Amanda Dunfrey: You don't have much faith in humanity, do you? Dan Miller: None, whatsoever.
A freak storm unleashes a species of blood-thirsty creatures on a small town, where a small band of citizens hole-up in a supermarket and fight for their lives.
Thomas Jane: David Drayton
Let's start by saying Frank Darabont can do no wrong when faced with bringing any novel to life in a movie adaptation. He wonderfully brought The Green Mile to life, as well as one of the greatest film adapt efforts in film history, The Shawshank Redemption. The Mist is relievedly not another gore fest or a predictable slasher effort. Granted it has its fair share of gruesome violent happenings, but it is the signature way in which King develops his characters and focuses on human nature, that turbulent emotion that allows Mist to succeed. As a novella, The Mist is like most of King's work?pulpy, scary, and compelling. The film, written and directed by Frank Darabont, is a stunning adaptation that manages to capture the slow burn of dread and desperation that permeates the novella. And while there is an uncanny titular similarity to John Carpenter's The Fog, this is an altogether different beast of bereavement.
The premise is of a simple nature, a brutal storm whips through a small community, movie poster artist David Drayton and his son, Bill(Nathan Gamble) head into town for supplies, accompanied by Norton(Andre Braugher), their argumentative next-door neighbour. Once they arrive at a small shopping plaza, a thick menacing mist descends upon them, capturing a large number of people inside a grocery store. The utter randomness of these proceeding is enough to make one puzzled yet I was glued to the screen, it turns out there are prehistoric-looking monsters waiting in the shrouded mystery and the inhabitants of the store become increasingly desperate for survival against the creatures that lurk out there.
''It appears we may have a problem of some magnitude.''
What transpires in Mist has alot of parallels to George Romero's Night of the Living Dead, a B movie whose guerrilla fearlessness and intellect pushed it into legitimacy and cult legend proportions. The Mist is as much about things that go bump in the night styling as the way in which trapped humans respond to such a fantastic dilemma. Like Living Dead the breakdown of social order and martial law is addressed and analyzed, the role of the military comes into focus, religious fundamentalism is embodied by evil self proclaimed visionary Mrs. Carmody(Marcia Gay Harden), a fire-and-brimstone type who becomes a macabre, sacrifice-minded beacon to the store's desperate denizens. In an era where most of today's horror crowd expects Hostels or SAWs every time they walk into a cinema, Darabont's script is built on a principle of logic and authentic human action (even when characters do things we know are unwise, their rationality is convincingly displayed for us to dissect) as opposed to manipulative twists and anticlimaxes. The ending is at once ballsy, depressing, and right. The Mist is less about otherworldly monsters, but more about mankind's uncanny ability to be the monster, to do evil upon each other.
That being said, The Mist of course also works as well as a traditional horror film, with several genuinely scary sequences involving mutant hybrids of prehistoric looking pterodactyls, infectious houseflies, and acid spewing spiders. The CG is well-utilized and the sharp editing keeps it from being overdone. Darabont transforms the creatures which are essentially '50s B-movie fodder into absolutely convincing visions of hell. This film jolts current horror trends by actually scaring the audience instead of merely repulsing them. Interestingly enough to finish off, The Mist is the opposite of The Shawshank Redemption in one crucial way. The Shawshank Redemption was about hope, friendship and life, The Mist is about hopelessness, despair and death. One thing that they do have in common in relation to each other is an astonishing conclusion. The ending of The Mist is wonderful, horrific, twisted and shocking resulting in having King's print all over it. The Mist is a true horror film in the sense it gives us a real ending, not a glossed over feel good one, but one that is believable, and that in itself is inspiration to me.
''As a species we're fundamentally insane. Put more than two of us in a room, we pick sides and start dreaming up ways to kill one another. Why do you think we invented politics and religion?''
When a thick fog descends upon a rural community and claims the lives of anyone unfortunate enough to be caught outside, a small band of survivors seeks refuge in a local grocery store. Now trapped in a darkened cloud of pure horror, the frightened denizens of the town are forced to fend off an advancing horde of murderous monsters.
