"The Mist" should have been an instant classic, but it's just a solid monster movie

Rating: 8/10 (9 March 2008)

Easily one of the most intriguing short stories Stephen King has ever brought to paper, "The Mist" was one of the most anticipated King-adaptations in a long time. Longtime fan and friend Frank Darabont was the one who finally got his hands on the project. He had already adapted two King-stories ("The Shawshank Redemption" and "The Green Mile") to much critical acclaim (justified or not), so fans were pretty hyped up about him working on this beloved material. In hindsight another director might have been a better choice for this movie that is more horror related than "Shawshank" or "Mile", but we'll get to that later.
Some people have argued that the "less-is-more"-approach would have been better for this kind of movie, because the less you see of the monsters, the more your imagination can run wild, and the scarier the movie will be. I'm glad that Darabont didn't go for that approach, because that's not what this story is about. Fans of King's "The Mist" wanted to see the monsters in all their creepy glory and Darabont really tried to give us that.
The problem is that the CGI is nowhere near as good as it should have been and the movie absolutely depends on convincing special effects. It's not like it couldn't have been done better. "The Thing" still looks absolutely stunning and that movie is over 20 years old, so why couldn't "The Mist" be as convincing? Thankfully, the monsters do look better once they are surrounded by fog, but the first horrific exposure of giant tentacles is just laughable and even the fog coming over the little town looks cheesy. This flaw really drags the movie down to a point where you can either dismiss it as a failure immediately or decide that some moments are still pretty cool. Either way, the special effects should have been worked on. This way they look half-finished and frustratingly cheap.
The effects are not the only thing that seems cheap. The dialog is also pretty painful to watch at times. The tension in "The Mist" arises only partly from the monsters on the outside of that grocery store. The conflicts within the group inside the grocery store are equally important, so it's almost as hurtful that the interaction between the characters seems wooden and clichéd. Although the lines in the script were adopted almost word for word from the original short story, they don't work in the movie. What seems believable on paper doesn't necessarily translate that way to the screen. Darabont may have thought it was the safest bet to include as much as possible from the original short story (an unnecessary sex scene aside), but in this case some adjustments would have been a good thing.
That said, the movie does get a lot better after the first 45 minutes or so. Somehow the longer we stay with that group and the more we watch insanity arise on the outside, the more we get sucked into the story. The characters get more realistic and the creatures are positively creepy. It's a good thing Darabont included all the terrifying stuff from the short story and he did most of it justice.
The much talked about ending isn't all that important to be honest. The story just goes on for a bit longer and ties up some loose ends. Sure, it may not be completely plausible, but it's a better way to end the movie than just going to the credits in the middle of events. The new ending doesn't really fit the mood of the rest of the movie and seems a bit tacked on, but at least it comes as a surprise.
Frank Darabont could have screwed up this great story a lot worse (just thinking of what they did to Bradbury's "A Sound Of Thunder" makes me shiver). A bit more style and finesse, a better chosen cast and, most of all, perfected CGI would have been enough to turn "The Mist" into the unforgettable classic that it should have been. Unfortunately, it didn't turn out that way. Like the other Stephen King adaptation of 2007 ("1408"), "The Mist" can't compete with the short story it is based on, but it's still quite entertaining to watch.