In The Mist, writer-director Frank Darabont’s third adaptation of a Stephen King work. Thomas Jane plays illustrator David Drayton who we meet on the night of a horrible storm in the small Maine town where he lives with his family (in the film's most clever nod to King fans, Drayton is seen finishing a drawing for a Dark Tower book in the opening scene). After the storm, Drayton and his son head with their neighbor (Andre Braugher) to a local store to buy supplies and prepare for the clean-up. While they're shopping for necessities with nearly half the town’s population (including Marcia Gay Harden, Laurie Holden, and William Sadler) who all had the same idea, a bizarre mist rolls in from out of nowhere. When a man emerges from the freaky fog screaming and bloody, the shoppers start to get nervous. When the giant bugs and tentacles show up quickly thereafter, it’s a blue-light-special on fear, Precinct 13-style. And then things get interesting in the store itself, which, is really the last thing that Drayton and his embattled neighbors need at that point. The Mist is, essentially, King and Darabont’s attempt to blend elements of Lord of the Flies with classic horror clichés and B-movie scares. They want us to ask ourselves: What happens to humans under life-or-death pressure? Is there ugliness inside humanity that’s even scarier than the monsters in the mist?

One man's "old-fashioned horror" is another man's "redundant cliché," and, regrettably, The Mist straddles that line more than any other film in recent memory. One could easily argue that Frank Darabont's take on this classic Stephen King short story is a clear descendant of 1950s horror matinees or classic episodes of The Twilight Zone, and that alone is going to be enough for many genre fans to adore this movie and recommend it to their friends. And they're not wrong. But you could just as easily argue that the old-fashioned elements of The Mist make for a film that feels surprisingly unambitious. The Mist is far from a disaster, but there are so many moments throughout that feel like wasted opportunities, scenes that could have taken something unabashedly retro (the story was written almost a quarter-century ago) and made it fresh for the new millennium. When a film is constantly reminding you of better Stephen King stories, Twilight Zone episodes, or even goofy fun B-movies, at what point does that become a bad thing? At what point do all of the homages get in the way? The Mist doesn't do anything that wrong - Darabont is too talented a filmmaker and King too good a storyteller - but does "not doing anything wrong" count when it comes to being effective?

Darabont breaks The Mist down to its most basic elements, even shooting most of the film without a musical score. With its one setting, The Mist almost feels like a stage play, as actors huddle in store aisles and start to divide into angry, frightened subsections of humanity. Some want to escape. Some want to stay and wait it out. Some even think a human sacrifice might be in order. The human interactions in the store and the way Darabont shoots them are the stand-out strengths of The Mist, especially thanks to strong performances by the always-great Marcia Gay Harden, Toby Jones, William Sadler, and Thomas Jane. The sense of human intimacy, of watching life during wartime, is what gives The Mist it’s best moments, and Darabont tries to keep the tone as believable as possible by using the cinematographer from The Shield and a lot of handheld camera work. It’s a noble intention, which, unfortunately gets torpedoed by some awkward effects work in the second act.

Pointing out one main problem - one fatal flaw - with The Mist is about as hard to put your finger on as the subject matter itself. What it boils down to is - everyone kind of feels like they're on cruise-control. The Mist was a good King story, but it plays with themes that King has used so many times before, from The Stand to Cell. The scenario itself has such an intense sense of "been there, done that," and the material has been paired down to such a level that The Mist simply never justifies its existence. Darabont, King, Jane, Harden - they're all doing variations on things that have worked for them in the past. Fans will notice that The Mist clearly reminds you of old horror movies or The Twilight Zone, but it will also remind you of the numerous Stephen King mini-series that get pulled from the ABC vaults every other sweeps season. The Mist might have been a great TV movie or a stellar episode of Masters of Horror, but audiences demand more for their movie dollar. Like the sad, doomed shoppers in The Mist, if movie-goers are going to be trapped in a dark room for several hours, surrounded by a motley who’s-who of humanity, the experience should count for something more.