Top-Drawer Horror

Rating: 9/10 (21 February 2009)

I first read Stephen King's 'The Mist' many years ago and found it absolutely riveting. It was one of those stories that - despite being preposterous - completely drew me in. For days, even weeks, afterwards I would chew-over the characters and their plight, and think what I might have done in the same place. That's a sure sign of a writer who knows his craft. Wyndam's little-known 'The Kraken Wakes' had a similar effect.
Frank Darabont has worked with King before, bringing his 'Green Mile' and 'Shawshank Redemption' shorts to the screen. I have read neither of these stories, and though I found the former rather maudlin as a movie, 'Shawshank' was certainly a triumph. Neither did well at the box-office, but they were DVD smash-hits. Such is the power of spoken word.
Darabont's 'The Mist' sticks very closely to King's story. There is very little preamble. In fact, it's just a little too sketchy for my tastes and would have benefited from a few more seconds' emphasis. We are 'in it' very quickly indeed. The body of the story is a very clever weave of the enemy within and without. Where, ultimately, are the real monsters? In the mist or in our minds? There are very definitely monsters in the mist. They're bizarre, original, and quite terrifying. Although no more substantial than CGI, each species is well-realised, you seldom see the joins, and the actors interface with them extremely convincingly. They're better than the demons of 'Pitch Black'; and those are pretty good. Inevitably, these monsters do unpleasant things to people. I won't dilate upon that.
But the other monsters are human. And they always create the worst horror in truth. After all; how many 'Saws' would it take to equal Auschwitz? A disparate group of people are holed-up in a supermarket. And as the mist monsters prowl outside, the subconscious monsters begin to hatch in the store. People start cracking-up. Soon there are two tribes: religious zealots endorsing old-tyme religion, and a shrinking body of 'rationalists' trying to make sense of the incomprehensible. Anyone who thinks that such a scenario couldn't happen, and happen just as quickly, clearly doesn't watch the news. Darabont wisely omits a back-room seduction that King included in his original story. It was cheap and quite inappropriate. Although this movie inevitably entails a mixed-sex cast; it is, in truth, a survival story, and that is where the focus is maintained.
As I say; the movie follows King's plot with unusual fidelity. A small group makes an escape, preferring at last to risk the terrors without than abide the company of those within. And here Darabont makes a second diversion. Whereas Stephen King leaves his characters in an uncertain limbo; Darbont gives us an unequivocal solution. And - being human - it is surely the most horrific end of all.
I am very much reminded of 'The Thing' by this movie, and not because the lead character has a publicity poster of Carpenter's masterpiece on his study wall (which I suspect to be a sneaky homage by Darabont). Both movies are about terror, paranoia, and claustrophobia, and how they work upon our subconscious even more than the monsters themselves. Ultimately we fight our fear, rather than its cause.
This movie goes way beyond all of the slasher-crap I have seen and - mostly - snoozed through these last few years. Yes; there's blood and guts a-plenty for those who want them. And those who want monsters won't be short-changed either. But for the thinking viewer, there's also a great deal more.
It isn't perfect, by any means. The characterisation is a little too sketchy. I wasn't induced to care for them as much as I should have. The actors are B/C-list but still capable for all that. It's not their fault that they sometimes don't convince. The script isn't particularly clever either, even allowing for the fact that the characters are mostly red-necks. And the editing lends a slightly fragmented appearance here and there. But it still has a great deal to commend it. The mist ambiance is wonderfully realised. And the brittleness of relationships and low limits to mortal courage and endeavour bring a jarring reality-check to the modern genre of mutli-skilled super-heroes. There isn't a particle of humour in this movie, cavalier, ironic or otherwise. Which is, in fact, a mistake, because we evolved humour to deal with stress, and some characters would certainly have employed it under the circumstances.
This work is not as good as 'Aliens' or Carpenter's 'The Thing' but it's certainly up there in the same league. I believe it is the best horror movie I have seen since they two set the gold-standard some 30 years ago.