Another review in our ongoing Month of Horror. The Mist is the third Stephen King film that was directed by Frank Darabont. He previously wrote and directed the excellent Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile. The Mist is one of those movies that polarized it’s audience, mainly due to its ending, which differs greatly from the book. So where do I fall? Read on to find out…
The Movie
David Drayton (Thomas Jane) is a loving husband and father living on a lakefront property in a small Maine town. A severe thunder storm knocks out power to the entire town, and causes massive damage to the Drayton home. As they survey the damage, they all notice a very thick, strange mist rolling off of the lake. Heading into the town with his son Billy and his combative neighbor Brent Norton (Andre Braugher), they notice large military forces heading to the lake, where a secret “Arrowhead Project” has been taking place. The trio ends up at the local grocery store. The store is packed with people, and with no electricity. As the mist envelopes the entire town, an older man comes running towards the store, bleeding. As he hurries into the store, he exclaims that there is something in the mist and that it attacked and killed his friend. Suddenly a warning siren goes off, followed by a massive earthquake (or is it an earthquake?) that shakes the people to their core.
David is asked to check on the power generator, and hears something pressing against the dock doors, and shuts off the generator, as the vent is being blocked, and the fumes backing into the store. He grabs three people to show them what was going on. The three, not listening to David, decide to send the bag boy, Norm, out to clear the blockage and turn the generator back on. Despite David’s protests, they open the dock door. Almost immediately, Norm is attacked by a long tentacle with spikes and teeth. After a struggle, a dying Norm is pulled into the mist. More tentacles begin to pile in and David tries to shut the door. As the door finally closes, David hacks off a piece of the tentacle and punches one of the men who allowed Norm to die. When David and the others try to warn the people in the store, the crowd becomes divided. Some go back to see the tentacle, while others do not. Even after coming back with more witnesses, some, including Brent Norton feel it’s a sick gag.
A religious fanatic, Mrs. Carmody (Marcia Gay Harden) uses these events to rally people, proclaiming it the end of days. Most shrug her off. Brent Norton takes some of his non-believers out, saying there is nothing in the mist. David convinces on those leaving to tie a 300 foot rope around his waist, just to let them know he got at least 300 feet. As David is letting the rope out, it suddenly goes tight, lifts into the air and then falls to the ground. The group pulls the rope towards the door and see it is full of blood, and then they see the half torso of the man who tied it around his waist.
As night falls, a group of giant alien looking insects are drawn to the light. The insects are then being picked off and eaten by pterodactyl-like creatures who break into the store. The insects attack those that fight them off, stinging them with a poisonous stinger that kills one girl. Mrs. Carmody acts calm, and one of the insects lands on her and then flies off without touching her. While trying to kill the pterodactyl creatures, one man is set on fire and badly burned. After this attack, Mrs. Carmody draws more people to her ramblings.I won’t spoil the movie any further. Needless to say things gets worse as more and more people are drawn into Mrs. Carmody’s intoxicating preaching.
It all leads to a very surprising and depressing ending. The ending is cruel, mean, shocking and so out of left field that it turned off many people to the movie. For me, as shocked as I was, I loved it. and it’s because the character development is so strong that you really do care for these characters. It is helped by some exceptional performances. Thomas Jane is fantastic, putting in his best performance so far. The real stand out is Marcia Gay Harden as Mrs. Carmody. She steals absolutely every scene she is in, and becomes a character whom you truly despise, which is really rare in movies these days. The rest of the cast does a very good job, with very few, if any, weak performances, which really help as you have to deal with some uneven special effects. The effects works runs the gamut from astounding to poor. The tentacle effects in the generator scene are particularly poor. but other effects, such as some of the full creature effects and a scene near the end, featuring a monster that would dwarf the Cloverfield creature, are quite excellent.
In the end, due to strong character performances and a great story, The Mist is one of those films I find myself watching over and over again. It’s a throwback to the 1950’s type sci-fi movies that focused as much on characters as it did the science fiction. But it will come down to the ending which you will love or hate.
Overall: 9 out of 10
The Video
The Mist is a tough film to peg when it comes to video quality, as many of the things seen as negatives are actually intentional. It offers a 1080p/AVC MPEG4 encode. But what makes it unique is that it comes in two flavors, the theatrical color version and a 1950’s style black and white version. Let’s start with the color version. The film is shot in a way to intentionally make it look dated. The film is very contrasty, with highlights often being blown out, again, intentionally. The shadows are very dark, and can often times lose the detail seen in modern day Blu-Ray films. The Mist also has noticeable and stark film grain, which is used to help give it a very theatrical quality, but can sometimes be distracting. But details are still sharp, and textures come through despite the grain. Colors are washed out and unnatural, which is especially noticeable on skin tones, which look a bit more red than they should.
The black and white version, however, benefits from many of the stylistic choices. The washed out colors are no longer an issue. The film grain and contrast levels look more natural. The special effects look less bothersome as well. The black and white also changes the tone of many of the scenes, adding greater tension and suspense. In my opinion, it is much more enjoyable and is the version I have come to re-watch over and over.
Overall: 7 out of 10
The Audio
Presented with Dolby TrueHD 5.1 Surround and a Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround mix, the films audio is its best aspect. The atmosphere really comes through, with excellent depth and great use of all speakers. The audio pans are smooth, and the quick transitions are never jarring. Dialogue is crisp and never tough to make out, even in scenes where the characters are whispering. While it may not be the demo disc for your system, the audio performs excellently on both surround sound systems and television speakers.
Overall: 9 out of 10
Extras
• Audio Commentary with Director Frank Darabont
• When Darkness Came: The Making of The Mist
• Featurette – Monsters Among Us: A Look at the Creature F/X, The Horror of It All: The Visual F/X of The Mist, Taming the Beast: Shooting Scene 35, Drew Struzan: An Appreciation of An Artist
• Deleted Scenes
• Trailers
The extras for The Mist are pretty meaty. The audio commentary with Frank Darabont is really enjoyable. He knows his movies, the scenes and can justify almost anything he puts into the picture. It’s definitely worth a listen. The making of The Mist is an excellent short documentary. It features the entire main cast, Darabont and even Stephen King himself. The info provided is great and the behind the scenes stuff never feels like fluff. The featurettes are short, and mostly fun, with the beat being the Shooting of Scene 35, which documents the insect attack scene. The deleted scenes are nothing really special, and don’t add anything interesting to the story. The excellent commentary and making of doc are worth checking out, and really make the disc a standout.
Overall: 9 out of 10
Bottom Line
For me, The Mist has become one of my favorite horror/sci-fi films of the last 10 years. The Blu-Ray is a very good addition to your collection. Owners of the DVD version don’t necessarily need to upgrade, but the black and white version looks particularly excellent in hi-def. Either way, the black and white version is a must see and will likely become the version you can most enjoy watching. And you need to listen to Darabont’s commentary, especially when he discusses why he changed the ending from the book. You may or may not like the ending, but Darabont sure makes a good case for why it’s there.
Overall: 8 out of 10
