Silly film with quasi religious overtones.

Rating: 6/10 (18 June 2008)

I am told the "THE MIST" in some European languages means garbage in this case the translation applies. Stephen King as usual has turned the normal average Mid -west USA town from one dimensional mediocrity to madness and mayhem within the opening section of the film. Frank Darabont directs the film and after his great films like GREEN MILE this one must be a bit embarrassing. We see a strange mist settle over the town and along with it large array of massive and deadly insects , tentacle bearing monsters and various large deadly and nasty creatures. The protagonist of the film is David Drayton played by Thomas Jane (Punisher, The Thin Red Line) and he goes into town with his son and his African -American neighbour Brent Norton ( Andre Braugher) a Big town Lawyer who turns out to be very unpopular in the town. As the mist and the monsters engulf the town Drayton and his son along with Norton and several other shoppers take refuge in the local supermarket. As the film painfully drags along we find that fear and ignorance of most of the shoppers in the Supermarket become as great a risk the monsters outside. This happens because of a Bible -Bashing woman incites religious fanaticism amongst the shoppers to the extent that she has convinced them that the few unbelievers should be sacrificed to God's monsters that have taken over the earth. Drayton and his level headed crew in the Supermarket find themselves having to escape the mad mob in the supermarket and even having to kill the mad preacher. Drayton and his crew escape in a four wheel drive but a few die in the process as the monsters are everywhere. Eventually Drayton his son and two other survivors become stranded and the consequences are as unrealistic as they are tragic. The characters in this film are as pathetic as the notoriously mediocre M. Night Shyamalan type of films in fact the the religious overtones and style of anti-climatic deadly creatures is very much down at that level.