The Mist is one of the best Stephen King film adaptations ever; right along side The Shaw shank Redemption and The Shining. However, this is also one of the best films of the year, period. Frank Darabount (who was responsible for the Shaw shank redemption and the other King film, The Green Mile) has taken a short story no less, and turned it into the most intense two hours you will spend in a theater this year, or any year for that matter.
The film starts very abruptly with a violent thunder storm, leaving a small town with slight damage and no electricity. The locals gather together at the local grocery store, and it is here that we meet the varied and stereotypical set of characters. The crazy religious nut (played with so much over the top glee by Oscar winner Marcia gay harden that you start to think televangelism is her true calling) the nebbish store clerk (who is given his heroic moment to shine) the cute young cashier who has all the boys falling over her, and the awkward bagger boy. The last two most definitely NOT falling into the clichéd disaster movie mold. And that is where this film succeeds. It starts off like any other horror film/disaster movie. You have all the elements set up, as they start to play out, as the mist rolls in and people start to disappear, and then start to die, and then start to panic, the clichés are thrown out the window one by one.
There are some familiar faces in the crowd, Gay harden for one, Thomas Jane (punisher) and André Braugher (Poseidon) all give stellar performances, and some street cred to what is otherwise a creature feature, but the order in which they, and others (i.e. small innocent children) are dispatched in increasingly more gruesome ways makes it impossible to tell who the “star” is, who is the clear villain and hero. All these lines are blurred in what quickly becomes a parable on the human condition, and the violence that is inherently in the hearts of man. This becomes all the more apparent when the Religious spinster starts preaching about god, and the end of days, and signs, especially when her biblical premonitions start eerily coming true. The people start having to choose sides, and a little civil war erupts. Suffice it to say not all the deaths in the film are inflicted by other worldly beasts.
Speaking of creatures, nothing can prepare you for the slimy, scaily, tentacled, acid webbed monsters that slither out of the mist. Some of them are vaguely familiar to bugs we all know, just altered (spiders for example, only the size of a coffee table) or mosquitoes (only the size of footballs and with seriously more bite) and others are so foreign the person who came up with their design should be handed an Oscar for creativity, or locked up. You don’t see nary a hint of them for the first hour or so, but once they show up, it’s a non
stop assault on the senses.
The people are killed off one by one at a time (actually, more like five by eight) until the climactic sequence. Now, I hate to discuss endings, but here I feel I must give a warning. For anyone who loves happy endings, or at least hopeful endings, stay AWAY!!! This film has the most HORRIFYING, SHOCKING, ending ever put to film. It’s not a twist, it’s not “the sixth sense,” they never give a solid explanation of what’s going on in the mist, but the ending here is so slap you in your face bleak, you’ll either love that a film had the balls to go there, or you’ll cry foul at the irony. It IS however, the logical, and dare I say realistic conclusion to what precedes it though.
The Mist is my favorite film of 2007, not THE BEST (Black Snake Moan is probably still on the top of that list) but this is the most fun you’ll have being scared in a LONG time, quite possibly ever.
The film starts very abruptly with a violent thunder storm, leaving a small town with slight damage and no electricity. The locals gather together at the local grocery store, and it is here that we meet the varied and stereotypical set of characters. The crazy religious nut (played with so much over the top glee by Oscar winner Marcia gay harden that you start to think televangelism is her true calling) the nebbish store clerk (who is given his heroic moment to shine) the cute young cashier who has all the boys falling over her, and the awkward bagger boy. The last two most definitely NOT falling into the clichéd disaster movie mold. And that is where this film succeeds. It starts off like any other horror film/disaster movie. You have all the elements set up, as they start to play out, as the mist rolls in and people start to disappear, and then start to die, and then start to panic, the clichés are thrown out the window one by one.
There are some familiar faces in the crowd, Gay harden for one, Thomas Jane (punisher) and André Braugher (Poseidon) all give stellar performances, and some street cred to what is otherwise a creature feature, but the order in which they, and others (i.e. small innocent children) are dispatched in increasingly more gruesome ways makes it impossible to tell who the “star” is, who is the clear villain and hero. All these lines are blurred in what quickly becomes a parable on the human condition, and the violence that is inherently in the hearts of man. This becomes all the more apparent when the Religious spinster starts preaching about god, and the end of days, and signs, especially when her biblical premonitions start eerily coming true. The people start having to choose sides, and a little civil war erupts. Suffice it to say not all the deaths in the film are inflicted by other worldly beasts.
Speaking of creatures, nothing can prepare you for the slimy, scaily, tentacled, acid webbed monsters that slither out of the mist. Some of them are vaguely familiar to bugs we all know, just altered (spiders for example, only the size of a coffee table) or mosquitoes (only the size of footballs and with seriously more bite) and others are so foreign the person who came up with their design should be handed an Oscar for creativity, or locked up. You don’t see nary a hint of them for the first hour or so, but once they show up, it’s a non
stop assault on the senses.The people are killed off one by one at a time (actually, more like five by eight) until the climactic sequence. Now, I hate to discuss endings, but here I feel I must give a warning. For anyone who loves happy endings, or at least hopeful endings, stay AWAY!!! This film has the most HORRIFYING, SHOCKING, ending ever put to film. It’s not a twist, it’s not “the sixth sense,” they never give a solid explanation of what’s going on in the mist, but the ending here is so slap you in your face bleak, you’ll either love that a film had the balls to go there, or you’ll cry foul at the irony. It IS however, the logical, and dare I say realistic conclusion to what precedes it though.
The Mist is my favorite film of 2007, not THE BEST (Black Snake Moan is probably still on the top of that list) but this is the most fun you’ll have being scared in a LONG time, quite possibly ever.
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