The Mist (2007)

I hope I’m stuck in a supermarket when a mysterious mist comes to me. I could have all the food I wanted.

After a brutal thunderstorm pounds a small town, the residents (Thomas Jane, Toby Jones, Marcia Gay Harden, Andre Braugher, and more) discover a malevolent mist hangs over their homes, killing anyone who remains outside. Now, trapped in a grocery store, a band of survivors must make a stand against the deadly fog.

Frank Darabont is known for directing Stephen King novel adaptations (The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile, and The Majestic). All are good films, but are dramatic pieces, this is not so much like any of them, but in a surprisingly good way.

The Mist is one of those B-movie thrillers that is very campy, but used so well, to the point of where you almost forget what your watching. Darabont does a great job of using a tense atmosphere to convey enough emotions for when the real action comes, you are on the edge of your seat. There is barely any score music at all, and it works well, because this is just a prime example that silence sometimes can be the scariest thing of all. The film also never really jumps into the action, or “The Mist” right away, it just calmly goes step by step, and you still can feel the suspense of what’s going to happen.

Darabont’s script works very well cause it shows how real human beings, if put in a situation like this, would react or the choices they would make to come out alive. He does a lot of religious bashing with the majority of the people forming a band together, and answer God’s call.

I did have a problems with this film that actually got in the way more than I thought. This film is a B-movie in a way, and the special effects in this are really cheesy. When they first pop-out at you, I started to chuckle cause it reminded me that I was watching something from the Sci-Fi channel. The screenplay is good, but these people are just so stupid sometimes that I couldn’t just want some of them to die. There is one instance where they are trying to convince this one dude that there’s a monster outside, and they have tentacle from it, but he keeps on thinking it’s just a joke, and their trying to make him look stupid. I’m just sitting there thinking, too late my friend, you already do look stupid. There are plenty of other instances, but I can’t give them all away.

And shall we not forget that ending!!! Or should I say………THE ENDING!!!!!! Right before I watched this my friend Bill told me after I see the ending I will say, “what the fuck”, but he didn’t tell me in what kind of emotion. The ending is kind of a let-down, but its also pretty depressing, and since it’s different from the original source material, I didn’t quite know what the whole point of it was. For some, it will piss people off, or just be an OK ending. Me, I’m still trying to decide.

The cast is alright to say the least, and they do good jobs with their material. Thomas Jane, is good here as David Drayton, the one man that seems to have the brains, as well as the strength to do almost everything smart in this movie. Toby Jones is the man in this movie, he plays the geeky brave dude really well here, and he is instantly a likable character. Marcia Gay Harden does the best job, playing a character that is so unstable, crazy, and just so unlikable, that you really do just want her dead. She does a great job with ll of her speeches, about God, and religion, but she makes this totally unlikable character, that somehow you just want her to shut her face.

Consensus: The Mist is well-acted, tensely written and directed by Frank Darabont, but is a let-down with its ending, some plot holes in the script, and the unintentionally hilarious special effects.

7.5/10=Rental!!!