I got lots of peas....

Rating: 9/10 (25 November 2010)

After a violent storm attacks a town in Maine, an approaching cloud of mist appears the next morning.
As the mist quickly envelops the area, a group of people get trapped in a local grocery store -among them, artist David Drayton and his five-year-old son.
The people soon discover that within the mist lives numerous species of horrific, unworldly creatures that entered through an inter-dimensional rift, which may or may not have been caused by a nearby military base.
As the world around them manifests into a literal hell-on-earth, the horrified citizens try desperately to survive this apocalyptic disaster......
What should have been a straight forward monster/people trapped somewhere movie, turns into something else thanks to a magnificent screenplay by Darabont and a career best from Marcia Gay Harden.
Just who are the monsters in this film? The creatures on the outside or the crowd trapped in the store, who are becoming more frustrated and more segregated as the film goes on.
This film harks back to horror movies and claustrophobic thrillers such as Dawn of Dead and The Fog, with everyday people just trying to get back to their loved ones or to escape their makeshift prison. Jane is great as the everyman who is trying to keep everything under control whilst looking after his son.
There are obvious connotations to religion and how people can be brainwashed by someone in an hour of weakness/desperation, and this plays a vital role to the scariest part of the film, the crowd of the new 'cult' just keeps getting bigger and bigger, and begin to play god by believing that they will keep the creatures at bay by sacrifice.
Some of the CGI is very bad though, and knocks a point of the film for me, but to balance it out, there is a lot of needed humour in the film at surprising points to give you a little lift before the ending.
And what an ending. if you've seen it, you will know where i'm coming from. If you haven't seen the film and don't really like the sound of it, see it just for the ending, the last 2 minutes are priceless.
So apart from some very bad CGI, this film is a must, heavily overlooked on its initial release, but worth seeing now.