Powerful Sci-Fi Horror Movie

Rating: 8/10 (28 June 2014)

If I were to rate my favorite Stephen King movies it would be 1.) The Green Mile (yes The Green Mile is first, it's my list). 2.) Shawshank Redemption. 3.) Misery. After these three it would be The Shining, Carrie, Dolores Claiborne, Stand By Me, Cujo and The Mist in no particular order (although I might rank The Shining above the rest). All this is to illustrate how highly I think of the movie The Mist.
The Mist took place in a rural Northeast town, like so many Stephen King movies do. The town was hit by a vicious storm. Shortly following the storm came a mist and the mist brought some creatures that no one was ready for. The movie follows a group of townsfolk of about 40 or 50 that hunkered down in a supermarket to avoid the mist and its wrath. The people in the supermarket splintered into groups. The most vociferous and eventually the strongest group was the religious group led by Mrs. Carmody (Marcia Gay Harden).
This movie was about nether-worldly creatures but at times that took a back seat to the drama in the supermarket. There were some stomach turning moments, some hair raising moments, some angering moments and somber moments. But the real standout part of this movie was the religious aspect. As death and destruction is being wrought upon them and Mrs. Carmody continues proselytizing-her numbers grow and so does the mania. No doubt, viewers were divided into two distinct groups. Group no. 1: "Oh yeah, that's what religion and those religious nuts are all about. They're all cults." Group no. 2: "OMG! Another religious nut hijacking a religion and making a cult." Whichever group you belonged to you were still compelled by the drama of it all. Marcia Gay Harden did a spectacular job and proved why she was an Academy award winner in 2000.
The Mist kept me intrigued the entire movie. The movie was well directed and well written. The CGI wasn't great but it was above average. The movie was only enhanced by an ending you must see. The end, for me, propelled the movie from a 6 or 7 rating to an 8.