The Mist

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.

The Mist is director Frank Darabont's shot at doing an actual horror film that's similar to those made during the 1950s. Just think of Them, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, It Came From Beneath the Sea, and you'll have of what he was trying to do with Stephen King's most famous novella. It should also be noted that the movie is in both color and black and white on the Two-Disc Collector's Edition. Simply take your pick of which version you want to watch. Let it be known up front that if you decide to watch this movie hoping to see a Frank Darabont film (The Green Mile and The Shawshank Redemption), you're likely to be disappointed with the product. While The Mist is an entertaining, well-made movie for its genre, it's not going to be nominated for any Academy Awards.For those of you who haven't read the novella or seen the movie, the story deals with a large group of people who find themselves trapped inside a local grocery store when a heavy mist drifts in from the surrounding woodlands, enveloping the entire Maine town and bringing with it an array of dangerous and hungry creatures in search of some subsistence. It's not important how the mist came to be, though the film points to a military experiment gone wrong with the creatures entering our world from another dimension. What's really unusual about this story isn't so much the danger that awaiting patiently outside the grocery store, but rather the danger that's inside the place. As the tale progresses and the fear for their lives intensifies, the trapped people quickly split into two distinct camps with one being led by a religious zealot and the other by a sensible everyday man who simply wants to get himself and his young son back to safety. The underlying current here is how swiftly the thin veneer of civilization can slip away when human beings are trapped and filled with an increasing fear for their lives with nowhere to turn. The rest of the story deals with what happens inside the store, especially when some the jaw-smacking creatures breach the defenses that have been placed to keep them out. The good citizens of the store prove to be infinitely more frightening than the strange things outside in the mist.I have to be honest and say that I was disappointed in the film when I first saw it in the theater. I certainly didn't like the ending and the lack of hope it represented to me. When the DVD set came out, I purchased it for my film library and decided to watch the movie a second time. This proved to be a good thing because I found myself enjoying the film a lot more the second time around and could see how well made it actually was. I still had problems with the finale because it was like everyone you cared about gave up at the end, not wanting to be food for the creatures hidden within the mist. The ending to Stephen King's novella was completely different, but he's publicly stated that if he'd come up with Darabont's ending when originally writing the story, he'd gone with it. Certainly the ending has provoked a great deal of controversy with the fans. I think it's also strange that I liked the more realistic ending of the Director's Cut of 1408, but didn't enjoy it here. Still, the movie's very entertaining with a number of scenes that will have you jumping in your seat. It's fast pace with extremely good acting by Thomas Jane, Academy Award Winner Marcia Gay Harden, Toby Jones (who played Truman Capote the year before), Laurie Holden, the always fabulous Jeffrey DeMunn (The Green Mile, The Shawshank Redemption, and Hollywoodland), and Andre Braugher (who was in the remake of Salem's Lot for television).As I wrote earlier, the Two-Disc Collector's Edition has the movie in both color and black and white formats. There's a commentary by Frank Darabont, which is always fun to listen to, and a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the movie and the creation of many of its special effects. This is definitely a movie that all horror buffs should have in their film library. I'm certainly glad that I bought the DVD set and gave the movie another chance.