Stephen King's The Mist

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Summary:
In Castle Rock Maine, a strange mist covers over the town and contains a nice mix of dangerous and deadly creatures. David Drayton and his son are among a group of frightened and skeptical customers in a food mart. Eventually, shit gets bad on the human level just as much as on the monster level.

Review:
I really enjoyed reading this novella years and years ago, and always wished for it to become a movie. What scared me the most was a scene with 16-legged spiders. I never forgot the freakiness of that shit. There are spiders in this movie, but with a different kind of twist than the book gave. Just like the rest of this flick, it follows Mr. King's story closely, but adds a few twists here and there.
Darabont is a capable director, especially when he's elbow deep into Stephen King's storytelling world. Shawshank Redemption kicked ass, and I enjoyed The Green Mile quite a bit. Instead of going once again into prison cells and convicts, he presents a new kind of prison with frightened small town folk stuck in a mysterious mist. It's only after some time that everyone starts to realize the dangers that lie in wait for them. On the human front, there's a psycho nut bitch who thinks she's the coming of Christ that is stirring shit and making some take sides. It's like a mini Lord of the Flies up in there and shit, but instead of a conch shell in their hands, a Bible is getting thumped around.

My biggest complaint is not just some puny little kitten meowing for a bowl of milk. It's a stinkin' elephant roaring and rearing its ugly horns up through the ceiling. The CGI looks like some leftover ILM effects rejected after the release of The Relic. Some of the greenscreen work wasn't all that great before the mist arrives, but then the monsters started showing up, and it sucked the wind right out of my sails. I was havin' a decent time and what-not, watching nothing in the mist, and then a small handful go in the back room. Shit starts goin' down. Buuuut unfortunately, the shit that was presented onscreen LOOKED like shit. Some horribly rendered octopi tentacles start tearing into human flesh. Sort of. It's almost as if Kevin Sorbo was going to jump on screen in full Hercules garb and start wrestling with the invisible digital tentacles. The only time where I thought the creature effects were decent is when they were on fire, and sticking to the window. Other than that, it was not pleasing to my eyes aesthetically, when it should have been making me shudder because of the horror of its creation, NOT because of the horror of the badly rendered effects.
One of the two biggest elements to The Mist is the monsters that we will see (or be hinted at seeing). So when such a big element falls as flat as it does, the fear factor also begins to decline. I won't say that it ruined the movie, thank God. I still was enjoying myself for the most part, but my Suspense Meter was Low/Moderate, instead of getting jacked up to Moderate/High - or even more difficult to reach - High Tension To Da Maxx!!! Pity. Damn shame that is.

On the human front, I also was serviced enough to not be completely disappointed. At the same time, it was rather difficult to believe how quickly scared folks started taking illogical sides because SOMEONE is providing answers. Should I really accept that after 2 days of this horror, so many people are turning stupid? That's hard to believe. How about they get stuck in there for at least 5 more days? Then, this scenario wouldn't be such a hard pill to swallow.
Now for my thoughts on the conclusion. I like the extra chapter which was added from the end of King's story. Then again, it fails to be logical enough in retrospect than it should be. I won't say much more because I'm not a spoil-sport, but it would seem as if adding a few more dangers at the time would have been a boon. Also, the musical score at the end with the wailing woman was a big pain in the ass on my ears.

When all is said and done, The Mist is still a fun time at the movies, especially for those who are in love with Creature Features. The performances were spot on, and it's a fun story with classic King imagination. Darabont knows how to bring the best out of Stephen King's work, and also picks the right ones for creation on the movie screen. Even though there are significant issues with creature effects (sucking) and an implausibly quick following to the Psycho Bitch.... it's a great movie. I cared for the characters who make the story count, and the imagination behind the less-than-stellar CGI effects were enough to keep me happy, and in mild suspense. Pretty damned good movie, but it could have been stellar with just a few more tweaks.

GRADE: B

Reviewed: 12/6/07