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The Mist (2007)
Director: Frank Darabont
Movie review
From Time Out New York
Until a film like The Mist rolls in—stealthily, with little fanfare—you forget how impressive big-budget horror can be when it finds its balls. Kicking off like a creature feature in the vein of this past winter’s The Host but darkening into a study of apocalyptic social panic worthy of The Birds, the movie will come as manna to the crazy faithful who respect John Carpenter’s The Thing and little since. I worry for gentle fans of director Frank Darabont’s The Green Mile. Sit this one out.
Into a small Maine town an odd meteorological phenomenon sweeps. A pungent cross-section of aw-shucks Americana finds itself trapped in a supermarket after screams are heard. Yes, the story is by Stephen King. But of his dozens of shorts (this one comes from Skeleton Crew), few better display King’s underrated virtues of classical proportion; by the time icky beasts start emerging from the metaphoric fog (the effects work is truly special), we’re already locked into several smaller dramas. Rational doubt yields to biblical fury from a local loon (Harden) and action heroics spring from as unlikely a source as Infamous’s Toby Jones.
Alliances turn the aisled mart into a blackened, torch-lit slum of competing ghettos—and the film is only getting started. You won’t need a handy grad student to make hash of the movie’s military-spawned nightmare. But The Mist also strikes daring notes of antireligious clarity and social sacrifice, well off the campaign trail. It must be said that King’s ending has been radically altered and improved, raising a final, devastating note of liberal doubt. In our own misty moment, that’s rare indeed.
Author: Joshua Rothkopf
Time Out New York Issue 634: November 22-28, 2007
User reviews of this film
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- steve g said...
- Posted on May 28 2009 11:30 The ending is not to everyones taste, but i thought was really powerfull especially on the backdrop of "Host of the Seraphim" brilliantly done. At the end of the day a film is a film nothing more. Enjoy.
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- Megan said...
- Posted on May 26 2009 18:16 This film honestly left me cold. It is possibly one of the most chilling films i've ever seen. I must admit i was a bit sceptical when i first saw the tenticles as it was kind of predictable but i feel that the film is not so much about the monsters as it was about the psychological state of the trapped locals. I found it chilling how the situation completely changed everything and by the end it was not the creatures from another dimention that were the monsters it was the humans trapped in the supermarket. You can really see how terrible, REAL events happen when people are put into the right situation (just think about the concept of genocide). And the ending made me feel sick at the very concept of it. It was simply chilling and this film has played on my mind ever since seeing it! Although i watched it with two other people and although two of us found it a gripping, chilling film the other thought it was rubbish! So i guess that it's kind of a bit of a marmite thing - you either love it or you hate it! It depends what you're looking for in a horror film but i would highly recomend seeing it and making up your own mind about it.
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- lewis said...
- Posted on May 26 2009 12:03 This film was poo, acting was poo, everything was poo!!Never watch this film!
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- Squidy said...
- Posted on Mar 18 2009 05:54 I read some of the incredibly negative comments on this film with equal incredulity. Who are these people? Did they actually watch this film? Do they have any feeling for the genre at all? Are they hired by competing movie companies to heap scorn on this film? While not perfect, this is an enormously successful horror movie. Watch it for yourself and make you own mind up. Perhaps those aforementioned are so conditioned by the usual incompetent crap they can't recognise a quality piece when they see it. Terrific film.
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- Balbir said...
- Posted on Jan 11 2009 05:34 I haven't read the book but the film is very poor. Up until the mist appears the film is gripping but then it goes down hill. Special effects are cheesy and the film remains unconvincing. The worst bit is saved for the end. Watched with a group of 5 nobody was impressed.
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- alan sundry said...
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Posted on Nov 25 2008 21:24
Are you positive reviewers retards or am I really in a horror film with you lot? If so I hope I'm the slightly less than stupid hero and you lot are the brainless chum. I've just wasted 2 hours of my life on this film. Frankly it's shocking, not so much the scares but the terrible acting, the hopelessly obvious plot-lines, you name it, garbage. Really its total shite. If you want to watch a poor interpretation of The Fog by John Carpenter please watch the original, its crap, but much better than this stephen king (alleged) drivel.
It actually started out really well, there was a great tension building, until the tentacles appeared, ah ffs, what a let down
I repeat, anyone who gives this total crap a positive review should be the first down the evil monsters neck. If you think this deserves anything more than ZERO (1 is minimum, should be zero) your a retard. - Report as inappropriate
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- metterz said...
- Posted on Jul 16 2008 05:24 possibly THE worst film i have ever seen in my life,predictable...ridiculous...terrible.and what was that ending
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- Sneekz said...
- Posted on Jul 10 2008 16:47 Despite what has been said, the ending was perfectly in keeping with the increasing sense of isolation and despair generated throughout the film. The underlying message? There is darkness before the dawn, and pain before you get there. Great 'ennertainment', but with its flaws, and a revitalizing kick up the genre's a*se.
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- symboleyes said...
- Posted on Jul 07 2008 13:58 One of the worst and most predictable films Ive seen in a while. Reminded me of a bad 80's horror movie. The cgi is laughable and so bad it aint true, you'd see better in a ghostbuster film than this. Words fail me on how this managed to get a high star rating, it was just so boring and Ive been more scared watching paint dry. The ending had this film in a nutshell, total shite!!!!!
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- JB said...
- Posted on May 23 2008 20:05 its the best movie i have ever seen
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- Mazer said...
- Posted on May 18 2008 22:13 This movie was absolutely awful. The special effects were cheesy, and the anti-religious theme was absurd. The ending is absolutely awful. This movie seemed to have 2 messages. First, the vast majority of people are idiots. Second, when faced with difficult circumstances just give up, roll over, and die. This is a true horror movie in the sense that it was truly horrible.
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- chingyc said...
- Posted on May 14 2008 12:22 the film was good, the consept was brill, and for the ending who saw it coming, its makes a change from all the happy ever after that u would normally get from every other films,
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- Wendal said...
- Posted on Apr 02 2008 22:19 The movie concept was good ..but the ending was so dark (even by stephen kings standards)..it just RUINED THE MOVE
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- LEE said...
- Posted on Mar 31 2008 15:58 ABSOLUTELY BRILLIANT....... AS REFRESHING AS A COLD ORANGE JUICE AFTER A NIGHT OUT ON THE BEER.
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- mirian said...
- Posted on Nov 27 2007 15:27 Yo i am an illeterate buffoon!!!! If anything the fact that i liked DAT MOVIE should dissuade people from going to see it. PIECE. Oh God
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Cast & crew
Director: Frank Darabont
Cast: Thomas Jane, Toby Jones, Marcia Gay Harden, Laurie Holden, André Braugher, William Sadler, Alexa Davalos full cast
Genre(s): Horror
Rated: R
Duration: 125 mins
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