The Mist

Warning: Contains Spoilers so if you’re gonna go see it get off this page pronto

            There are movies that you wish you could forget shortly after seeing them; House of the Dead is one such movie. Then there are those that leave you with that “What the fuck, that was awesome but I’m so bummed about that ending!!!!” feeling in the pit of your stomach. The Mist is one such movie. The Mist is written by Stephen King based on the 1985 collection of short stories called The Skeleton Crew. Written for the screen by Frank Darabont (The Green Mile, Shawshank Redemption, Nightmare on Elm Street 3, 88’s The Blob), The Mist is the story of…. well a mist that comes into a town in Maine and holds a group of townsfolk hostage in a supermarket not a food store.

            Thomas Jayne (Punisher, Boogie Nights) plays David Drayton who on this particularly shitty day goes to the market with his son Billy played by Nathan Gamble (Babel,Diggers) and Drayton’s not so friendly neighbor/attorney who he has had past quarrels with played by the ever-awesome Andre Braugher (Rise of the Silver Surfer, Glory). We are also introduced to the character of Amanda Dunfrey played by Laurie Holden (The Majestic, Silent Hill) who turns in a fantastic role as the movies resident heroine.  The movie takes a seriously chilling turn when Dan Miller played by the also ever-so-awesome Jeffrey DeMunn (The Green Mile, “Storm of the Century”) comes in looking like he just got into it with a fucking jack-hammer yelling, “There’s something in the Mist!!!!” One of the most memorable and pivotal scenes in this movie is when a couple of guys lead by Drayton go into the loading dock to shut down the generator. Drayton’s lack of testicular fortitude was called into question when he implored the other guys not to open the gate until they knew for sure what was out there. What they got for their troubles was a giant scungile that eats Norm the bag-boy (played by that skinny annoying mother fucker from the American Pie Series, you know….what’s his fuck??). Now the CG kinda turned me off in certain parts but the scene held up and it put me in the mood for fried calamare.

            “Pivotal you say?” Yes for two reasons, the first is because now the characters realize there is something in the mist and the second is we start to see what happens to the human condition in a cramped crisis situation.  I started to feel like maybe this was shaping up to be a mass-hysteria flick where the action is all in people’s heads because they’re panicked, but knowing Stephen King it really is a movie about people being attacked by giant monsters, to an extent. Drayton and some others who saw and fought the scungile plead their case to the abrasive and not so diplomatic Norton (Braugher) who is knocking down the plea to mere deceit on the part of Drayton who he thinks is looking to get even with him from a former gripe.  Super Jesus Fan #1 in the form of the creepy and annoying Mrs. Carmody excellently played by Marsha Gay Harden weighs in with her idea that the mist is in fact a sign of the apocalypse and she starts preaching that everyone will die and blah, blah, blah…… We later find out from an army private before he is stabbed and left for dead in the mist that  the phenomena is in fact an army experiment that accidentally opened another dimension that ended up spilling onto Earth.

            Another fantastic and really funny scene is when the survivors are attacked by giant mosquitoes that turn one girl into a Biggest Loser contestant before she dies. One moron fighting the bugs with a torch slips, falls, and hahahah sets himself on fire!!!! What a dumb-ass, or as the French say “Dumas”.

The action, CG effects, and  flawless acting will keep you glued to the screen but what makes The Mist even more gripping and disturbing is what happens to the survivors as they really get to ponder their own survival trapped inside a supermarket not a food store. Mrs. Carmody’s religious ramblings are starting to take hold on many of the survivors as they quickly start to lose their sanity. What ensues is a rift between Drayton’s crew of survivors and the recently devout converted followers of Mrs. Carmody. What we see throughout the movie is the theme of fear and power and how the two virtually go hand in hand in order to be effective, I felt as though philosophically The Mist is one giant pot-shot at a post 9/11society being lead by a post-smart- president White House.                                                                                                          

With the shooting of Mrs. Carmody, Drayton, his son Billy, Amanda, and another old couple make it out of the supermarket not a food store and drive as far as they can before they run out of gas. The group decides that the only thing to do is a group suicide that leaves Drayton the sole survivor. Soon after he kills everyone the mist lifts and the army comes to save the day, feeling dumb are we??? I thought the shooting was going to be a dream sequence and my heart sank as my last Butterfinger crunched and I wished I could turn back the clock for the totally fucking stupid Drayton.