Film Review: Stephen King’s The Mist

By: DThompson | in: Movies |

Stephen King’s The Mist

Having read the Stephen King novella this movie is based on, and having bought and actually listened to the “3-D Sound” audio version of the story (hyped as a “miracle”, but actually just a bit of radio theater), I was well versed, and re-versed (Ha! “re-versed”) on the story Frank Darabont’s Stephen King’s The Mist is based on. I sat ready to be furiously upset over the slightest deviation, because, really, there’s no greater joy in life than picking apart the billion tenny ways a movie of a novel differs from the original book.

Sadly, Darabont’s movie is so darn good, and sticks so closely to the excellent original story, I really had little to complain about. You’ve gotten the basic story already if you’ve seen the trailer. A bleeding man runs into a grocery store and shouts “Something in the mist!” Then a cloud of creepy fog sweeps across the parking lot trapping a group of various Maine types in the Food Barn while the somethings that are out there in the mist run wild killing everything in sight.

Stephen King’s The Mist

Monsters of the bug-eyed variety are what this story is about, King himself wrote that The Mist was a celebration of the kind of big insect films of the fifties he grew up loving. As a story, there was little subtext. Monsters invade grocery store, humans died. That was about the size of it. Frank Darabont, of The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile is no stranger to King territory, but in the past he’s tackled a pair of King’s more literary efforts. Here, it’s an all-out monster movie. Still, Darabont manages to latch on to some themes that were thinly drawn, or just plain non-existant in the original tale and expand upon them creating a chilling undercurrent. The bugs may not be the biggest danger. Most likely that honor would go to evangelical nut job Mrs. Carmody, effectively played by Marcia Gay Harden. That WE are the most dangerous thing walking in the valley of the shadow of death is hardly a new tactic for a horror movie but it is handled quite effectively here. Several pointed 9/11 allusions are made about how if you scare people badly enough they’ll do anything. The dangers of group-think are explored through the rather heavy laying on of some old-time religious panic, but also play out in ways and with people you’re not expecting. You can’t really blame the folks trapped in the Food Barn for going nuts, the first day it was huge spiked tentacles, that night, giant stinging flies and leathery bird-like things, the next day it gets even worse. That’d be enough to send anyone screaming into the pews. And, in the end, it’s “unbalanced” Mrs. Carmody who immediately grasps the situation. With one look at the mist sweeping toward the glass front of the store she whispers, “It’s death.”

Stephen King’s The Mist

The acting is top notch, though little is asked of the cast of well-known character actors other than they look believably terrified, or revolted, or both.Greg Nicotero’s effects are the star of the center ring, and they’re fantastic. Not oozy or slimy like real insects aren’t but just grotesque things you would never want to even brush against you, let alone have crawling on you, ripping off your flesh and your cashier’s apron at the same time. It may help that he gets to hide his work in fog and dim light, but it all seemed like great stuff to me.

Darabont expands some on the original tale, giving a more specific rationale for the mist, and also providing the film with a new ending which I won’t go into here except to say that this movie does NOT end the way the story ends. The movie is just over two hours, which, for a big bug movie is probably half an hour too long, but is just plain short for a Frank Darabont adaptation of a Stephen King story. With I Am Legend just around the corner, Christmas may just be the scariest season of the year.

VERDICT: It’s misteriffic!
It’s mist-tacular!
It’s mistalicious?

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Posted on November 25, 2007

Comments

10 Responses to “Film Review: Stephen King’s The Mist”

HMTKSteve on November 26th, 2007 3:24 am

A movie based on a book that is true to the book? That is good news because so many Stephen King books turned into movies always go horribly wrong.

Charbarred on November 26th, 2007 3:27 am

Except for The Shining…it was as far as you can get from the original book, but still a great movie.

mozzer on November 26th, 2007 9:53 am

Great review. I may take the effort to see this one instead accidentally catching it cable, like I do with most horror flicks.

DThompson on November 26th, 2007 1:49 pm

HTMKSteve: Darabont’s King films, particularly The Shawshak Redemption, tend to be excellent adaptations of their source material. I can’t understand why a director would make a film of a novel and deviate much. After all, wasn’t the book what caused them to want to make the film? I suspect this attitude is why I write lists of movies I’d make rather than actually making movies.
Charbarred: You’re correct, The Shining is right up there (along with Blade Runner) on the short list of great films that completely trash the book they’re based on.
mozzer: It’s definitely worth the effort, I paid full price and still felt like I got my money’s worth.

DThompson on November 26th, 2007 1:52 pm

I just wish I’d written Dimension Films’ Frank Darabont’s Stephen King’s The Mist

Charbarred on November 26th, 2007 2:23 pm

Personally I enjoyed the Lord of the Rings film adaptation more than the actual book. I must have tried to read that cumbersome over detailed nightmare of a literary masterpiece 3 times until I got through it
(Do you think that if added that smiley in the end I won’t piss off as many people with my comment?)

DThompson on November 26th, 2007 2:45 pm

Is that New Line’s Peter Jackson’s J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord Of The Rings you’re talking about?
No. The smiley won’t save you. You might try a bomb shelter.

news bandit on December 4th, 2007 9:42 pm

I’m excited to see it not sure if I’ll like it or not but thanks for the review!

Horror fan on December 18th, 2007 1:58 pm

Loved it. By far the best adaptation of King’s work I have seen… after 1408.

neville on March 15th, 2008 12:43 pm

i.m an all out fan mr.s king nobody writes a horror better than him.with this movie the director has out done himself.brilliant a true stephen king book to the T.you can see the characters,true maine folks.loved it !!!!!!!