Dark and Riveting Suspense Thriller with a Brutally Bleak Ending

Rating: 7/10 (29 August 2014)

'The Mist' (2007) was directed by Frank Darabont and is based off a short story of the same name by Stephen King which can be found in the collection 'Skeleton Crew'.
It's about a bunch of people who get trapped in a supermarket by a mist containing deadly creatures that rips anyone who goes outside to shreds. It's also about how the people in the supermarket are affected by this. Different people respond in different ways. People are distressed and becoming frequently more irrational as the film progresses. There's the main character, David Drayton, who's the calm and rational person who's trying to do the right thing. There's also a crazy religious woman reminiscent of the mother in 'Carrie'. She riles things up by trying to convince everyone that this is an act of a vengeful God. She becomes crazier as the movie progresses.
The monsters look obviously computer generated, therefor not as convincing as I would've liked, however, they would've looked amazing if they'd looked realistic. They come in a variety of shapes and sizes. There's even a scene which plays on our common phobia of creepy-crawlies.
'The Mist' is a tense and riveting suspense thriller with vivid characters and despite an impending sense of dread manages to be scattered with funny moments throughout.
The biggest punch of all is in the ending, which is one of the most brutally bleak endings I've seen, partly because it's so unexpected and comes as a visceral shock to the viewer. If they had all been killed by the mist, it would've seemed almost happy in comparison. Though the ending made a huge impression on me, it left me with a bad taste and is not an ending one wishes to linger in the imagination.
The soundtrack is great, adding to the film where needs be. At the end, it uses a song called 'The Host of Seraphim' by 'Dead Can Dance', which makes its tragic ending all the more haunting.