“It appears that we may have a problem of some magnitude here.”
Frank Darabont breaks the mold as the maker of Stephen King movies set in prison, but the characters find themselves held prisoner in a supermarket by some definite King creations (out of a Buick 8 perhaps?).
Not only do they have to fear the beasts outside the market but the panicked human beings inside.
A violent storm crashes through a small Maine town, leaving felled trees and no power in its wake. Artist David Drayton (Thomas Jane) and his son Billy (Nathan Gamble) are heading into town to stock up on supplies at the supermarket, leaving David’s wife Stephanie (Kelly Collins Lintz) to start cleaning up the house.
They see their adversarial neighbor Brent Norton (Andre Braugher) and the mutual destruction on their properties causes a cease fire as Brent hitches a ride into town with David and Billy. As they’re about to leave they notice a strange mist rolling across the lake. They make it into town but it’s slow going at the grocery store since the power is out at the store.
Everyone is in the checkout line when the bloodied Dan Miller (Jeffrey DeMunn) runs into the store screaming “there’s something in the mist.” The mist then engulfs the store and the patrons barricade the store.
They soon discover that there are monsters in the mist, but as time passes in the store they also discover that there’s a very human monster in the form of Mrs. Carmody (Marcia Gay Harden) who threatens them from within.
Stephen King’s short story is seemingly full circle for director Frank Darabont since he expressed interesting in filming it in the 80s. Years went by and he instead went with the Shawshank Redemption for his directorial debut and then moved on to the Green Mile. For a time it appeared that if you wanted to develop a Stephen King prison movie that Darabont was the man to go to.
He tried his hand at Capra with The Majestic (it was a tad bit long but I really liked it) and now has come back to King again. The Mist is a real shocker and is Darabont’s best film to date (Fahrenheit 451 is next on his agenda). He populates King’s trapped characters with fine character actors (DeMunn, William Sadler [both Darabont veteran actors], the awesome Frances Sternhagen, and Toby Jones) and in Thomas Jane a good hero.
Who stands out though is the villain of the piece as Marcia Gay Harden is the one you’ll love to hate. I imagined a slightly older actress when I first read the story, but Harden embodies the role. There be monsters in the mist, but there are also monsters in some of the people that are trapped in the store.
The seeming end of the world only brings out the worst in the people as they try to face the insurmountable situations that they appear to be trapped in. King’s story just stopped with our heroes and heroines driving off into the mist.
Darabont has fashioned an ending for the tale that is very bleak and ironic (not that the original short story is a laugh-fest). This may be why the film didn’t exactly make a ton of money at the box office.
I think that fans will definitely want to check it out on DVD. Darabont expresses that he wanted to make the film as the 1940-50s giant bug pictures of his youth. Those films were always in black and white and he includes a version of the film in those glorious colors.
I can understand him wanting to do this but it is just a version with the color drained out and is the same feature.
The Mist is presented in anamorphic widescreen (1.85:1) and is enhanced for 16x9 televisions. Disc one contains the color version of the film with a commentary by writer/director Frank Darabont. There are also 14 minutes of deleted scenes with an optional commentary by Darabont.
Next is a great 7-minute tribute to artist Drew Struzan, who has painted some great movie posters in the past as well as doing the poster art for the Mist. Not to mention that Jane’s character is also a tribute to Struzan. There are also 10 minutes of webisodes and a trailer gallery with three trailers (6 minutes total).
Disc two contains the black and white version of the film with a 3-minute introduction by Darabont as to why he put it on the disc. Next is the comprehensive 37-minute “When Darkness Came” which is a making of the film. The 12-minute “Taming the Beast” examines the making of the scene where the bugs attack the grocery store.
The 12-minute “Monsters Among Us” looks at how the bugs were designed. The 16-minute “The Horror of it all” looks at the visual effects also used to bring those beasties to life.
The Mist is a fine adaptation of the King short story. The faithful will have to hash out the new ending, but I think it falls within the bleakness of the original story. Darabont has proved that a King story needs to be set in a prison for him to make a fine film out of it.
The Mist (Two-Disc Collector's Edition) is now available at Amazon . As of yet, there is not a release date for the UK. Visit the DVD database for more information.
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