Post by tav7623 on Oct 21, 2010 2:48:07 GMT -5
“You don't have much faith in humanity, do you?”-Amanda Dunfrey
This quote best underlines the core theme and major contention of The Mist, which is the horrific disillusion of a civil society and how it can quickly crumble and spiral out of control when it is forced to directly confront a horrifying and seemingly inescapable situation with little to no factual information. Though this is far from the only problem that the protagonists of the Mist face, they face a strange assortment of dangerous and deadly creatures as well. Watching this movie reminds me of a quote by John Carpenter about how there are basically two types of stories. One which focuses on an external threat and the human fear of “ The Other”/”The Stranger”/ “The Out of Towner” and the other one focuses on an internal threat such as cancer, your own body turning against you, or betrayal by your own friends and family. The Mist manages to cover both of these archetypes in effectively scary way that almost looks easy. The Mist was adapted and directed by Frank Darabont who is best known for his other fine adaptations of Stephen King novellas such as The Green Mile and The Shawshank Redemption as well as his upcoming TV adaptation of The Walking Dead comic book for AMC. This movie stars Thomas Jane (Deep Blue Sea, The Tripper), Marcia Gay Harden, Laurie Holden (Silent Hill, The Walking Dead), Toby Jones, Andre Baugher (Salem’s Lot TV remake), William Sadler (Green Mile, Disturbing Behavior, Demon Knight), and Rob Treveiler ( Hellraiser III, Children of the Corn 2, Carrie 2: The Rage). The movie was made on an estimated $18 million dollar budget, was released on November 24th, 2007 and went on to gross $8 million dollars on its opening weekend and $25 million dollars overall despite generally positive reviews from movie critics. The plot of The Mist centers around a group of people from the fictional town of Castle Rock who have locked themselves in a grocery store after a mysterious mist filled with horrific monsters descends upon the town. Over the course of the movie the main protagonist led by David Drayton (Jane) come to realize that they not only have to worry about the deadly monsters hiding outside in the mist but also the human monsters created by the insane religious zealot Mrs. Carmody ( Marcia Gay Harden) who are hiding in the store from the monsters in the mist.
Pros: Decent special effects, decent acting, decent script, and a fucked up ending that is different than the novella
Cons: some bad CGI effects
Overall I give The Mist an 8 out of 10 for being a well made, well acted, and effective horror movie that for the most part goes old school by relying on our fear of the unknown by not showing a whole lot of monsters and making us rely on our imagination of what is in the mist early on in the movie and for having the balls to alter the beloved ending from the novella in such a way that it even got praise from the novella’s author Stephen King. The only downside to this movie other than its occasional bad CGI special effects is that it gets a bit preachy while depicting the horrors of religion specifically Christianity and how easy it is for a extreme religious kook once given a position of authority to twist the fears of others in order to override that person’s own common sense so that they will without question do horrific things to others. Which for me strikes a little bit too close to home since I know people who are like this and they really scare the crap out of me especially when they attempt to get into positions of power and authority….. Still I would definitely recommend this movie to most horror fans in general and specifically those who are like me fans of Stephen King, Frank Darabont, and vicious monster movies. Also for those who are interested, included in the 2-dics DVD are two versions of The Mist one which is in color and the other one is in old school Black and White, which most DVD reviews that I have read seem to prefer over the color version which is my own personal preference. There is also a couple of books about Stephen King’s books and movie adaptations that you might be interested in such as Rocky Wood’s The Complete Guide to the Works of Stephen King, Tony Magistrate’s The Films of Stephen King (which covers most films up to 2003 since that was the year the book was released), and Mark Browning’s two books, Stephen King on the Big Screen (which covers most of Stephen Kings big screen adaptations except for sadly The Mist which would have been an interesting read) and Stephen King on the Small Screen (which won’t be out until next year and covers the made for TV adaptations of Stephen Kings works including The Stand, Rose Red, The Night Flier, and Salem’s Lot to name a few).
I hope you enjoyed my review and please come back tomorrow for the day 4 review of the 1997 Paul W.S. Anderson directed Event Horizon.