Official Synopsis:
From legendary frightmaster Stephen King and Academy Award nominated director Frank Darabont (The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile) comes one of the most tense and terrifying films since The Shining. After a mysterious mist envelops a small New England town, a group of locals trapped in a supermarket must battle a siege of otherworldly creatures... and the fears that threaten to tear them apart. Starring Thomas Jane (The Punisher) and Oscar winner Marcia Gay Harden (Mystic River) in one of the year's most talked-about performances, The Mist "is one of the best horror movies ever made. Period." (Maryann Johanson, The Flick Filosopher)

  
Our Take:
You can’t talk about The Mist without talking about its ending. And you can’t really talk about the ending without giving away what really is one of the most shocking movie endings in recent history. I’m going to do my best, though, to talk about the film without giving anything major away. We’ll get to the ending a little later on.

A long time ago, I was a religious Stephen King fan. I haven’t read any of his books in a decade or so now, but for a while I read everything he put out. And of all of his stories, my two favorites were always The Stand and The Mist. While I’m still waiting for a truly great movie version of The Stand to arrive, The Mist has now been made into one hell of a movie.

Written and directed by Frank Darabont, who successfully turned Shawshank Redemption into one of the greatest movies ever and The Green Mile into a terrific film in its own right, The Mist expands on the original novella’s story without ever feeling like it strays from King’s vision. It’s not only a great movie, its easily one of the single greatest King adaptations yet. That may not seem like its saying a whole lot as so many bad movies have been made from his books, but by this point there’s also enough good ones that for The Mist to stand at the top of the heap, well, that’s an accomplishment. Frankly, though, The Mist is hands down one of the best horror movies in years.

The Mist works as a horror movie on two levels, which so many fright flicks attempt to do and so few actually succeed at. On the one front, you have the creatures in the mist, which are terrifying, nightmarish visions brought to reality. The special effects in the movie are pretty solid, and the creature design is truly terrifying; on this level, the film works great. If you just want to sit back and watch people get slaughtered by giant bugs and monstrous thingies, you’ll be perfectly satisfied. But the more interesting part of the film for me (and for most people, I imagine) is the horror brought on by the actions of people trapped in the store. Led by a terrifying religious zealot (Marcia Gay Harden in a fantastic standout performance), the people in the store succumb to fear and hostility, at one point even considering human sacrifice. It wouldn’t work under the auspices of another, weaker director, but Darabont makes deeply thoughtful films, and the varying levels of humanity he brings to this horror film really give it layers.

And then there’s the ending of the film. The first time I watched the movie, I absolutely hated it. I still don’t love it, although once you know what’s coming, the shock is lessened quite a bit. Personally, I think it was a bold move, but it just doesn’t work for me. Is it shocking? Absolutely. Is it a satisfying ending? Absolutely not. Fans who have read the book may remember its somewhat nebulous ending, which really fit the book. I would have much rather seen that kind of ambivalence here than what we get on screen. It’s the kind of ending that only film school students and movie snobs will enjoy, but the average moviegoer will, in all likelihood, hate. Luckily, the film is strong enough that it can survive the catastrophic ending, and while you’ll surely be talking about the ending long after the film is over, the entire movie stays with you after it’s over.

I should point out that, again unlike most horror films, the movie is filled with terrific performances. Thomas Jane is solid in the lead, but its Laurie Holden and especially Toby Jones that will really blow you away (along with the aforementioned Ms. Harden). William Sadler, one of my favorite actors, is along for the ride as well, and even the smaller parts are cast extremely well. There is no slasher-flick-level acting to be found here. Darabont also chose to film the movie in a slightly more handheld style (although not like Cloverfield or anything like that), which works really well. The resulting cinematography and editing give the film a very immediate feel, as if you’re right in the action, without it ever becoming gimmicky, obvious, or annoying.

The Mist is available as a pretty amazing Two-Disc Collector’s Edition, which features ample extra features. It also includes the movie in black and white, which director Frank Darabont explains in an intro as how he envisioned the film. I watched the black and white version, and to be honest, it doesn’t do anything more for me than the color version. I mean, it looks fine in black and white, but it just doesn’t evoke the extra mood that Darabont discusses. But, hey, its there, and I’m sure some people will love it versus the color version. Frankly, this is the kind of thing DVD’s should do more often rather than simply giving us the same recycled featurettes over and over again. There’s also a neat little booklet with some cool Drew Struzan art and a short essay by Darabont, plus some comments from Stephen King. Other extra include:

Disc 1 –

* Feature Commentary by Writer/Director Frank Darabont.
* Deleted Scenes with Optional Commentary (14 minutes).
* Drew Struzan: An Appreciation of an Artist (8 minutes) – Struzan is one of the best and most recognized movie poster artists in the world, and it’s great to see his artwork spotlighted in the movie. It’s even more great to get to see a whole featurette on the master.
* Behind-the-Scenes Webisodes (10 minutes) – Short making-of featurettes originally broadcast on the internet
* Trailer Gallery – All trailers for the film, not other releases. Yay!

Disc 2 –

* Frank Darabont Introduces The Mist in Black & White (3 minutes).
* When Darkness Came: The Making of The Mist (35 minutes) – A very nice behind-the-scenes documentary.
* Taming the Beast: The Making of Scene 35(12 minutes) – Focuses on the 10-minute attack sequence at the center of the film.
* Monsters Among Us: A Look at the Creature FX (13 minutes).
* The Horror of It All: The Visual FX of The Mist (16 minutes).

Despite the ending, The Mist ranks as a truly enjoyable and scary horror movie. It has just enough gore to be disturbing, but not so much as to be over-the-top. It’s filled with top-notch performances, inventive creature effects, and terrific camerawork. The Two-Disc Collector’s Edition is a fantastic DVD set, well worth owning. Even though I really don’t like the ending, The Mist is such a great film for the first 115 minutes that it has to come…

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

Overall Picture:
Movie: A
DVD: A

- Mike Spring

Editor