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The Mist

Review By: Dan Deevy
DanDeevy@TheCinemaSource.com

I’ve had to see a lot of films recently thanks to the holiday surge of releases and press opportunities here in New York City, and ironically, the movie that was at the very bottom of my list of ‘wanting to see’ ended up being the best of the lot!

The Mist is far and away the only film hitting theaters this season that I absolutely one hundred percent recommend going to see it. It’s the best horror movie, and certainly the best thing to come out with the name Stephen King attached to it, in a very, very long time. Unlike most films that you can just wait for the DVD to come out (typically a week afterwards nowadays) and still have the same viewing experience, the nature of this film really lends itself to the old fashion communal theater-going experience of days past. If there were more films like this, the state of movie theaters would be significantly improved.

Now for those of you out there who, as I was, are thinking, ‘Stephen King hasn’t written anything good in years,’ let me assure you, you are correct; the beauty part of this film is that it’s based on a novella that he wrote some twenty odd years ago – back when he was writing some of the most innovative horror stuff the world had seen. Believe me, I’m not mocking the man, he’s a genius, but how many home runs can even the greatest player hit before they slowly become little more than base hits?

Adding to the plus column for this film is the direction and screenplay adaptation of the original story by director Frank Darabont. His Oscar-nominated work on dramatic King adaptations The Green Mile and The Shawshank Redemption are doubtless what he is most highly regarded for, but his first true love was horror films. With The Mist he was able to reawaken the true spirit of the genre that he grew up loving.

As the movie begins, we find ourselves in a small town New England community that has just been through a massive storm that wreaked havoc on the inhabitants. As they slowly begin the process of recovery the next day, an even greater more menacing enemy approaches.

David Drayton (Thomas Jane), a local artist and his young son Billy, wonderfully and shockingly realistically played by Nathan Gamble head into town with their contentious neighbor played by Andre Braugher to stock up on supplies. After arriving at a super market a strange mist rolls in and encompasses the entire area. Cries from a man fleeing the mist assure them that it’s far too dangerous to leave the supermarket until they know what’s out there.

The group of individuals trapped inside the supermarket couldn’t be ...