Thank God for Visual Effects, eh?

Rating: 6/10 (24 November 2007)

"The Mist" first and foremost finds itself in a rather peculiar position. You see, the novella by Stephen King has been suggested as having inspired the video game "Silent Hill." In turn the video game "Silent Hill" lead to a movie by the same name. In turn, this adaptation of "The Mist" seems to owe a lot of its inspiration to the movie version of the video game "Silent Hill." So, if you liked "Silent Hill" the movie, its a good bet you'll like "The Mist." The story I think has been told before, but here goes: an artist and his wife and child manage to make it through a bad storm. In the aftermath of the damage to the home, the husband and son head into town, taking along the sometime friend sometime foe neighbor to pick up supplies.
While in town, a mist (go figure, eh?) envelopes the store, and a man shouting about something in the mist lead the people inside to close up the doors and remain inside.
As always happens in these movies, first it begins by grabbing one person (the stock boy as he's trying to go out to clear the generator so that it won't backup), and then it has its fill of the neighbor and his band of cynics who venture out to get help.
While all of this is going on, a religious fundamentalist (played admirably by Marcia Gay Harden) recruits the majority inside the store to offer ritual sacrifice to appease the vengeful God that she claims to be representing as a vessel. A minority inside the store plan first to get some medicines from the pharmacy next door, and then finally they plan to leave before the flock turn on them.
The visuals in "The Mist" aren't really all that impressive- amongst the creatures inhabiting the mist are large winged insects with sharp stingers, large spiders with webs that burn through clothing and skin, a giant preying mantis like creature, winged creatures that look like a cross between a bat and a dinosaur, tentacles from a creature we never see, and so on. The reality to all of this however is that none of these creatures actually looks real.
Now I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing. Certainly the way these creatures lay waste to the hapless inside the store is creepy enough, but perhaps if they looked more authentic, the movie might take on a more disturbing tone than it already does.
I won't give away the ending, for all the commercials are a buzz about this ending you don't see coming. Having said that, I will say this about the ending: it is one of the most depressing I've seen in a very long time, and it would seem it is also illogical as it plays out.
The movie has a more interesting human component than "Silent Hill" did, but its visuals aren't as original (perhaps after the movie "Silent Hill," visuals such as these never will be as original or as authentic) and so its level of creepy allure fades pretty quickly. Its worth a look if you'd like to try your luck with these types of scares, but don't go in expecting the same quality of film as "The Green Mile" or "The Shawshank Redemption." There's a reason why this film settles for Thomas Jane instead of Tom Hanks.