The Mist Review

I'll start out this brief review by saying I had some high hopes for this movie if only for the reason it was directed by Frank Darabont, who also brought us the Stephen King adaptations "The Shawshank Redemption" and "The Green Mile". Both of those were movies I quite enjoyed. So I assumed this would be a great movie considering the talent involved. I'm sorry to say I couldn't have been more wrong.

"The Mist", not to be confused with John Carpenter's "The Fog", is based on Stephen King's short story of the same name. The story revolves around a man (Thomas Jane) and his young boy fighting for survival when their small town is blanketed in a mysterious mist. They take refuge with a group of terrified folk confined to the temporary safety of a grocery store. There is most definitely something shrouded in the aforementioned mist that is attacking townspeople and making them run for cover. Most of the film is spent between the characters fighting with each other on how to deal with their grim situation. Some characters don't believe there is anything to fear at all, others believe it's God's wrath for mankind's sins.

The movie tries very hard to make you feel for its characters, and I feel that it failed miserably. The combination of bad acting and unrealistic human behaviors makes it incredibly difficult to like anyone involved. Not to mention they're forced to combat some incredibly un-scary, CGI monsters like giant spiders, mosquitoes, and tentacled creatures unlike anything usually seen on earth. You find out that top-secret government testing involving alternate dimensions are to blame for the onslaught of terrors. Again, all of this could be of some value if not for the shoddy characters and flimsy computer generated scares. Once you see the monsters in the light, the tension is gone. It's a mistake, that with the popularity of CG effects over practical ones, is all too common in modern movies.

The film's ending was outstandingly over-dramatic and laughable. Even when compared to other bad Stephen King adaptations, it doesn't get much worse than this.