Sublimely human sci-fi horror

Rating: 9/10 (21 February 2009)

I have read a lot of Stephen King, and I have seen a lot of cinematic adaptations of his work.
When these are done well, they are masterpieces or at the very least, far above average films. Into this category I'd happily throw in The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile, Stand By Me, The Shining, Dreamcatcher, The Dead Zone and possibly one or two others, Pet Sematary and Cujo.
When adaptations are done with sub-standard actors or direction, the on-screen effect can be dismal or outright laughable. In this category, led by The Stand and It, there are sadly too many to contemplate. 1408 is an exception here, in that it had a great cast and a budget, but misses its mark. So I was delighted when I watched this new offering from King (the novella upon which it's based is top of my list to read now, and the notion that it inspired "Silent Hill" has only made me feel more awed at King's mind) and the writer/director that gave us Shawshank and Mile.
THE MIST...
Is ominous and haunting from beginning to bitter end. I'm shocked that this film has received such a high rating on IMDb (7.4 at time of writing) given that most audiences do not like bitter ends. And that is all I shall say about this film's finale, which is nothing if not psychologically disturbing and chilling.
And despite this ending being different to that in the novella (which I have read about), it is nevertheless very much in keeping with the King style. To me, it even adds to the sense of lunacy, desperation and unforgiving tension which the story offers.
The story, in which a mysterious, monstrously murderous mist envelops a small US town, is told with admirable restraint: a welcome quality in any effective horror film, by which a film allows the fear inside the viewer to fester and grow, aided by his own imagination. Apart from one or two contrived visual frights, the scenes with monsters in the fog, as well as those of people attempting to brave the killer mist, are incredibly tense.
Screams don't come when you expect them. Deaths are gruesome and aplenty, and though on the lower end of the gore scale, the human reaction to death in its various forms here makes them more realistic. The creatures, partially hidden by the mist, seem more terrifying than if seen in any other weather or time of day. The mist intensifies the sense of uncertainty, and in some cases enhances the mind-blowing magnitude of the monsters.
The monsters themselves, and in particular the bellowing bony behemoth at the end, are superbly and imaginatively crafted. Their presence, which grows throughout the film in both volume and size induces the fear one would expect from one's worst nightmares. Some of them come across graphically as intensely other-worldly as I have seen on screen.
The acting in general is superb and for a horror film, surprisingly human. Characters are shown to have not just fears, but intelligence, love, loyalty, madness, friendship, anger, faith, courage, stupidity, violence... at the first sign of a "monster," the characters actually debate whether telling others what they have seen is worth it, given how unbelievable it is. The paranoia and ignorance of the small-town mentality is also scarily exposed, latching onto medieval beliefs in their hour of darkness. As is the general question of whether Man should play with things he does not understand (an issue that was also intriguingly raised in Jurassic Park).
The film is nearly a perfect sci-fi horror: it even pays tribute early on to John Carpenter and The Thing, which is, to my mind, still the best in this genre. The last lines of Childs and MacReady in The Thing are echoed in this film (Childs: "What do we do now?" MacReady: "Why don't we just wait here for a little while... see what happens..." - In The Mist Drayton says: "Let's uh... see how far the... the fuel takes us, huh?" And those could have made a very different, though equally pleasing, end to this flick).
I watched this film yesterday evening, and 24 hours later, I have it running around my head still, in particular its brutal ending, with its eerie music, that gargantuan creature, and the unearthly freakish noise it makes.
My hat off to the writer and director, who eschews a happy ending for a truly horrific one. If an Apocalypse ever comes - I pray it is nothing like this one. A must-see for horror and sci-fi fans.