Movie Title: The Mist
Director: Frank Darabont Rated: Switzerland:16 (canton of Vaud) / Australia:MA / Hong Kong:IIB / South Korea:15 / Finland:K-15 / Switzerland:16 (canton of Geneva) / USA:R / Germany:16 / Philippines:R-13 (MTRCB) / France:-12 / Singapore:NC-16
Genre: Drama / Horror / Sci-Fi / Thriller
Runtime: 126 min
Viewed: Sitting in my chair in front of the TV
Trailer: Synopsis: A freak storm unleashes a species of blood-thirsty creatures on a small town, where a small band of citizens hole-up in a supermarket and fight for their lives.
Opinion: To start with a few points. I'm a huge
Stephen King fan, to the point I've read everything he's written probably 3 or more times each...but I've never been that big of a fan of any of his movie adaptations as they're usually crap compared to how I imagine the stories in my own head, (which is a scary place to be at the best of times). I remember reading the short story that this movie is based on years ago and thinking it would probably make a good movie if handled right and thankfully it's been adapted and directed by
Frank Darabont who made 2 of the best King movies, in my opinion, those being
The Shawshank Redmption &
The Green Mile, so I had pretty high hopes for this one.
The thing is not to approach this as a "horror" movie as is so often done with Stephen King movies, but more as a drama/thriller with a supernatural/horror theme. The characters in the movie are not 2 dimensional characters but are given time to develop and therefore you get invested in the story and want to see the main "good guy" characters survive and make good their escape.
Thomas Jane is good as the main character of David Drayton who is trapped in the supermarket with his son, and
Marcia Gay Harden is so good as the religious nut "Mrs Carmody" that I wanted to push her out in to The Mist myself once she started on her religious ranting.
From reading King for years and watching movies based on his works, both good and bad, I'm sensing he has a serious mistrust of the military, and that is borne out again in The Mist.
Rather than spend ages focusing on what the mist is and where it comes from the movie looks at how people forced in to an incredible situation and forced to co-exist manage to get along, and how quickly relationships form, get broken down and ultimately people give in to hysteria.
I really enjoyed this movie, and if you like films that keep you watching to see how things turn out, while giving you a scare or two along the way and making you think about just how fucked up we as a species are, then you could do a lot worse than watch this film.
Acting (Scale from 1 to 5): 
Story/Plot (Scale from 1 to 5): My Overall Rating (Scale from 1 to 5):