Going into this one I wasn't sure what to expect of it. "The Mist" is the adaptation of the Stephen King novel by the same name. Movies based on Stephen King novels are usually pretty "blah" with a few exceptions here and there. Overall I was pleasantly surprised by this little film that slipped under the radar.
The basic plot of the film is pretty straightforward. In a small town in New England there is a terrible electrical storm. The next day an artist, David Dryton (Thomas Jane), goes into his studio and finds his recent painting demolished. A tree has crashed through his house. No harm no foul he thinks. Then he notices some strange mist coming down off the mountain. He chalks it up to nothing more than two storm systems meeting. He heads into town to the local supermarket. Suddenly a man with a bloody nose comes running up to the door of the supermarket who seems terrified by something he's witnessed in the mist. The mist overtakes the supermarket and a scream is heard through the mist. They heed the man's warning to lock the doors. Turns out, there's all kind of freaky monsters hiding in the mist waiting for those stupid enough to venture into it. Now the townspeople in the supermarket must deal with their fear of the terror that awaits them.
Stephen King came up with the idea for his novel when he was in a supermarket. His basic idea involved people somehow being trapped in a supermarket. Stephen King is very inventive and I thought it panned out into a very well made film.
My biggest beef with this film is the less-than-stellar CGI. I've seen similar work done on SciFi channel originals. This is not something to be happy about. Especially the tentacle monster. Could it look any more fake. Also, the acting was not exactly what you call top-notch. Look at the cast. A bunch of faces that look familiar but you can't place what you've seen them in before. The character interactions were pretty good but you see many characters doing things that make you say "what were they thinking?" The religious zealot is probably the most memorable person in the whole movie. Towards the end she got past the point of "person you hate in the movie because of their character" all the way to "this character is so annoying, someone please do her in".
Oh, the ending. Probably one of the most memorable endings in cinematic history. To me it goes right up there with Planet of the Apes. Except you don't see this ending coming. After watching the ending, I said to myself, "I cannot believe that just happened." The ending alone is worth watching the entire movie for.
Like I said this was a pretty good horror movie. In most horror movies you know exactly what is gonna happen next. In "The Mist", you never know what is gonna happen next. If you get the chance, check this one out (out of 5):
