Comments on: The Mist

By: Mike

Mike — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 17:39:32 +0000

I haven’t seen the film, but I did read the story about three years ago, and the thing that really stuck with me (and that I think about, on average, at least once a month) is Drayton and his son sitting in the truck on the blocked road to their house, and Drayton trying to sort out if there’s any way they can find out if his wife is OK. It just strikes me as such an emotional quandary: his first responsibility is to his son, but she is his son’s mother, and if alive would be herself of two minds about whether she would want him to risk getting to her.

The ending that is in the film (I’ve read spoilers) sounds like it dispenses with that plot point. Overall the end sounds somewhat effective, but also a bit willfully cruel. I acknowledge that it may be different in the actual viewing, of course!

By: DrMabuse

DrMabuse — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 14:18:49 +0000

Kevin: If “28 Weeks Later” is as much the allegory as you say it is (obviously, I’m a sucker for this sort of thing), I’ll have to check it out. Personally, I had no problem with the “overwrought” nature of the film, in large part because “The Mist” signaled its intentions from the get-go with the “Dark Tower” painting and the tree smashing through the window. But I will concede a bit on some of the extended dialogue scenes in the film, which were a bit tedious. But I had a good time, in large part because there hasn’t been an old-fashioned Hollywood horror movie like this in ages.

By: Kevin

Kevin — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 07:05:46 +0000

Wow. I just got back from the local late show, and my feeling about it was quite different. Even for a B-movie, I was disappointed, and to be honest I found the post-9/11 overtones overwrought, ponderous, and facile. (A better horror allegory this year, albeit of Iraq: 28 Weeks Later.) I actually don’t remember King’s novella all that well. It’s been at least 15 years since I read it — so maybe — even probably — it’s the fault of the source material. But this played like Darabont hasn’t ventured into Red State America himself in a good long while. Poor Marcia Gay Harden’s character was a shrill cartoon, and Bill Sadler and the rest of the regular (malleable) folk were so ridiculously one-note they might as well have started the film carrying torches and pitchforks.

I liked the Cthulhuian overtones (and the hoofed thing). I liked the doggy food bag. The ending was a bit of a curveball, but it also felt like a Twilight Zone gimmick, and totally unearned.

But, hey, to each his own. I will put money that yours is the only review of this flick to compare it to The Battle of Algiers, tho’.

By: Tom Working

Tom Working — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 00:30:51 +0000

One more thing: as for the original novella, I too was impressed by the otherworldly ecosystem brought on by the Mist and the rip in the fabric of reality that Project Arrowhead unwittingly opened (similar to the quality of otherworldly door-opening the wanna-be Buick 8 in “From A Buick 8″, although on a much grander scale).

Despite all the clatter and debate of the hapless scions of humanity trapped within the supermarket, the cold reality is they aren’t fighting any kind of encroaching evil. Those things going bump in the mist outside couldn’t give a crap about Mrs. Carmody and her apocalyptic rantings, or the dwindling food supply or the sheer terror of the folks in the supermarket; those things are animals, doing what animals do. Humans just happen to be in the way.

That’s perhaps one of the scarier things to ponder: to not be an opponent, prey or even considered: we’re simply in the way.

By: Tom Working

Tom Working — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 00:19:28 +0000

Perhaps horror is best served when it’s used, not just as an examination of the human condition through the intense focal lens of the extraterrestrially inexplicable, but also as social commentary, allegory and cultural parody. It can wholly confirm what we find ourselves only half-heartedly muttering under our collective breath; that monstrosity and humanity are separated by an all-too-thin line.

Thanks for the review, Ed. I missed 1408 but I think I’ll try to get into the theatres for “The Mist”.

By: scott neumyer

scott neumyer — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 18:42:47 +0000

Very nice! I can’t wait to see what Darabont’s done with King’s work again.

By: Lady T

Lady T — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 17:21:56 +0000

Damn,now that’s a review! I’ve been a longtime fan of Stephen King’s novella(even own an anthology that published a slightly version of the story)and was keeping my fingers crossed that the film adaptation would do it justice. I agree with you totally about the horror genre being more effective in getting to the core of current social fears.

Metaphor can be ten times more powerful than direct statement in art-for example,I’ve been reading Ken Follett’s World Without End and one of the major plot points is the collapse of a bridge which devestates the community and sets a number of other factors into motion. During a few chapters,it occured to me that alot of this had 9/11 overtures(not saying that is what Follett intended but it slowly came to me that way)and intentional or not,the book was saying a hell of alot more about such a life altering experience that many of the other “serious” novels dealing with the subject.

So,even tho I wouldn’t mind seeing Enchanted,The Mist looks like a real winner and I’m glad that Darabont and company did it up right.