The Mist, originally published in the short story collection Skeleton Crew by Stephen King, has recently been made into a major motion picture. A major motion picture that I majorly watched last night... after Major Dad.. Yea...
Anyway, for those of you that haven't seen it and want to I just want to warn you THERE ARE SOME SPOILERS IN THESE THAR WEB POSTINGS! NO MAJOR SPOILERS THOUGH, PROCEED AT YOUR OWN RISK!
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Ok that being said, onto the review.
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Stephen King was obviously reading some HP Lovecraft when he was writing the Mist, and probably eating some squid sushi. Like most of his stories, this takes place in a small rural Maine town. After an impressive thunderstorm the night before, David Drayton (played by The Punisher star Thomas Jane) finds his art studio and his boathouse in ruins after some trees fall during the storm. He's an artist who paints posters for Hollywood movies. After talking over the damage with his neighbor, New York lawyer Brent Norton (played by Andre Braugher) the two of them along with David's son drive to a local convenience store to pick up supplies. Before leaving they notice a strange mist floating in over the lake behind their houses.
While traveling to the store, they notice convoy after convoy of military personnel heading into the mist. Unperturbed, since they know there's a military base in the mountains, they continue on until they reach the store. With the storm knocking the power out, everyone in the town is anxiously buying up supplies. While in the store, a man comes running in, all bloodied shouting that there's "Something in the mist!!"
In a realistic fashion, most people think he's crazy, however a few do think that thing something strange is going on. One woman decides that people are just uptight and decides to head out to her car to grab something from it, and she doesn't come back. There aren't any screams, no car sounds, nothing.
Eventually one of the generators in the store, the one keeping the meat cold, is dying out. David heads in the back and notices something pushing on the metal loading dock door. He gets a few people in the store to assist him in fixing the generator and warns them about what he saw on the door. They laugh it off calling him a prissy know it all "big shot" and need to head outside to clear out a vent. When they open the gate and as the high school kid heads out to clear it, some very Lovecraftian tentacles push their way into the room. They grab the kid and as you can see by the picture, they don't shake his hand.
They manage to fight the tentacles off and close the door. As they report this to the people in the store, they think it's a joke. Those that just don't believe it, even after seeing a piece of the tentacle in the back, decide to march out, one of them tying a rope around their waist... to see if they make it at least 300 feet. They don't.
In the store, Mrs. Carmody (played by Marcia Gay Harden), is the town "crazy" who thinks that what's going on is the end of days. At first people dismiss her as a fanatic, but as shit starts to hit the fan she starts to gain followers, and eventually an inquisition.
The Mist is directed by Frank Darabont, the director of the Shawshank Redemption and the Green Mile. He brings that true to life style to this film in spades. The cast is top notch, and the pacing of the film is perfect for this genre of film. At it's heart, this is more about what people would do when the rules are gone than about the monsters.
I found the monsters to be more of a weak part of the story. My only criticism with the film would have been to keep most of the monsters shadowed in the mist keeping them more mysterious. That's not to say they look hokey or campy, but I think it looses a bit of the suspense when you see some of them and go "oh here's some CGI."
Thankfully that's still only few and far between. This film really shines in the scenes of people dealing with each other. How they succumb to fear, or how they conquer it.
I won't spoil the ending, but I haven't been this satisfied with an ending in a long time. It is absolutely fantastic and fits the genre like a glove. I absolutely loved this film, and it's probably the best suspense movie I've seen since the Exorcism of Emily Rose.
The Mist, originally published in the short story collection Skeleton Crew by Stephen King, has recently been made into a major motion picture. A major motion picture that I majorly watched last night... after Major Dad.. Yea...
