Filmtracks Traffic Rank: #1,420
Written 12/3/05
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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.
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| 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.
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: CD or
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Bias Check:
For Graeme Revell reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 2.74
(in 19 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 2.78
(in 17,131 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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