A very courageous horror film. Well done!!

Rating: 9/10 (5 July 2008)

As any film fan will know, if Frank Darabont adapts a Stephen King novel and directs it then you should really sit up and take note. For those that are unaware, Darabont wrote and directed the Stephen King adaptations The Shawshank Redemption and the Green Mile and now he brings to us The Mist, which is ironically a return to roots for Frank Darabont who started out writing on 80s horror B Movies. The Mist is a film about a group of townsfolk whose town becomes engulfed by a terrifying cloud that traps them inside a glass-fronted convenience store. The cloud contains strange creatures and various monsters that could quite easily kill the humans, should the mist make its way into the building.
As the characters converse inside the building they are forced to get along as best they can, shades of Lord of the Flies springs to mind and, characterized by their behavior, they begin to take sides and split into factions. Superbly written and wonderfully acted, all the characters portray a sense of realism that is rarely captured when trying to represent such hostile environments. Furthermore, being that we live in an age when reality TV and manufactured environments are created to imprison volunteers for the amusement of others, a film like The Mist has more bearing on our conscious than perhaps the makers envisaged. This connotation with contemporary sources of entertainment provides the audience with the ability to register and humanize with the townsfolk much more easily allowing for their dilemmas and disagreements to have an increased impact, which in turn intensifies the horrific nature of their circumstances.
The best performance of the film is by Marcia Gay Harden, who plays Mrs. Carmody, a religious nut that achieves a leadership through her constant preaching. The manner in which she plays Mrs. Carmody leads me to believe that she is a much underrated actress as during this film I truly despised her. The anti-religious notions that are ever present throughout the film are tainted with malevolent undertones and fanatical ideologies that brilliantly portray a level of fear rarely touched upon in contemporary horror. The Mist tells of religion as being fundamental to some peoples grasp of hope and that with it even the most apparently sane individuals will result in "lynching" others to achieve savior. It is an austere representation of religion that serves as a reminder to us all of its capabilities. The fact that the religion being pilloried in The Mist is Christianity has been dwelled upon too much by some critics, this choice of religion is merely fitting given the films location and setting, any other choice would have been inappropriate.
The Mist is a fine cult horror, so much so that it does not deserve to be viewed in a cinema. It is a film that would play out much better watched at home on your own TV. It is an intellectual film that will no doubt cause debate to ensue following the final reels. Ultimately, and as with previous Darabont ventures, the film is about hope. Its narrative is strongly embedded in the characters belief that there may be way out of their predicament and that their fate is not yet sealed. This is beautifully illustrated at one point in the film when one of the groups, which have emerged from the townsfolk, must make the decision of either staying with the brainwashed, or venturing into the outside mist; it is a choice of facing one of two fears  fellow humans or the unknown. Their fate sealed if they stay, but perhaps not if they leave.
The film is pessimistic in its outlook and serves as wonderful reminder of the importance of hope to us all. The ending has gained a lot of criticism, but I believe it to be by far one of the best endings to a film I have seen in a long time. After it had finished the despair and anguish I felt was in direct correlation with the characters and the story, thus the film had achieved its goal. I whole heartedly admire a director that has the courage to go against a studios wishes and audience expectations and provide an ending that is a bleak and daunting as the 120 minutes that have preceded it. Frank Darabont has stuck with the continuity of the narrative themes and left us with perhaps the starkest metaphor for hope ever to grace contemporary cinema.
Finally, The Mist is a contemporary B Movie, which is no surprise given Darabonts history in the area but also it is a wonderful social commentary that so happens to take its shape in a horror film, that also happens to be a Stephen King adaption. After seeing The Mist, Darabont has gone up a notch in my estimations as a director and writer. I thoroughly recommend The Mist to anyone that likes to leave a film feeling depressed, but immensely satisfied.