Great movie where the characters actually have substance.

Rating: 9/10 (16 December 2007)

It seems that Frank Darabont can do no wrong when faced with bringing Stephen King novels to the big screen. He masterfully directed The Green Mile as well as one of the greatest movies, if not the greatest -opinion of course-, film of all time, The Shawshank Redemption. This movie is not another gore fest slasher movie. Granted it has its fair share of gruesome violence, but it is the signature way in which King develops his characters and focuses on human nature and emotion that allows this movie to succeed.
Rather than focus on how the mist got to their town or what exactly it was, the story zeros in on how the people co-exist with one another in spite of occurrences which they cannot fathom nor know how to deal with the supernatural foe. It is a primitive story based on human weakness and King's eternal themes of hope and fear. Fear of not just what we don't know or what goes bump in the night, but fear of ourselves and what we are capable of doing to one another.
Religion is an important element in this story that any theology, history or philosophy student could write a thesis on. When faced with fear of death do you turn to god? Smoke and mirrors. With reference to Castro, who himself made such a spectacle at his speeches that Cubans themselves could believe he was the second coming. It is not religion that is the evil force in the film but the way in which men and women exploit it to make themselves stronger and breed their own hate, fear and insecurity -clearly not a new theme-.
I really enjoyed watching this movie. It was complex, entertaining and albeit depressing, I found it satisfying at points -those who have seen it know what I am talking about-. If only more films had more substance to them and had some kind message, even if the message was a bit muddled. If only King would stay away from those television mini-series....-although I liked the Langoliers so there's no accounting for taste after all I guess-.