The Mist Review

Although I love Stephen King as an author, most of his movie adaptations are pretty awful.  There have been a few good ones (The Shining, Carrie, etc.), but most go the way of awfulness like Dream Catcher or Secret Window,  However, Frank Darabont did a good job on Shawshank, so this showed some promise.

 This film contained shades of 2 of my favorites from the Horror/Sci-Fi Realm; H.P. Lovecraft and the Twilight Zone.  Yes, the movie contained mythical monsters from another dimension, and also examined the human condition with a diverse cross section of people stuck in a small space under dire circumstances with a bitterly ironic ending thrown in for good measure.  Although I liked the idea of all this, I am not so sure that these two things were meant to go together.  I think that the film may have worked better with more Twilight Zone and less Lovecraft.  The acting and dialog were excellent, but the effects were average.  I think that a better way to go would have been to focus more on the human aspects, and less on the monsters.  Heck, I'm not so sure the audience even needed to see them at all.

 I still liked The Mist well enough though.  Like I said, the acting was excellent.  Thomas Jane is underrated for sure (Hey, I liked the Punisher which would have been much, much better without the over the top performance from the supposed "star" Travolta).  I haven't seen much by Toby Jones, but he was also excellent as Ollie.  Frances Sterhagen was Cliff's Mom, so you can't go wrong there.  William Sadler always seems to come through as well.  However, by far, the best performance came from Marcia Gay Harden as the bible quoting nut job.  I am not saying it will happen, but do not be surprised if she comes away with an Oscar nomination for this.  She was even better here than in Pollack, and the best supporting actress field is usually a bit thin.

 So, if you have any interest in Stephen King, somewhat cerebral horror films, the Twilight Zone, H.P. LoveCraft, solid writing or fine acting, check out this movie.  Heck, just go see it anyway.  This has got to be better than a poorly animated Epic Tale, a better animated but still somewhat sad animated Seinfeld or any movie based on a video game.