Review When I go to see a Stephen King movie, I expect to find a multitude of well developed characters thrown into an incredible situation. This is exactly what was presented in The Mist. Not only did the people in the store react believably, but the acting itself was superb. Marcia Gay Harden's character was perfectly aggravating and the other powerful characters such as Ollie are what really brought me into the center of the action.
Aside from the social mastery of the film, the atmosphere was genuinely terrifying and each creature will make you shiver. The plot develops with plenty of conflicts and leads to a tense climax, which is followed by one shocking ending that will leave you wondering if you were ever on the right side. Of course there are tweaks and embellishments here and there but that cannot be avoided in a film like this. This is a thriller that you do not want to miss!
Just an okay movie. Although it's for a purpose I thought the duration was far too long. Believable characters and good actors make up for the annoying and stupid CGI and the ending was a disappointment for me. Yes, it's good - I know, but...
*Possible spoilers*
... I'll be damned if The Twilight Zone hasn't used it for one of its episodes.
It's astonishing, extroadinary, shocking and breathtaking. It's powerful and unforgettable all the way to it's emotionally devestating climax. An instant classic. A masterpiece. Director, Frank Darabont has crafted another excellent Stephen King adaptation that will blow you away. A truly freightning, spellbinding and exhilerating movie. It's terifying, gripping, deeply moving and incredably fun. It's relentlessly enjoyable, terifficly compelling and brilliantly crafted. A tremendously thrilling and extreamly chilling ride. Great speacial effects and dazzeling performances. Tom Jane is sensational, proving yet again that he is a born movie star. Marica Gay Harden is brilliant, showing us no one else could of played this role any better than she does here. It will keep you on the edge of your seat from begining to end. One of the best horror films in a long time, it relies on story and characters above all. But it has some good scares. A total powerhouse. Absolutely mind-blowing and utterly fantastic.
Ollie: We have to tell them. The people in the market. We have to stop them from going outside. David Drayton: They won't believe us. Ollie: They have to. David Drayton: I'm not sure I believe it, and I was here. What we saw was impossible. You know that, don't you? What do we say? How do we... convince them? Ollie, what the hell were those tentacles even attached to?
Here is another Stephen King horror movie adaptation. Like all of these, it has three sections: A neat set up, some kind of twist along the way to take things further, and then an ending that will polarize people.
Thomas "the Punisher" Jane stars as David Drayton, an everyman whose house was among many hit by a storm the previous night. He, his son, and his neighbor played by Andre Braugher all take a trip to the local grocery store in this small New England town.
It doesn't take long before a heavy mist covers the entire area, leaving a bunch of people stuck inside the store. Why are they stuck? Because there is something in the mist that you don't want to mess with. This is not much of spoiler when I tell you that its a variety of nasty creatures that kill.
Amanda Dunfrey: You don't have much faith in humanity, do you? Dan Miller: None, whatsoever. Amanda Dunfrey: I can't accept that. People are basically good; decent. My god, David, we're a civilized society. David Drayton: Sure, as long as the machines are working and you can dial 911. But you take those things away, you throw people in the dark, you scare the shit out of them - no more rules.
While in the store, there are a number of panicked people, as well as a crazy religious lady played by Marcia Gay Harden, who believes that this is the result of God's wrath.
Mrs. Carmody: We have Judas in our midst!
What follows are a number of scenes where people do panicky things, say stupid things, do stupid things, get killed, get religion, and get in a fighting mood.
It's B-movie horror, but it's well done B-movie horror. This is due to how the concept starts out fairly well, besides the fact that there are few answers.
The actors are fairly strong, particularly Thomas Jane, who I always like to see in things and Tobey Jones as your friendly store clerk Ollie. Nice work from Andre Braugher as well.
And then you have the direction from Frank Darabont of all people. He must have said, "Hey Stephen, Shawshank and Green Mile were fun, you have any books outside of prison I might want to do." Well he does a good job here as well, combining some of the larger scaled scenes with a lot of hand held work. To create a mood by having characters stare into a gray wall is impressive.
By the end of this movie, the music goes way over-the-top along with some of the events that transpire. By the very end however, is what will cause the most controversy between people. Suffice it to say, I enjoyed what happened and it separates it from most horror thrillers to a degree.
