The Mist – Definitely One For The Collection

Wow – I read the short story years ago, I knew what was going to happen, the characters, etc. But I gotta say: this film gave me the serious willies regardless.

The Mist:

After a brutal thunderstorm pounds a small town, the residents discover a malevolent mist hangs over their homes, killing anyone who remains outside. Trapped in a grocery store, a band of survivors must make a stand against the deadly fog. Based on a story by horror maestro Stephen King and directed by multiple Oscar nominee Frank Darabont, this spine chiller stars Thomas Jane, Marcia Gay Harden and Andre Braugher.

The casting was great, the CGI was pretty good (the pharmacy scene was especially shuddersome, when the MP fell down and erupted into ‘spiders’, eh-huh-huh-huh), and the woman playing Mrs. Carmody…well, the answers.com entry says it best:

When the old Mrs. Carmody (Marcia Gay Harden) becomes convinced that she is the true vessel of God and begins barking fire and brimstone to the frightened prisoners of The Mist, things shift from just supernatural scary to real-world terrifying. An enthusiastic but harmless zealot at the onset, Mrs. Carmody eventually manages to make even spiky-tentacled monstrosities from another dimension look like they might be kind of cuddly by comparison. It's fascinating to see how the alliances unfold as the situation grows increasingly tense, and Darabont handles the growing division and animosity among the fractured survivors with the kind of skill that really draws the viewer in.

And that’s no lie – she gave me the utter willies, as she’s that scary sort of theist we atheists have nightmares about.

Another big plus – usually most King vehicles suck. Once Hollyweird gets a hold of wonderful stories, they tend to ‘modify’ (read: shred) them. If you’ve read Graveyard Shift the story, and watch the movie, you’ll tell yourself, “Hey, that’s not the story I read.” Same with Children of the Corn. Up until now, I’d maintained that the only flick that held true to a King story was The Dead Zone (the Christopher Walken film, not that dreadful TV derivative knock-off).

So I give it two fists up and a ‘hell-YEAH!’