While his wife was busy winning an Oscar for Boys Don't Cry, poor Chad Lowe was crying in the audience -- and not just because he was happy for Hilary Swank, but because he had to star in this made-for-the-Superstation-WTBS atrocity, Acceptable Risk.

Sure, you're probably saying that worse movies about Salem witch trial-era fungi that resurface 300 years later, are turned into experimental medicine by researchers for use as brain medicing, and then slowly turn the subjects into violent madmen have been made. And if there were any other movies about evil witch spores, you'd probably be right. But as it stands, Risk falls into every common pitfall of low-grade horror movies: a nonsensical setup, no rationale or explanation for the plot, a series of "mysterious" events designed solely to scare you, and a relatively pat ending.

Not much else to say except to point out that Lowe is reasonably credible as a scientist-going-Mr. Hyde, and there are plenty of fire-oriented effects to keep you awake for its 90 minute running time.