For a 127 minute movie, I was entertained throughout, even during some corny moments, but there was even a time to applaud, some impressive visuals, and some other memorable moments..
Furthermore, for some reason every I think about this movie, I think of how much I enjoyed it, and how well put together it was. That certainly reflects the way I like this movie.
David Drayton: Sure there's no way I can talk you out of this? Brent Norton: David, there's nothing out there. Nothing in the mist. David Drayton: What if you're wrong? Brent Norton: Then, I guess... the joke will be on me after all.
"As a species, we're fundamentally insane. Put two of us in a room, we pick sides, and start dreaming up reasons to kill one another. Why do you think we invented politics and religion?"
If one doesn't add "Stephen King's" before a title like The Mist, one won't probably be faulted if the first thing in one's mind is that it's one of those run of the mill horror films, like The Fog or The Haze (OK, so I made the last one up, it's actually a short film that recently competed in Berlin). And the trailers did suggest strange shenanigans happening inside a mist-shrouded town, so in the hands of any mediocre storyteller, it was so easy to make them go Boo. But The Mist turned out to be unexpectedly excellent, with audiences whooping for joy both at the right and wrong places.
Granted, sometimes Stephen King's work does make uninteresting films when adapted incorrectly and helmed dubiously, but Frank Darabont has proven himself with his previous King adaptations like The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile - one a masterpiece and the other a great film in its own right, both with excellent casting. Here, there's no Morgan Freeman, Tim Robbins or Tom Hanks to elevate the film to that level, but the direction doesn't rely on gimmicky tricks to frighten you, so in its measured calm and at times standard by-the-book style, it brings heightened tension every step of the way.
Thomas Jane - who always seemed like an underused actor to me - stars as David Drayton, a comic book artist whose house was smashed in one night by a tree during a bad storm. The next morning, he leaves his wife home and drives his kid and neighbour to the local supermarket to get supplies for home repairs, but not before realizing the army whizzing away at top speed. The pace picks up and within 10 minutes, the shoppers in the supermarket find themselves locked in as a mist descends upon them, with a frantic man running back to warn everyone that there's something within the mist.
If we're talking about a cliché story, you'll probably get wave after wave of attacks on the shoppers inside the supermarket, as they barricade themselves in for a fight for survival. However, all that turns out to be secondary, as it becomes clear that the story's not about it being a horror film, but a social mouthpiece about a couple of topics, all of which centre upon fear, and holding a mirror unto ourselves. We're afraid of the unknown, and chances are it'll lead us to make irrational decisions, sometimes firing from the hip. The film will constantly probe you into questioning how you would respond to the given situation, whether you'd break under pressure, or be able to maintain a sane mind in formulating survival plans.
And in the unknown, there would bound to be a Bible-thumper. Truth be told, I thought that the character of Mrs. Carmody (sounds like "comedy", played by Marcia Gay Harden) would be one that the censors here might be touchy with, given how she was portrayed in extremely negative light. In times like these where there's a huge question mark hanging over you, there will be those who turn to religion for answers, and sometimes they may drift into the fanatical zone on the words of false prophets. Then I realized that this of course could be left as a warning against extremism, that it doesn't, most of the time, solve problems, but create them, and in the false name of God, makes it easier to do so too, in persuading others to join in the lost cause.
Naturally, the preservation of self also takes centre stage, and does so very early, almost from the start - how we think of others having ulterior motives against ourselves, and just how much would we contribute for the greater good, or toward fellow friends and acquaintances. And this rams itself in with a key ironic scene, that sometimes, on positive karma, you may be rewarded for the good things you've done for others. There was a tinge of sadness, pity and sense of woe in the ending, and I loved every minute of it, even though you may have guessed how it would turn out to be. I didn't expect Frank Darabont/Stephen King to have the brass balls they had to pull it off, but it just had to be to evoke those emotions, making it all the more powerful, and wretched, at the same time. I've heard a lot of people referring to this film as "fun." Honestly, watching this was all but fun to me. It was actually pretty sad.
