The Mist

After a freak storm springs up, artist David Drayton packs up his son and heads to town for some groceries and supplies to patch up his newly broken window. While David and Billy are in the local grocery stocking up, the town begins to notice a strange mist starting to envelope their small town. Most shrug this occurrence off as yet another strange weather pattern until one of their local residents are seen sprinting ahead of the clouds in a panic state. With cries of ‘There’s something in the mist!’ he makes his way to the store just as the surrounding fog progresses to the store front. Most feel the man’s obviously skipped a track until they hear the screams from the parking lot. Soon they are trapped inside a grocery store as mysterious noises and monsters emerge from the mist to assault their strong hold. With a mixed bag of locals, religious zealots, and strong willed tourists trapped inside, soon the survivors begin to cave under the pressure. Is there an end to the mist? Is there a cause to the mist? There’s only one way to find out.

Originally a novella in Stephen King’s Skeleton Crew collection, “The Mist” was one of my first foray’s into King’s unique brand of kookiness. Filled with mystery, monsters, and despair, the story understandably left an indelible mark upon my young junior high aged self. For many years one of my favorite King stories, few out ranked it. With that in mind, it’s pretty understandable that I went into the theatrical release with pretty freaking high expectations; after all, I’ve only been waiting for a movie version of this for like…twenty one years. When it was announced that Frank Darabont would be helming this particular creature feature, I was quite ecstatic for one, and my expectations rose even higher. After all, Darabont gave us “Shawshank Redemption” and “The Green Mile”. It’s pretty easy to say that he’s given us quite possible two of the best King adaptations set to film. Settling in for this two hour ride, I beheld a school boy grin as I finally got to see this gruesome tale of survival come to life. And guess what? I wasn’t disappointed; for the most part.

Speaking from the point of view of the scared as shit little boy who first discovered “The Mist” way back in ‘86, I loved nearly every aspect of the film adaptation. The despair was thick, the monsters were wondrous, the fear in the Food House could almost be tasted. Much of what I remember picturing in my head while reading through came to life on the big screen at last. Wasting no time to get the fun started, the film kicks off in a hurry and doesn’t look back. With a near perfect atmosphere to set us on our way, the town’s fire whistle begins to blow it’s lonely howl as the mist creeps across the parking lot unsettling us and making you on edge from the get go. As the critters begin to arrive there are jump scares a plenty as well as some good blood and guts when needed. All melds together to make a tense horror flick that sets your hair on end at the start, and keep it there throughout it’s two hour running time. For the scares, “The Mist” is spot on.

Adding to this aspect, there is an excellent story layered across the top; a story of society on the verge of apocalypse and how the fragile mind, and mob, holds up to such pressure and possibilities. As the survivors holed up in the Food Shack start to consider the ramifications of where they are stuck, things begin to break down. Turning to Thomas Jane in the form of David Drayton, they find an unsuspecting leader to at least help keep them focused on a task as opposed to running around in blind panic. Thankfully, Thomas Jane was up to the task and made the perfect fit for Mr. Drayton. Many will remember Jane from his last role as “The Punisher”; fear not, action star he is not this time around. Filled with emotion and believable concern for those around him and more importantly, his son, he managed to make this quiet hero work well. For his polar opposite, we get Marcia Gay Harden as Mrs. Carmody, the local religious fanatic spouting fire and brimstone from the rafters and scaring those trapped with her into following her word. For Ms. Harden, she made it easy for us to dislike her character and gasp with astonishment as she fell deeper and deeper into her religious insanity. With these two opposites playing off of each other we begin to see how the group mentality can kick in and how fear can make you believe in things you may not have the day before. Essentially, this group dynamic and the break down of society is the true plot of “The Mist”; the monsters and critters are there to give them a cause to panic.

As you can see, I am pretty in love with “The Mist”. I sing high praise of Darabonts handling of the characters, plots, and baddies. All is with good reason too; it’s pretty intense stuff. All is not well in Mr. King’s fictional land of Maine however; to all good things must come and end, and unfortunately they managed to screw the pooch when they got there.

Don’t get me wrong; I’ve seen many books made into movies and things have to be changed. It is inevitable and necessary and I can deal with it. However in “The Mist”, they managed to change the ending of the book but in doing so, they managed to fundamentally change the meat of the story and therein lies my problems. I’m not totally blind here, I can see how Darabont’s new ending can be seen as a good thing by those that have not read the book. I am also aware that most likely myself and others who have read the book are probably in the minority. I can even see where they were going with their changes and why; they just took two steps too far. There are two fundamental changes that I remember from the ending of the book. If the movie would have finished just five minutes sooner at the end of the first change, this would have been a phenomenal movie and garnered a five out of five for sure. Instead we’ve lost a couple points and left me in a pissy mood for the rest of the night.

“The Mist” is a phenomenal horror flick in it’s own right, and deserves it’s spot in the Darabont/King team up portfolio. It is easily as good as “Shawshank” and “Green Mile”, but for different reasons. For fans of the original novella, be prepared for that last five minutes but by all means, don’t let that stop you from seeing it. The rest of it is spot on and worth your nine dollars. For those of you coming into this completely clean? Enjoy the ride and just be prepared, you’re going to be depressed as hell when you’re done!

4 things that go bump in the mist out of 5