Dumb characters too busy arguing to notice monsters are slaughtering them

Rating: 4/10 (25 October 2009)

A mysterious mist descends on a town accompanied by loud sirens. Something's hidden in the misty fog, and people are heard making death screams. Horror a la King demands we have some average folks herded together in a small place and face the crisis; this time a grocery store is used.
King's characters are usually much more believable and sympathetic than we see here. This town is populated with an array of psychos, under-achievers, and dimwits. Everybody that goes to buy milk at this particular grocery store likes to argue with each other. There's a religious zealot character that's written so far over the top you have to wonder if a nun gave Stephen a spanking when he was a kid. King makes her the fulcrum of the story, and the film never recovers from this poor construction. She incites mob hysteria, panic, hostility, and murder. Only a few people resist her, and even those individuals act as whack as she does. Nobody thinks clearly, everybody acts stupidly, and the audience is given no reason to empathize with any of the characters; very likely, you'll root for the mist creatures. Violent acts are shown to be the solution to any disagreement. Military covert operations and the monsters are thrown in almost as an after thought.
The full measure of King's character-study of society in Mist can be summed up as follows: "Everybody and anybody is an idiot." No deeper than that. That's the biggest problem with this: there's such a pessimistic view that it grates quickly. Grisly deaths are just offered up as proper come-uppance for the victims, as if King believes the zealot is right, after all. The ironic twist at the end is especially indicative of this.
With more honestly written characters in a film predicated on character study, this film could have worked. As it is, King attempts a social commentary dimension that he can't handle. It makes him look foolish.