STUDIO: Genius Products
RELEASE DATE: March 25, 2008
STARRING: Thomas Jane, Marcia Gay Harden, Laurie Holden, Andre Braugher, William Sadler, and Nathan Gamble
WRITTEN BY: Frank Darabont
DIRECTED BY: Frank Darabont

Most horror fans will tell you there are two types of Stephen King based movies - the A-grade stories and the B-level tales. Stories like The Shining, Stand By Me, Misery, The Shawshank Redemption, and The Green Mile are easier to buy into because they’re heavily rooted in believable real world settings while the extraordinary or supernatural plays out in subtle, intricate and intellectually clever ways. However, stories like Maximum Overdrive, Cujo, Carrie, and 1408 require a much bigger investment on the big screen when it comes to the extraordinary and suspension of disbelief. In many cases throughout the years, given King’s masterful ability to induce such highly imaginative and descriptive visuals, the B-grade stories have had a much greater impact in their original medium. Given the nature of the material, some Stephen King stories work effectively on the big screen while others lose some of their magic. King fans can now add The Mist to the latter category of B-level big screen tales but with a special twist

The Story:

The story of The Mist is simple. After a violent storm wreaks havoc on the property of Maine artist David Drayton (Thomas Jane), Drayton leaves his wife at home while he and his son Billy (Nathan Gamble) venture into town to get supplies with their argumentative neighbor Brent (Andre Braugher). Once at the local supermarket, a malevolent mist envelops the town leaving Drayton and his son trapped in the store with an odd ensemble of urban out-of-towners and rural locals that includes a bible quoting doomsday prophet (Marcia Gay Harden). Soon the mist unleashes a series of bizarre creatures on the store as Drayton and the others band together to fight for their collective survival.

Walking Into The Mist

The Mist is an odd mix of extremes, from execution, plot, and dialogue to its bizarre recipe of casting with an A-list director. In terms of Stephen King entertainment value level, The Mist is more Maximum Overdrive than Misery. It’s fun and clever at times, but filled with A LOT of plot-holes - so many that you could drive a demonic truck through (pun intended). After directing Shawshank and The Green Mile, two intellectually heavy A-grade King stories, Frank Darabont switched gears to helm a lighter, more fun and straightforward Stephen King story in The Mist. We certainly can’t fault Frank for his decision since he’s arguably the most capable writer/director to adapt King stories for the big screen. However, Darabont is at his best when he has an over-abundance of rich, thematic and intellectually challenging material to work with. Unfortunately, after setting his own standard with the other King based films, The Mist seems far too straightforward as a film for his own maturity, depth and talent as a writer and director.

On the acting front, Thomas Jane, Marcia Gay Harden, Andre Braugher, and veteran William Sadler inject decent personality to their characters and keep things fun, but their physical presence feels largely out of place with the material. It makes me wonder whether the movie would have been better served with an entire cast of relatively unknowns instead of big names. Not only are the characters too vacant for us to empathize with their dilemma, but also their dialogue is equally shallow save for a few poignant speeches that reflect the social and political issues were saddled with today. As examples, there are two specific and problematic moments that I can’t get past. Half way through the movie when one of the locals, Ollie the bag boy, reveals to the group that the townsfolk already know Marcia Gay Harden’s character, actually saying, "Mrs. Carmody is known in town for being unstable," we’re unnecessarily slammed over the head with on-the-nose dialogue at such a mature point in the story. It’s painfully obvious from her set-up and subsequent evolution. Second, and probably the biggest pill for me to swallow, the same character reminds the group (and the audience) of their biggest weakness to the looming threat of the mist. It’s one of those moments that’ll make you think, "Wait a second, he’s right. This could be all over in a heartbeat." It’s moments like these that simply take you out of the film.

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