Dark Mist

Rating: 8/10 (12 December 2007)

I'm gonna be up front about this, my review will give away certain things about the ending. Stop reading right now, if you have not already seen The Mist.
Okay, this movie is one for serious horror buffs. I just got out of a showing, and as we were filing out, a guy across the isle looked at me and said, about the ending: "Wow, that's messed up." This movie possessed a signature King quality, in that it managed to creep you out with both human and supernatural elements. And it brought both of those elements big time.
The Mist really had a far greater quality to it that your standard horror movie out these days. I had expected that when I saw that the director was Frank Durabont. He's now taken on three very different Stephen King stories, and I think made the three best, out of the dozens of King adaptations made over the years. The endings were all very different as well, one being blissfully happy and optimistic, another subdued and somewhat bittersweet, and the third incredibly intense and dark.
As for the cast, if you're a fan of Durabont's movies, you've seen a number of these people before. Jeffrey DeMunn and Bill Sadler were excellent as always. I'm sure that Marcia Gay Harden had the most fun during filming, she really was a scene-stealer playing an outrageous religious fundamentalist woman. Actually though my favorite performance was turned in by English actor Toby Jones. He doesn't look like an action star, but his character really was, and I just loved his style. Tom Jane and Laurie Holden were perfectly fine as our main characters, but to be honest, they're both just so incredibly attractive, I was kinda distracted by that the whole movie. Neither of them really look like anybody you'd actually see in a small town store.
So anyway, as high quality as this movie is, I don't see it as possessing a lot of cross-over appeal. It was among the most intense Stephen King adaptations, and it is not a date movie, unless you're both big fans of the King. This is a dark horror movie, not for beginners. The ending is chilling and leaves you thinking about it over and over again. Stay away if you like to walk out of a movie singing a happy tune.