The Mist

If you're the kind of viewer who likes character studies that don't bog you down in character, but seamlessly blends in the action of the story, The Mist is a good one for you. Stephen King's The Mist is well done here, bringing to this terrifying life a well rounded and excellent cast facing the fear of an unknown monster rising out of a MIST that has moved in over this town. Taking the time to give us a cast of characters - people - who's personalities, weaknesses and strengths are put to a test in a group setting, reminds easily of any movies, book, or experience of group dynamics put to the test. This The Mist is well done and one of the best interpretations of a King story out there. It's up there with Rose Red, The Langoliers, and King's own remake of The Shinning. For me it's the characters; an outstanding insight into human emotion, action, and reaction in the face of fear - what King does best.In a stellar cast led by Thomas Jane with the outstanding Marcia Gay Hardin in one of her best, albeit horrible portrayals, others here bring people to life we all know and perhaps are in our own lives. As The Mist moves into town, these folks are trapped in a grocery store - a brilliant location for the setting of a couple days in a horror film - all kinds of personality comes to light and all kinds of ways to face down the demons, both inside and out of each person. As things grow worse our band of merry humans must decide how they'll deal with the death waiting outside and the growing panic within. NO SPOILERS here, the ending is pure King and if you've made it this far in the film, it'll leave you considering your own life and others and what you would do in ways that are thought provoking and fear inducing. But brilliant.I am not the kind of fan of "horror" that likes the blood and gore kind of stuff. I'll watch it, but I much prefer the intelligence of thought provoking. I feel its grip can be far more intense and far deeper than "simply giving us blood and gore." That's not to say I won't watch that kind... and there is some solid gore here, don't worry. It's that I like the observations around thoughtful horror - it's far scarier and more real.This is a great date night movie, rainy afternoon, or even that scare-you-to-death fun of horror. The Mist is pure King at his and it's finest.

I've been looking for the past several years for a deeply affecting and really excellent horror film, and this is it. Films like JOHN CARPENTER'S THE THING and David Cronenberg's remake of THE FLY are about as great as you can get, because not only are they excellent horror films with taut and terrifying moments, they transcend the genre itself. Where Carpenter's THE THING is at its heart a story of utter paranoia and distrust and Cronenberg's THE FLY is a star-crossed love story set against the backdrop of the over-extension of man's reach, Frank Darabont's THE MIST is about how easily and quickly society can break down to its basest and ugliest forms when confronted with a seemingly apocalyptic threat.Thomas Jane (in what should have been a star-making role) plays David Drayton, a mild-mannered artist in a coastal Maine town who finds himself as the voice of reason when an eerie mist blows into town which may or may not be concealing an army of preternatural forces, trapping a small but substantial section of the townspeople in the local supermarket. He, along with his young son Billy (a nicely-cast Nathan Gamble) a pretty young schoolteacher Amanda (played beautifully by Laurie Holden) and a wonderfully crotchety old lady (played by Frances Sternhagen), along with a few others, are trying to hold their ground and their grip on an already-tenuous situation against local Bible-thumping lunatic Mrs. Carmody (played a little too over-the-top by the usually understated Marcia Gay Harden) who is using some unusual coincidences to prove that this attack is the wrath of God, and using the other townspeople's fear to cause a threat within the store that rivals the threat from without.It's easy to dismiss this film as simple escapism, but it is so much more. Great performances by Jane, Holden, Sternhagen and supporting players Andre Braugher and William Sadler put this film above the recent flurry of classic horror remakes, watered-down Japanese-to-American retcons and the "torture porn" sub-genre that have been masquerading as horror films, and it does so with great writing, great effects, great direction and the single most disturbing ending of a film since David Fincher's SE7EN.The last horror film that I saw that seemed truly original and terrifying and iconic was Victor Salva's JEEPERS CREEPERS. While this film may not be quite as visceral as that, it's still been five years since that film came out and since then, for the most part, Hollywood has been cranking out films like THE RING, THE GRUDGE, remakes of THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE, HALLOWEEN and THE HILLS HAVE EYES, and the ad nauseam SAW series and its fellow torturers HOSTEL and TURISTAS. Every so often, a terrific little indie horror gem like Lucky Mckee's MAY or John Fawcett's GINGER SNAPS will pop up, but that's all they do. THE MIST is the only horror film to come out of Hollywood in the last 5 years that has had any lasting effect on me, like the great horror films of the 70's like HALLOWEEN, THE EXORCIST, THE OMEN, or some of the greats of the 80's like THE THING, THE FLY or NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET. All of these films transcend the genre as THE MIST does, and it really seems like this is a dying breed of horror film when this film does half the business of lesser recent entries like I AM LEGEND, or 30 DAYS OF NIGHT, where, while decent films, are hardly the films that are likely to keep you up nights haunting you. THE MIST will either haunt you or anger you, but it will provoke debate, especially with an ending that may be on the level of nihilism that rivals that of Romero's original NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD.For my money, this was one of the very best films of last year, and I can only hope that in the future, this is a film that will be revisited and rediscovered as many of the now-classic horror films have been.