Primeval with the cast from the Walking Dead

Rating: 8/10 (5 January 2013)

Of course I'm joking with that above statement! For those of you who don't know, Primeval is an incredibly bad TV show in the UK about dinosaurs that come out of worm hole thingies and a bumbling group of secret service people go out to dispatch of the beasts humanely. It's really bad, uses every cliché in the book and has most definitely run its course. The Mist surprised me, although I wouldn't call it one the greatest horror films of the decade, it's certainly one of the greatest creature features, but I could think of at least 20 horror films (I think) that are better than this one that came out between the years 2000 and 2010.
The Mist is sort of like a very well-made B-movie, and I mean that in the nicest possible way. We all know what happens, a bunch of people get trapped in a supermarket as a dangerously thick mist engulfs the town. It would be stupid to leave anyway because you could'nt see where you're going, but it would be even more stupid to leave after Dale from the Walking Dead (beardless!) runs in screaming that there's something in the mist which took someone! Everyone's sceptical, but a few more people are not when they get a rather nasty surprise in the store room! Some people may completely disregard The Mist as being silly, but these people simply do not know how to have fun. Who can't say they weren't entertained when the supermarket was stormed with giant mutant fly things?
Besides, The Mist offers so much more than a standard creature feature. It's a comment on humanity and the state of today's society. Immediately the supermarket is segregated into different groups of race, religion and hierarchy. It's the wonderful screenplay that's the real star of the show, giving a fascinating insight into how people could and probably would act in such a situation. It's almost reminiscent of George A Romero's Dawn of the Dead or/and Day of the Dead. There's some wonderful characters who you can either root for or wish for them to get eaten (*cough* *cough* Bible nut *cough*) it's the relationships between people which mean that there's rarely a dull moment in The Mist's two hour running time. Although, I did feel that it was perhaps over-long and some of the dialogue scenes could've been reduced or cut out completely.
The directing is quite stylish and sometimes feels very candid, which gives the film a needed realistic edge. The CGI effects could annoy some people as they were a bit iffy at times (not as bad as Primeval!) but they're certainly not the worst effects I've seen, and they didn't distract from the film itself. Some of the beasties were quite nasty-looking and the huge ones, covered by the mist had a particularly eerie edge. I could'nt imagine (nor want to imagine) what I'd be like in that situation. I'd probably be in a corner shipping myself! There's quite a lot of beast action and it is wonderfully entertaining and refreshingly unpretentious.
Now, the ending wasn't as mind-blowingly shocking as most people were making out. I'd say that the endings to say, 5150 Elm's Way and Eden Lake are in respects more shocking, nevertheless for an American horror film it certainly had balls! I did really like the ending, it was unrelentlessly nasty and painfully ironic and haunting, but I would've probably liked it even more if it was less hyped up. It'll certainly put the less-experienced American viewer out of their comfort zone!
In the end The Mist is a hugely enjoyable creature feature with a hefty/heavy focus on people and characters. It's probably better than I imagined it to be and is much better than the disappointing Stephen King adaptation of 1408. Whilst it isn't up there with Carrie, The Shining and Misery, it can still sit in the "very good" category of Stephen King horror adaptations. I really enjoyed it and people who say they didn't probably secretly enjoyed it too! I would recommend that you see it, but I think that most people have seen it by now! Still, if you haven't it's worth seeking out, I found it very cheaply on Amazon, and I could see it as the type of film that would get better with repeated viewings!