Despite it being devoid of a soundtrack until the final moments, I thought it was highly effective in not having one, letting ambient noise play a primary role. It allowed all our senses to be focused on how things were developing during the film, without having music to emotionally manipulate our thought process and opinions. There are moments that you had to judge, without being biased by any particular soundtrack playing over the background. Of course, interspersed nicely between scenes of questioning, are the scenes of the usual action-adventure that you'll come to enjoy, often times squealing together with the characters (and depending on the audience, them too) as the unfortunate faceless/characterless few start to succumb to the out-of-the-world creatures.
The Mist is a celebration of level-headed agnosticism, easily read as both anti-science and anti-religion, anti-military and anti-civilian. The twist ending (which I obviously won't give away, except that it follows Jane doing something stupid), taken with the conversion of the grocery store's masses, serves as a warning to the audience: basically, disasters may cause a tragic loss of life, but it doesn't mean it's the end of the world. Instead, he suggests that maybe Americans, to their own detriment, have overreacted to what happened on September 11th (and I mean politically speaking, not humanly), and maybe they ought to try and gather their wits and remember what their country used to stand for before giving into their fear and doing something rash like, say... starting a war.
"Shut up, you miserable buzzard! Stoning people who piss you off is perfectly okay. They do it in the Bible, don't they? And I got lots of peas!"
A movie based on a Stephen King's novel. Very good suspense, good horror and mystery. Everything is okay for two hours of the movie but everything falls down on the last five minutes because of its horrible ending. Also the cast have great performances again until the last five minutes. In conclusion, if you wanna enjoy this movie please skip the end.
Never, EVER watch a Frank Darabont movie again. EEEEVVVEEERRRR. Nothing made sense. At all. It was ridiculous. You honestly will barely care if ANYON E survives because they like to all stand around like sheep and squabble, even when their getting killed...and no, the drama in the store is a horrible excuse for entertainment, or even sense.
Lastly, don't read on if you don't wanna know the ending. Cause I'm saying it. Right now. The few that decide to and succeed in getting away...run out of gas...pull out their gun...and the main character decides to kill everyone to save them INCLUDING his gun, and then a tank and the army rolls up next to them. Who kills his son? Who does that? No one. Oh my god. I don't even *want* to touch the ideological nonesense preaching. Seriously. Bad. Never. Ever. Don't. Not.
What a nice surprise! This had pretty much everything you can think of to work out awfully wrong (especially for me, as I tend to dislike this kind of theme), but it turned out to be quite the opposite. Darabont is becoming quite a regular when it comes to adapt King's stories to the big screen, and he keeps doing a good job at it.
Surely one of the best of 2007. Not that it had that much competition to begin with. But still, it deserves to be praised.
Can't actually write that much about it, as I would probably ruin some parts. It's one of those that the less you know when you start to see it, the better.
Suffice it to say that the eerie, creepy feeling typical in King's novels is there. You sense it throughout pretty much the entire movie, and that's a big plus when one is trying to accomplish something good with King's work.
As for the cast, brilliant job in gathering it. Thomas Jane has a performance that was perfect at all levels. You may regard this opinion of mine as an overstatement, because it's not exactly an oscar nominee role, but if that's the case, let me try to express my feelings about it:
- for the most part of it, it is indeed far from a brilliance prone role, but that's what makes it clever. He's able to be completely low profile when he has to, and when he has to "explode"... he really pulls off a tremendous job, coherent, down to earth and emotionally very believable;
- I don't fucking care.
Another side note goes for Marcia Gay Harden. She was able to be, literally speaking, one of THE most irritating God fearing freaks I've ever seen. I still wanted to fill her mouth with rat poison long before the movie was over.
I think I still do.
But that's probably also because me and God have some issues.
But despite all this, clearly the biggest outcome of The Mist was saved for the end. I know there are some people who liked it, and some who didn't.
As for me, I can honestly say it was one of the most genius ones I've came across with so far. Perfect display of human emotions.
You certainly won't forget it anytime soon. Or at least you shouldn't.
Effective and creepy. The spider creatures were icky adversaries; they defeated the townspeople in gruesome and painful fashion; sorta reminded me of Cloverfield. There were good Stephen King character dynamics and apocalyptic references. I liked the opera music to accompany the spooky mood. It had a powerful ending which I didn't expect. A decent suspense flick.
