Another month, another horror remake, this time of a John Carpenter semi-classic, The Fog. Unsurprisingly, the film - starring Junior Superman Tom Welling - has garnered terrible reviews and is likely to disappear from cinemas quicker than the titular meteorological phenomenon. Carpenter scored the original himself and the reviews of his effort seem to suggest it wasn't bad. This time, Graeme Revell is the man and, in common with the original, his score is synthetic, performed by the composer. Given the generally high amount of electronics in Revell scores, I wasn't really surprised to discover The Fog being entirely synthetic and, in truth, he gets a reasonable amount of mileage from his digital equipment.
A smattering of more convincing acoustic imitations notably piano, guitar and percussion are bolstered by more obviously synthetic samples. Having said that, a few cues feature some quite convincing string and brass samples, but these are only fleeting. Unfortunately, The Fog never really escapes the genre confines and, despite being a fairly tolerable horror score - few unpleasant crashes, more a creeping eeriness - there is little to make it stand out in a crowded market. A couple of the longer cues make a decent impression, notably Elizabeth... and the spooky Statues, while the brief action sequences have some energetic drum loops. Revell seems to pen his most interesting music for sci-fi, most recently Chronicles of Riddick, but horror is only infrequently an interesting genre and, despite some admirable restraint and some spooky moments, The Fog is a rather forgettable effort.