Stephen King's The Mist

Rated R

I was skeptical of seeing this flick, as Stephen King movies don’t often translate well to the screen. As avid Stephen King fans know, his stories are often laced with subtle psychological elements that are far more frightening than what ends up on the screen. Fortunately my little sister wheedled me into going and seeing what I would say is the best Stephen King adaptation to date.

After a vicious storm mangles a town in Maine, many of the townspeople notice a cloud of mist approaching from the mountains. As the vapor quickly envelops the area, an assortment of locals and out-of-towners alike get trapped in a local grocery store. Among them, movie poster artist David Drayton (Thomas Jane, who also starred in Stephen King creepfest Dreamcatcher), his five-year-old son, religious zealot Mrs. Carmody (Marcia Gay Harden), the new third grade teacher (Laurie Holden) and David’s uppity lawyer neighbor, Brent Norton (Andre Braugher). After frightful excursions into the mist, the people come to realize that there are terrible and otherworldly creatures waiting in the thick fog.

This is where Frank Darabont (director and screenwriter) excels where others have failed. Instead of focusing only on the overt scares in the form of tentacled monsters and oversized insectile creatures, he instead centers on something far more frightening: how people react when faced with true horror. David finds himself in an adult Lord of the Flies, with the trapped ensemble splitting to take sides-- whether it is with skeptic Norton, who insists that the monsters are only delusions, or the truly disturbing Mrs. Carmody and her rantings of sin and the wrath of God.

This movie will draw you in with its blunt look at the nature of people’s reactions in times of disaster, and knock you senseless with a stunning ending that M. Night Shyamalan should be envious of.