This was certainly one of the biggest surprises of 2007, and one of the better horror films in recent memory
We've seen the scenario a thousand times. While the bloodthirsty creatures lurk around, the humans are left bickering. Night of the Living Dead, Aliens, The Thing, you name it. However... although The Mist doesn't exactly offer much "new" to the table, it shows these fundamental building blocks of a great horror movie and adds it's own unexpected twists here and there. The movie is very familiar, yet we never feel like we know what's going to happen... that, in my opinion, is what separates a good horror movie from a great one.
It's not long before we're lunged into the supermarket and attacked by the creatures lurking within The Mist. And shortly thereafter, we're introduced to Mrs. Carmody - a woman perhaps more frightening than the creatures themselves. She gives a wonderful performance and makes a rather silly and over the top role fairly plausible. Another standout was Ollie, played by Toby Jones, who is the classic "geeky guy who kicks ass".
At first, I wasn't sure what to make of all the religious and political overtones. I think that they can be very effective at times, but at the same time all the Bush-bashing and what not in the post-9/11 world is extremely played out and tiresome. However, I don't feel the story ever meant to criticize the status of our country... rather, it's a study of humans themselves. It doesn't point fingers at any certain government or religious belief. Ollie makes this clear in a line early on about how we (mankind) create politics and religion out of fear. There's lots of clever little lines like that which always show us what the next step in the story is.
The creatures themselves look very good. I heard complaints about them looking too fake, but it never bothered me at all... when you have CGI creatures interacting with people or flying through supermarkets, it's not going to get too much better than this. I thought it was more than acceptable. In fact, pick any of the monsters from this movie and it's more creative and horrifying than the Cloverfield monster.
There has been plenty of debate in regards to the ending of the movie. First, I will say that I absolutely loved it in concept. I didn't feel it was out of place at all (it'd been led up to with images of blood + milk, etc.), and it was horrifying in it's irony. That being said, I thought the execution was a bit poor... the music was extremely cliched and silly, and the slow motion during some of the end scenes made it almost embarrassing to watch. I liked that the movie kept itself fairly quiet and reserved in regards to the soundtrack, and wish they had left it quiet here as well.
Definitely worth going out of your way to see, a very good modern horror film.
A lot cooler than I expected. The creatures certainly look like video games, but their designs are neat. Nothing like watching a guy explode and have hundreds of spiders burst out.
After a serve thunderstorm hits a small Maine Coastal town knocking out power, a mist quickly rolls in engulfing the town. The Mist is carrying a deadly secret within its contents. The townspeople are trapped inside the local grocery unable to get out. If the townsfolk step outside they quickly engulfed and attacked by the creatures covered by The Mist?s thick covering. Now the townsfolk must put up a defense and survive the creatures? unrelenting attacks.
The Mist is based a Novella by Stephen King. This movie is one of the best horror movies I have ever seen. The ending is also one of the greatest you will ever witness from a Hollywood movie. Though some people may be angered by the ending to this movie just like some were angered by the ending of No Country For Old Men, the movie portrays a true to life ending for a change. People sometimes need to deviate from fantasy and have to learn that sometimes Hollywood movies or movies in general have a realistic ending. People need to actually put themselves in the situation of the thespians on screen and think how they would react. Not every movie has a happy ending and sometimes your mind craves realism in a movie instead of all the happy, wish-wash endings and popcorn flicks we are usually served by the film studios. The Mist receives five patches of fog out of five for being an instant classic and a truly terrifying movie.
