Bleak, but good horror movie

Rating: 8/10 (21 July 2008)

After a storm hits a small coastal town, David Drayton and his son head into town for some supplies. While in the supermarket, a man runs inside saying there is something in the descending mist. Hearing screams, they lock themselves inside. But as tension grows inside due to the biblical comments of Mrs. Carmody, the people begin splitting into groups....
Frank Darabont made The Shawshank Redemption, one of the finest movies ever made. He also made The Green Mile, a good prison drama. Both were based on stories by Stephen King as is The Mist. While this movie isn't as good as Shawshank (but then few movies are), it's a very, very good movie indeed.
The key thing about this movie, is that I don't think Darabont is really that much interested in what is outside in the mist. To me I think he's more interested in how a group of seemingly normal sane people can quickly descend into groups willing to listen to whoever will give them a belief they will live. Here, Mrs. Carmody (brilliantly played by Marcia Gay Harden) convinces them that it's God's will the events taking place. Soon she has others convinced she is right. One could argue she has a point, seeing how it ends, but it's the speed of the way these so-called friends are willing to quickly turn on each other that's more scary. One character says at one point, 'As a species, we're fundamentally insane. Put two of us in a room, we pick sides, and start dreaming up reasons to kill one another.' It's a key statement, and as events progress it is borne out.
That's not to say however that what's in the mist isn't terrifying. Wisely we don't see much of the actual creatures, but when we do, they are scary as hell, especially the sequence in the pharmacy.
Darabont as director gets superb performances from his cast. As mentioned, Harden dominates the movie as Mrs. Carmody, but there are good performances from Thomas Jane, Toby Jones, William Sadler, Andre Braugher, Laurie Holden and others. I've not read the King story, but there are some fantastic lines in the script and everyone rises to the challenge.
However, as bleak as the events in the supermarket are, Darabont gets even bleaker with his ending. Simply put, this will not, and does not end well. The final moments of the movie as David Drayton keeps a promise to stop the creatures getting his son and the others who have left with him, you can almost sense Mrs. Carmody smiling at his shoulder as he pulls the trigger, and kills them. To then find out that if they had waited a few more minutes and the mist would have lifted is shocking. However, I would say that I've been told the ending of the book, and think it's ending is better (the fate of the characters is never revealed). While the film ending works, the final twist (the mist lifting) is a slight let-down.
However, this does not detract from the fact that The Mist is one of the best horror movies of the past few years. As a look at human behavior however, its brilliant. If bleak.