Stephen King Week: The Mist

Whenever Frank Darabont does an adaptation of a Stephen King work, you know it's going to be something really good. The first two, The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile were much more straight drama whereas The Mist was straight up, bone chilling horror of the highest order. I'd rank it as easily one of the best Stephen King adaptations ever. 

After a huge storm knocks out the power in town, as well as a large tree through the large window in their house, David Drayton (played by Thomas Jane) and his son Billy (played by Nathan Gamble) head into town to get supplies and groceries, with their neighbor Brent (played by Andre Braugher) tagging along. While waiting to check out at the local grocery store, a huge, thick mist engulfs the entire town. It quickly becomes apparent that there is something, or somethings, in the mist. Monstrous somethings, leaving the people in the store trapped. From there begins a slow escalation as the people in the store slowly break into separate factions, those remaining sensible and relatively collected and those starting to follow the delusions of the religious extremist and fear mongering Mrs. Carmody (played by Marcia Gay Harden). With things clearly heading towards an intense standoff, David and a few others start devising a plan to try and escape the supermarket and take their chances, however slim, in finding rescue. 

The thing that makes The Mist such powerful viewing is the way it unflinchingly shows how times of crisis can bring out peoples true natures and it's not always good. There are no true white hat heroes in this movie, everyone is a shade of gray (except maybe Mrs. Carmody, she's batshit crazy from the word go). The monsters outside are just the catalyst for the crisis inside and a way of continuing to raise the stakes and the tension among the people inside. They know it's only a matter of time before the monsters get inside, after all, the entire front of the store in plate glass. It's that fear of the inevitable that only adds to the palpable fear of the people in the store. 

The film is tightly scripted by Frank Darabont, working from the short story by Stephen King. He does a great job of fleshing out the characters, who are played by a fantastic cast that also includes Toby Jones, Frances Sternhagen, and William Sadler. The only real weak point in the film is some of the CGI effects are not quite up to par, but I'm willing to forgive that since Darabont had to settle for a smaller budget in exchange for getting to make the movie he wanted to make.  

Overall, The Mist ranks as one of King's all time best adaptations and certainly one of his most intense. It takes what would easily be a a B-Movie concept and raises it to the A-Level through storytelling alone. It's a potent and memorable film that reportedly even scared Stephen King himself. Now that's saying something.