Mild spoilers ahead...
Going into The Mist, I was a tad hesitant, as I was afraid the simple yet cool concept of Stephen King's novella was going to be over-explained for today's "feed me everything" audiences. A few months back, I had the pleasure of reading the script (which thankfully had the ending missing from it), and while I loved it, there was a prologue that felt out of place. The script opens with a military experiment gone awry, leaving nothing to the imagination as to the origins of the phenomenon. Thankfully, this prologue isn't present in the final film. It's hinted at, but not force-fed.
And that's what I loved about the film. The focus is on the characters and the conflicts they have while being trapped in a grocery store, surrounded by the mysterious mist of the title. But what's in the mist? All kinds of insanity, but we're only shown the things that sort of make sense in our world- bug-like things, spider-like things, and bird-like things. Everything else is left to our imagination, as we only get vague outlines of the larger and stranger denizens of the mist.
In lesser hands, this could have been nothing but crazy monsters coming to eat hapless, forgettable victims. But that's not what the film's about. Like Night of the Living Dead, writer/director Frank Darabont makes this a film that is more about the dangers inside, than the dangers outside. Like I said previously, the focus is on the characters and the conflicts, with reluctant David Drayton (Thomas Jane) and his group of rationals against Mrs. Carmody (Marcia Gay Harden), and her group of religious fearfuls, with Brent Norton (Andre Braugher) and his (short-lived) group of "there's nothing in the mist"-ers, thrown in the mix. Building the points of views gradually, the films actually allows you to make sense of how each of the main characters gets to his or her view on the situation. While Mrs. Carmody is the obvious villain of the piece, it's easy to see how some frightened people could look to her for leadership. After all, pretty much everything she predicts comes true.
Another aspect of the film I love is the investment, good or bad, you have in the characters. Never are any of them fodder for killing, like the typical horror film of late. Each one serves a purpose to the story, rather than just being a good "gore moment". Even the poor bag boy gets more characterization than your average horror victim, and he's only got a few lines! Not to mention I have never been in a movie with an audience that screams "Yesss!" when one character dies, and then "Noooo!" when another dies shortly afterwards. Darabont serves the original story well by totally engrossing you into the characters motivations and actions.
Now I have to admit that a few lines of dialog felt a bit "novel-y", esp. during the scene where David and his group are discussing the dynamics of human society. Granted, the screenplay is based off of a work of literature, but a few of the lines came off a bit unnatural, which is typical when I try to picture people speaking Stephen King dialog aloud. The only other thing I found I didn't like was the use of the Dead Can Dance song during the last few minutes of the film. There's hardly any music in the film, and to have such a jarring barrage of vocals pop up suddenly just seemed out of place. I think I would have preferred something more subtle, somber, and low. But all these are minor critiques.
So, how about that ending? Different than the novel and definitely more finite, I have issues with the overall problem our characters face having resolution. I love the idea that the mist may go on forever, and never finding out exactly if it gets resolved. With that said, what happens specifically to the characters is a ballsy move on Darabont's part. Like the rest of the film, it's bleak and haunting. Is it better or worse than King's ending? Nope. Just different and provocative.
Overall, the film is intense, thick with tension and atmosphere, and like the mist that surrounds our doomed little grocery store, has a lot more in it than first appears.
(BTW- It's great that we've gotten two original horror films in the past month [the other being 30 Days of Night]. I just wish that the fans who complain about sequels and remakes would actually go out an support films like this at the box office.)
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