By Andrew Ferrell
Stephen King’s “The Mist,” first published as part of 1985’s “Skeleton Crew,” was for two decades one of the most anticipated cinematic adaptations for die-hard King fans. With its mixture of paranoia and nasty creatures, the story of a mysterious mist that surrounds and destroys a small Maine town seemed ripe for cinematic interpretation, being equal parts “The Fog” and “The Thing.” There are few men better suited for the task than Frank Darabont, who directed two of the most beloved King adaptations: “The Shawshank Redemption” and “The Green Mile.” In case having filmed the best non-horror films based on the author’s work was not enough, Darabont also has plenty of creature-feature credibility on his side, cutting his teeth writing scripts for the 1988 remake of “The Blob” and the vastly underrated “A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors.”
Describing anything beyond the basic skeleton of the film’s plot would undercut many of its surprises and most suspenseful moments, which might explain the somewhat vague and underwhelming marketing campaign that accompanied its release. Movie poster artist David Drayton (Tom Jane) takes his son and neighbor (Nathan Gamble and Andre Braugher, respectively) to the local grocery store following a massive storm. The store becomes a sort of microcosm of community members stocking up on emergency supplies, most notably put-upon employee Ollie (Toby Jones), local religious nut Mrs. Carmody (Marcia Gay Harden) and various other Darabont regulars such as William Sadler and Jeffrey DeMunn.
In fairly short order, the small mist following the storm becomes impenetrably thick and brings with it a horde of tentacled, fanged and otherwise unpleasant organisms that are definitely not from the Bangor area. Before you can say “Lord of the Flies,” the townspeople are trapped inside the store, finding any convenient excuse to pick fights with each other and fill the power vacuum created by the lack of commonly recognized authority figures. Most suspiciously absent is the convoy of army troops seen earlier departing the secretive army base up the hill, which of course couldn’t possibly have anything to do with the weather or the monsters.
At first glance, “The Mist” seems like a total departure from Darabont’s previous directorial work. Gone are the warm and fuzzy layers of nostalgia along with the megawatt, Oscar-friendly casting that made those movies go down so smoothly. But if there is one thing Darabont knows, it’s how to cast and use actors to their full potential.
Aside from memorable bit parts for his usual band of character actors, Darabont entrusts the leading man duties to Jane, who always seems just one step away from the A-list. Jane’s lack of movie star polish makes him a perfect fit for David, a sort of easygoing everyman who does his best to keep everyone safe without declaring himself leader. While hardly a conventionally heroic figure, Jones (who recently starred in that other Truman Capote movie, “Infamous”) emerges as the audience favorite. His slight frame and Droopy Dog demeanor immediately endear him to us, while Darabont gives Ollie all the best lines and heroic moments.
Audiences will likely be more divided on Harden’s Mrs. Carmody. It’s a good performance and she plays the character exactly the way she should. But it is her Bible-thumping rhetoric that will surely be too much for some people to bear. Most won’t so much be offended by her misrepresentation of small-town religious folk but rather, they might find their intelligence insulted by such over the top villainy amid so many other naturally written and performed characters.
All other quibbles with the film are minor. Some of the CGI effects early on look startlingly cheap and there are moments where the wailing-woman score will take viewers out of the film and imagine that they’re watching something more akin to “Lawrence of Arabia.” More importantly, however, Darabont accomplishes the difficult tasks of providing a satisfying literary adaptation and a very scary monster movie.
The quick cutting and jump scares of average teen-oriented horror flicks are nowhere to be found. In their place is good old-fashioned tension. Every attack by the creatures from the mist plays out in an unbearable, dreamlike fashion that constantly tops itself in gruesomeness. But even more frightening are the examples of people at their worst, losing all hope and slipping into a frenzy that gives new meaning to the old adage that “Hell is other people.”
Halfway through the film, it becomes quite clear that Darabont is still making prison movies, simply replacing the steel bars of death row with the glass sliding doors of the local grocery store. All the way to the end, it’s a precise, almost joyful exercise in bleakness, never letting you forget that if the monsters outside don’t get you, the ones on the inside will.
As hero David Drayton, Tom Jane tries to save residents of his small Maine town when it is taken over by a menacing fog. “This Mist” is an adaptation of the Stephen King novel by the same name. (AllMoviePhoto.com)