It's been along time since a Stephen King horror adaption has been so perfectly portrayed onto film. The film's director, Frank Darabont, has been hugely successful with other Stephen King adaptions such as The Shawshank Redemption
and The Green Mile
, arguably two of the best films of all time. So it seems appropriate he would take on another Stephen King project. As a matter of fact, in 1992 Frank Darabont faced a decision which would alter the future of his work with Stephen King. Make The Mist
or The Shawshank Redemption
? His choice for Shawshank
was a smart one. In 1992-1994 there wasn't the advance in special effects there are now so the challenge of pulling off many of the scenes for The Mist
would've been very challenging. Shawshank
needed no special effects, so the right decision was made... in my humble opinion.
The film opens with our main character, David Drayton (played by Thomas Jane), painting a picture in his study. (Fans of Stephen King will instantly recognize what he's painting, the gunslinger "Roland" from the Dark Tower
series. See picture here
) Soon after, a nasty storm rolls in and nearly destroys most of the town. The next morning we see a heavy mist descending from the nearby mountains. David Drayton, his son Billy Drayton and asshole neighbor Brent Norton head into town for some supplies.
After arriving at the local supermarket, and realizing half the town is there to stock up on supplies, a bleeding man runs out of the incoming mist screaming about how it "took" a local man and demands the doors are closed. The building begins to shake after the mist consumes it and the stage is set for an onslaught of foreign creatures, the instinct to survive and copious amounts of religious rhetoric.
This film is about more than a bunch of people defending the supermarket they're trapped in from monsters and unspeakable horrors which lurk in the mist. It's about what happens to the human mind under extreme stress and the possibility of unavoidable doom. The extreme psychological stressors which can make a person do things they would never do under normal circumstances and even begin to believe in the unbelievable.
There's a woman trapped in the store who is known around town as the local crazy. After waves of horrifying attacks and her constant preaching about how God has chosen her as the "vessel" of his will, people begin seeing her as a prophet more than a loony. As things get worse, more people begin to believe her ludicrous claims and before the strong-willed people know it, they are trapped inside a building with the female version of Jim Jones and her dedicated cult. Talk about being trapped between a rock and a hard place. Do you stay and wait for everyone to begin murdering each other and committing mass-suicide, or do you take your chances with the mist and risk a horrifying and painful death? These are the decisions our characters must make.
As it turns out, the military had recently constructed a base in the nearby mountains where they were working on a project known only as "The Arrow Head Project." With new technology, they were attempting to peer into other worlds and dimensions by constructing a "window" to see what might be on the other side. Instead, they created a door which spewed out the mist and a good amount of creatures following it.
Speaking of the creatures, I was impressed with how they turned out. I'll admit, I'm not one for loads of computerized monsters (I'm an old-school prop and make-up guy) but it would've been nearly impossible to film many of the monster scenes with nothing but foam latex and clever props. The scene where the flying creatures breech the outer defenses wouldn't have worked, nor would the mega-huge monsters. There's one creature near the end which gave me that feeling most people felt when seeing the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park
for the first time. This fuckin' thing is H-U-G-E. Hundreds of feet tall with feet that shake the ground so violently, it makes the Tyrannosaurus Rex in Jurassic Park
look like a family pet. (
See that 6-legged behemoth here)
It comes down to this, people. The Mist
is a phenomenal film. It's an old-school monster/creature plot created in the modern age of film. It kicks the atrocious "new-age" horror films (The Grudge, Scream, I Know What You Did Last Summer,
ect.) square in the balls and pisses on them while they're down. A big thanks to Stephen King and Frank Darabont for combining talents and creating this masterpiece!