as ever. Revell doesn't give us any reason to care about this score, and if only some of the compelling depth heard in the "Epilogue" cue could have been spread throughout the rest of the effort, The Fog might actually have been an interesting score. If you're interested in this genre, choose Carpenter's original. **   Amazon.com Price Hunt: CD or Download

Bias Check:

For Graeme Revell reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 2.74 (in 19 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 2.74 (in 15,157 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.