One of the Best King Adaptations

Rating: 7/10 (26 November 2007)

I read 'The Mist' when I was 12 years old and it begat a lifelong love of the horror genre. It was with great trepidation that I sat down to watch Darabont's movie adaptation, thoroughly expecting it to be completely butchered. I was pleasantly surprised.
The movie is never as scary as the novella, and the suspense never quite reaches the excruciating heights of King's original story. Darabont fails to play up the unbearable tension (and razor-wire webs) of the spider infested pharmacy which I still vividly remember from the story even after 20 years. There's a nice pseudo-documentary feel to the shaky steadi-cam photography, replete with tight zooms and jump cuts. The creature design is top-notch, though let down by flawed CGI work  especially in the initial loading bay attack. Toby Jones stands out as the most unlikely of heroes, and Marcia Gay Harden makes an excellent bog-eyed sociopath  channeling the Queen of Deranged Christian Fundamentalists, Piper Laurie, in De Palma's 'Carrie'.
But though faithful to the original story and written and directed with some artistry, there's something about the film that falls flat. It lacks the sheer sense of dread of 'The Shining' or the tension of 'Misery'. It's not horrifying or suspenseful enough to become a classic of the genre and for all the time that is spent trying to develop characters through long dialogue sequences, it doesn't add up to the kind of intimate dramatic character portraits that we find in 'The Exorcist'. 'The Mist' lies somewhere in the middle  not quite scary enough. Not quite dramatic enough.
As for the new ending  I didn't mind it so much. It smacks a little too much of the ever-popular gimmicky twist revelation that has become a staple of the horror genre, but I give credit to Darabont and Dimension Films for allowing such a downbeat finale to make it to the final cut.
'The Mist' is one of the best King adaptations to date, combining a quality ensemble cast, quirky scenarios, and occasionally startling visuals to make for a good, though flawed, horror movie.