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The Mist (2007)

Director: Frank Darabont

Time Out rating

Average user rating

13 reviews

Movie review

From Time Out London

Ever since his first big-screen Stephen King adaptation, ‘The Shawshank Redemption’, there’s been feverish expectation for each new work from director Frank Darabont. His latest, set in smalltown Maine, which fleshes out a horror novella King wrote in 1980, may not achieve that earlier film’s ‘classic’ status, but it makes for a surprisingly engaging, pleasingly old-fashioned feast of well-worked-out narrative and B-movie-style thrills.

Thomas Jane’s book illustrator, David, is visiting the local mini-market with his son and a neighbour when a mysterious mist descends and a lock-up siege begins. Outside, bloodied men emerge from the murk, otherworldly carnivorous CGI insects splatter the shop glass, and as giant tentacles invade the loading bay, a micro-political war for ascendancy in defence tactics breaks out between David, the shop employees, a black lawyer with inappropriate private agendas (André Braugher) and a strident Christian fundamentalist (Marcia Gay Harden).

What’s interesting about Darabont’s frightfest is the care and efficiency he takes ensuring our involvement with those tense – and frustrating – internal store dynamics. There’s a clear sense of national crisis and military culpability in the air – rumours spread of local Defense Department scientific experiments gone wrong and a couple of implicated soldiers shopping at the time are shitting their army boots. But pleasingly Darabont doesn’t overplay either King’s pre-9/11 liberal allegory nor its post-9/11 subtextual implications. Rather he places his trust in old and venerable genre credentials, taken from ’50s paranoid exploitation movies and sci-fi horror films, to which he applies an adroit Hitchcockian attention to detail, and a series of well-differentiated character performances that lets the icky flying beasts, the tantalising human stupidity, the chaos and the primal fear speak for themselves.

Author: Wally Hammond 2008-07-01 13:01:31

Time Out London Issue 1976, July 3 - 9 2008

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User reviews of this film

Andy S said...

Posted on Jun 22 2009 08:00 Very good overall, full of tension and frights, and the performances and character build up was excellent. Look out for small roles by Darabont 'regulars' as they all pop up which is nice (half the Shawshank cast are in the store!). The ending....very gutsy, and who knows what people would do if it were them?!
Worth a rent at least. Gutsy gory fun.

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Lewis said...

Posted on May 29 2009 00:08 this film was honestly, a wind up! the only reason i got the end is because I PAID TO WATCH IT!!! at least with some of these films you might watch them if nothing else is on.. but with this one, I'd rather dig a hole in my back garden! I would be embarrased to say i own this film on dvd.
total waste of my time!

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hugo said...

Posted on Apr 12 2009 00:21 TERRIBLE TERRIBLE TERRIBLE !
This is NOT a good modern horrow film. 'Character tension' and plot was generic and contradictory, ending (aka 'bleak' for the sake of being 'bleak') resolved nothing and only served to further aggrevate an already painfull hour and fifty minutes of viewing. Acting was poor, directing and cinematography cliche and predictable.
If anytihng this should be classed as a B grade comedy - I certainly had a good laugh. Absolute rubbish!
*Note: Wish I could rate this 0/5, please don't misinterpret star.

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lauren said...

Posted on Mar 08 2009 12:32 honestly the worst film i have EVER seen.

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Elisabeth said...

Posted on Jan 07 2009 00:04 This was an ok film that was unfortunately not as clever as it thinks it is. Its exploration of man's inhumanity under pressure wasn't anywhere as convincing as in, say, The Shawshank Redemption. There WERE some very interesting characters and it was very well acted but the end result left me feeling somewhat dissatisfied. I felt like it couldn't decide whether it wanted to be a cool and scary monster movie or something deeper. The ending was very disappointing - I saw it coming a mile off but the real problem was how sudden it was and how suddenly the whole thing was resolved. It would also have been more interesting if we'd not been told where the monsters came from. Still, good marks on the monsters - that film has the scariest spiders I've ever seen. Entertaining enough.

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Douglas said...

Posted on Dec 21 2008 06:24 Oops, forgot to rate in my excitement!

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Douglas said...

Posted on Dec 21 2008 06:22 An incredibly good film. Far better than i expected. It`s really a scary film of what man will do when faced with incredible fear that seems impassable. It also has an incredibly harsh ending which I applaud for its resistance to the typical `feel good` rubbish you get to nearly everything these days.
It`ll leave you drained, but 20 years later you`ll still remember it.

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Smegson P Donnohugh said...

Posted on Jul 27 2008 16:10 I absolutley loved this film, i felt it was an extremely accurate enterpretation of how society would respond under such circumstances. Manuy of you will disagree with the anti-religious ideas portrayed in the film but in my opinion it is completely accurate. I loved the way the horror is not through the mist itself but from the people invilved.

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Olly said...

Posted on Jul 23 2008 13:06 Michelle's review is total nonsense. This is a superb modern horror film that ticks so many boxes - great tension, conflict between the characters, terrifying monsters and an incredibly bleak ending. Apparently Darabont was offered an extra $20 million by the studio if he changed the ending - thank god he didn't. I think real horror fans will love this film.

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Jen said...

Posted on Jul 22 2008 20:16 I am going to see this film tommorrow after reading the book not long ago. I hope its good as the book was totally engaging. I will be highly dissapointed if its rubbish!!

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Michelle said...

Posted on Jul 15 2008 16:26 Very strong views about this film and really did not like or get it! It started OK and seemed that among a whole lot of contradiction it may redeem itself at the end. Unfortunately, the ending was worse! It was tragic but did not make sense due to the personalities of the characters (which often also were contradictory). There was, in addition, a preacher woman whose story line seemed to make very little sense; she played a big part to make a very small point.
I really disliked this film and wish I has spent 2 hours doing some ironing! I am now going to read the book as I fear it was a bad interpretation of a good story as the acting and the music were terrible.

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M Chaloner said...

Posted on Jul 14 2008 17:21 A good film but a flawed film. There are a few points, particularly at the end where you think, they wouldn't do that. Not as scary on the big screen as Cloverfield but there are definitely a couple of places in the film that make you jump. Overall it's worth seeing and I wasn't disppointed to have paid the money, but like I say it is a slightly flawed film. Nevertheless it is worth going to see.

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waj said...

Posted on Jul 10 2008 18:03 I am off ot watch this tomorrow does anyone know if its any good?

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