The Mist Review

If "The Majestic" represented a misstep for Frank Darabont, then "The Mist" is very much a step into the unknown. Following the critical derision which greeted his previous film, the writer/director has returned to the guiding hand of Stephen King's source material, whose work had previously steered him to great success with "The Shawshank Redemption" and "The Green Mile". However, the similarities to his back catalogue end there as this odd, and frequently nasty horror, proves to be a significant departure.

The film opens with a devastating storm, which damages the family home of artist David Drayton (Thomas Jane) and decimates the small town in which the story is set. Many of its inhabitants descend upon the local supermarket for supplies, but when the store is enveloped in a deadly mist, the shellshocked shoppers find themselves trapped inside. Confusion reigns as to the nature of the danger, compounded further by Jeffrey DeMunn's disorientated and terrified entrance and his character's claims of something hidden in the mist. However, after the brutal death of an employee who attempts to go outside, it soon transpires that the eponymous mist conceals vicious and bloodthirsty creatures and that the characters face a fight for survival.

As well as Jane's dependable everyman, Darabont makes short work of establishing archetypal characters such as religious fanatic Mrs. Carmody (Marcia Gay Harden), downtrodden yet resolute employee Ollie Weeks (Toby Jones), cynical lawyer Brent Norton (Andre Braugher) and Amanda Dumfries' pretty yet resourceful heroine to name but a few. In addition to sketching out such stock characters, Darabont also blunders with a clichéd narrative and several moments whose predictability falls particularly flat. Despite this, "The Mist" is solidly scary and many of the shocks are well orchestrated and suitably gruesome. The film is also punctuated by flashes of the witty dialogue and dark humour that has become synonymous with Darabont's writing.

Although solidly scary in itself isn't bad, the real problem with "The Mist" is its aspiration to be so much more. The overly earnest tone and political subtext will prove distracting to some and plain irritating to others. It almost seems as if Darabont constructed his story as something of an afterthought, shaping the narrative to fit with his chosen themes. The most glaring example of this comes as frustration, coupled with the religious fervour stirred up by Gay Harden's 'local nut', turns the majority of the trapped shoppers into a mob and makes remaining in the supermarket just as dangerous as taking a chance in the mist. An interesting comment on the human condition this may be but a convincing plot twist it most certainly is not. A character's assertion that our species is 'fundamentally insane' may be justified, but their subsequent rhetorical question 'Why do you think we invented politics and religion?', labours the point and is very heavy-handed.

"The Mist" may not quite work in the way it was intended to, but if you can overlook these flaws then there is still plenty to enjoy. It is rare to wish for a film to display less ambition, but the uncomfortable fit of Darabont's ideas within this film ultimately undermines much of what is good here. An interesting failure.