The Mist

Pop quiz. Tell me, what do you consider to be the most successful Stephen King adaptation, made for film or television? "Carrie"? "The Dead Zone"? "Salem's Lot"? "Stand By Me"? No! Not "Maximum Overdrive"!! (And if that is your choice, may God forgive you, because I won't.)

All of the above, except "Maximium Overdrive" of course, are great pieces of work. But my choice as the benchmark Stephen King adaptation would probably be "The Shawshank Redemption", directed by Frank Darabont.

Stephen King has been very good for Frank Darabont. "The Shawshank Redemption" has become a modern classic and "The Green Mile" was nearly as good. I am glad to say that "The Mist" is nearly as good again.

"The Mist" is a great film, perfectly structured, but a film that requires patience. It is a film of the slow build and of a gradual getting to know the characters, their obsessions, their fears and prejudices. It was nice to see a King horror film where his great talent of touching on the reality of a small town, has been exploited. It makes it all the more horrific when all hell does break loose, because the people who are getting hurt are ones that you know.

Thomas Jane is faintly wooden. Personally I would not have cast him, but all of the other performances are top notch. Marcia Gay Harden's possibly psychotic, fundamental Christian, Toby Jones' short, pudgy, perfectly ordinary hero, Andre Braugher's uptight, big city lawyer and William Sadler's scared, malleable blue collar worker. All excellent.

"The Mist" is not "The Shawshank Redemption" in one crucial way. Whereas "The Shawshank Redemption" was about hope and life, "The Mist" is about hopelessness and death. One thing that they have in common is an astonishing ending. The ending of "The Mist" is wonderful, horrific, twisted and shocking. Not anything that I saw coming.

"The Mist" is marvellous. Must see.

If, two years ago, you told me that within a couple of years two excellent Stephen King film adaptations would be released, I would probably have laughed it off. Films like The Shining, Shawshank Redemption, Stand by Me, The Stand and 1408 are usually pretty far between (Note that I consider The Green Mile and Carrie to be the most over-rated King adaptations, so they do not appear here). I like most of the films that have been made from Stephen King novels, novellas, and short stories mainly because I like Stephen King, but I do not recommend many of them as truly good films.

Frank Darabont's (writing and directing) The Mist adapts a horror novella of the same name. King's horror work has been the most difficult material to adapt, but this film is comparable to other genre stand-outs such as The Shining and 1408.

A brief, dramatic thunderstorm is followed by a freak mist that descends on a small New England town. As the mist permeates the town, people congregate in the local supermarket and hardware store to stock up and gather supplies. David Drayton (Thomas Jane), his son (Nathan Gamble), and his neighbor (Andre Braugher) are among them. Tension builds as a steady stream of military vehicles pass through the mist headed south from a nearby base. But serious concern doesn't start until one of the locals runs to the supermarket with blood spatters on his clothing and talking of monsters in the mist.

Indeed, there are horrors outside in the fog, but there are also horrors inside the market - as paranoia, irrationality and religion come into conflict with practical issues of survival.

Unlike many horror films, The Mist examines fear and its effects realistically, looks at the horror created by forces beyond human control and the even more terrifying horror that fear creates through forces that are completely within our grasp - our own fears, our beliefs and our treatment of each other. It does so using a classic formula which is comparable to films like Night of the Living Dead and, more recently, Feast.

The cinematography, editing and directing are all excellent. The acting is quite good - Marcia Gay Harden and William Sadler stood out for me - and the script is exactly where it needed to be for this adaptation.

Highly recommended for King fans and horror fans. Recommended for Sci-Fi fans. Weakly recommended for average cinema-goers who are not generally interested in horror.

I won't go into details as I don't want to ruin this film for everyone, but I will highly recommend it! One warning: Do not watch this film expecting a cheesy/entertaining horror, or even a high-quality entertaining slasher as this film is -all- about the characters and how extreme circumstances can bring out the extreme sides of human nature.

By the end of the film I was literally on the edge of my seat - cider forgotten - with my hand over my mouth.

Masterfully written screenplay (from the original short story by Stephen King) and masterfully directed, anyone who is generally sceptical about adaptations of Stephen King "horrors" will be rewarded by watching this, Frank Darabont has done a typically marvelous job (see Shawshank and Green Mile) and well and truly delivered.

Films based on the writing of Stephen King have a habit of not translating to the screen very well; although director Frank Darabont made what is often considered the best of the Stephen King films in The Shawshank Redemption - and now with The Mist he's directed what is surely one of the major contenders for the title of best horror film to be based on a Stephen King story! When I first heard the plot description, I was expecting the film to be a cross between John Carpenter's The Fog and modern horror disappointment Feast; and while it does have elements of both those movies, it is thankfully much better than both. The film starts with a violent storm that leaves the Drayton family home in tatters. David Drayton sets off to the local store along with his son and a neighbour; but the town is soon plummeted into trouble when it is surrounded by a malicious mist. It soon transpires that there are otherworldly creatures within the mist and the townsfolk in the local store find themselves battling against the creatures as well as themselves...

The film takes on a real classic style horror feel and never tries to be exceedingly clever or overly gory and that is one of its main strengths. Frank Darabont puts his focus mainly on the tension between the characters and the atmosphere and this benefits the film as there's always enough to keep things interesting - and that is particularly impressive when you consider the thin plot and the fact that it's over two hours long. Thomas Jane takes the lead role and gives a great performance which is nicely pitched between family man and action hero. The rest of the ensemble perform well alongside the lead actor, with Marcia Gay Harden as a fanatical Christian and Toby Jones as the quiet shopkeeper stand out most. The special effects are used sparingly but are very well done and show some great imagination. The creatures that come out of the mist are varied and interesting. There is a lot of talk about the ending of this film and I have to say I'm not really surprised; you'll either love it or hate but personally I found it to be a refreshing end to a commercial modern horror film. Overall, The Mist is an excellent horror film and can be considered a must see for anyone who is a fan of the genre!

I was very impressed by this adaptation of Stephen King's 'The Mist'. I have been a fan of the story since it came out and have played the text game and have heard the 3-D audio version of it. This is a masterful suspense/monster movie that puts an ensemble cast into the untenable situation of being in a deteriorating situation they cannot escape from. We watch as alliances are formed, religious paranoia takes hold and, nicely, the movie takes the time to establish characters whom we come to care for before the true action begins. I dock it a couple of points because some of the monsters seemed a little too cgi, and the middle lags a bit, but the much talked about ending is indeed awesome and I was most impressed by the director's decision to keep the music soundtrack down and even eliminate it completely during many of the action sequences. So many movies nowadays crank the music up to 11 to make up for the fact that their suspense scenes do not work. This movie does. I was breathlessly on the edge of my seat for most of it, even though I was already familiar with the story. Highly recommended.