The Mist is one of the bleakest horror films to come out of Hollywood in many a moon, but with some points that can be taken. This isn't trash or torture-porn, but an expertly crafted piece of sci-fi/horror fiction that can only come from someone as bravely demented as Stephen King (or rather from what appears to be a bravely demented creativity that, of course, knows no bounds). In fact, it's more comparable to the most succinct and terrifying that 1950s sci-fi movies offered, where creepy monsters and huge insects and things crawl all over and in the darkest places, but it's the human beings and how they react- and how society is reflected ten-fold in the reaction- that counts. Truth be told, the actual plastics of the film are well-done; the monsters themselves, which are explained only for a moment as a throwaway by a frightened soldier who says this mist and the creatures that come from it are from another dimension and there's some sort of portal or other, are delightfully nasty. The premise is this: an out-of-towner (Thomas Jane) is in a small sea-side Maine town when after a heavy storm a mist starts to crawl over the town, and as he goes to the supermarket to get supplies, with practically everyone else in town getting things, the mist comes completely over, a man runs out "there's something in the mist!" he says, and the door slams shut. From there-on there's a struggle on the fronts of, simply, what to do: Jane just wants to know what they're up against, how to get to the cars, how to get the hell out; Andre Braugher's character, a lawyer, might be the most rational, thinks it's poppycock that anything is out there even after the encounter some of the men have with the tentacled creature at the loading dock; and Marcia Gay Harding, in one of the great examples of playing a one-note character so right, is a hardcore bible-thumper who riles up those inside of the supermarket to realize that the end of the world is coming ala Revelations, and that she- following not getting killed while standing still by one of the alien-bugs- is the wrath of God. I really enjoyed watching this movie. It was complex, entertaining and a bit depressing,
Pretty good,I can actually saw that I Did read the book on this a long time ago,I am a Stephen King and Dean Koontz Junkie.Anyway of course the book was better.Thomas Jane looked mighty nicce,not even a quarter as nice as The Punisher thats for dam sure.The rest of the cast I did not even recpognize,except for Jane's wife.It was pretty good,had some good effects and jump outta your seat moments ,Just not Over the top Spectacular.
I finally got out to see this film - it's an adaptation I'd been very much looking forward to; the Stephen King story on which it is based being one of my all-time favourite works of short fiction. Having seen it, it really saddens me that this film pretty much bombed in theaters and was so criminally overlooked. I sincerely hope it gets its due business on DVD because The Mist is an awesome film, and one of the best adaptations of King's work ever to hit the screen. There were a couple issues with it but I'll get to those later. Why both the story and the film work so well is that, as well being a truly frightening horror story, the core of the story is examining what happens when a group of ordinary people are cooped up together and you strip them of authority and political and social structure, and introduce the concept of true chaos into their lives. Thankfully, the film also really captured the essence of this concept extremely well - locked up in the grocery store with these people we see and identify with what they're going through, and can so easily start to think about how we would react if in their shoes. In terms of acting, it's tough to pick out individuals because this film is so much about a mass of humanity, but Thomas Jane and Toby Jones definitely stood out. I dug all the creature effects and kudos to the set designers - everything in the film pretty much looked like I thought it should when reading the story. I dug the directing and editing; the chapter-like fading in and out of scenes was cool. As adaptations go, The Mist is pretty faithful to the source, except on two critical points, which is the issues arose. For one thing, in the story, although the main chunk of it still takes place in the grocery store, the relationship between David and his wife and their child is developed really well, and their goal of trying to get back to her is a powerful and tragic one. In the film, we're barely introduced to David's wife, and given no context by which to identify with her other than the mere fact of who she is to the other characters. Of course, there isn't as much time to do this in a film, but they could have easily spent a few more minutes developing the relationship so that it has more impact on the rest of the story. And then there is the ending. In the story we are given an "Alfred Hitchcock", completely ambiguous. I liked it that way. But this is not so in the film, where a definitive ending is presented, I assume to appease the mass audiences. Having said that, I liked the ending in the film, it fit and it was well done, but I still would have preferred an open ending in the spirit of the story. Anyway, this is a very good film and beats the pants off most of the horror flicks that come out these days. So stop stalling and give it some support!
I've read the short story and thought it was awesome, when I actually got to see I was super excited and very much pleased..all the way till the last 5 minutes then I was just really dissapointed and pissed. The last 5 minutes have nothing to do with the original Stephen King story. That had a great ending (very King like) and the movie totally messed that up
This gets one star for the ending and the half star for sheer generosity b/c I don't think it really deserved it. The acting was horrendous and there was about 1 1/2 hrs of useless/worthless dialogue. Like the crazy Christian lady, we had to hear like 3 of her sermons. We got the point that she was crazy, but they had to show it over and over. And Thomas Jane had some dumb conversations with his son, the typical "I love you more than anything" lines. If not for the great twist ending, I would have completely hated this movie.
MCT:November 28, 2008
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