Mostly Faithful and Genuinely Chilling Adaptation of Stephen King Novella

Rating: 8/10 (11 November 2012)

"The Mist" was one of the first Stephen King novellas I read, back when it was first published in 1980, and I loved every creepy page of it. I've been waiting decades for a film version, and having finally seen it, I was for the most part highly impressed.
Frank Darabont, a director whose association with King is a long and fruitful one (THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION; THE GREEN MILE), is familiar with the writer's plan of attack and his tone, but this is Darabont's first foray into one of King's flat-out horror stories, and he not only hits the ball on the first pitch, he knocks it almost clear out of the park.
Before I go any farther I should note that despite similarities of title, this film (and the story upon which it is based) bear no resemblance to John Carpenter's 1980 film THE FOG; in fact the two stories, while both excellent, are remarkably different.
After an unusually violent storm on a lake in Maine, commercial artist David Drayton (Thomas Jane) and his young son Billy (Nathan Gamble in a performance that should have gotten an Oscar nomination) head into town to stock up on supplies at the local supermarket; the power is out and there are things they need. As they are departing their next-door neighbor Brent Norton (Andre Braugher), an out-of-towner (the Draytons are year-round residents) decides to ride along, so they climb into David's four-wheel drive vehicle (Looks like a Jeep Cherokee but it isn't named so far as I know) and head into town, leaving David's wife Steff (Kelly Lintz) at home.
As they drive into town, it is revealed that the previous year there had been a lawsuit between Drayton and Norton when a tree limb crashed into the Draytons' boathouse; the Draytons won the suit and Norton holds a grudge, but he is recently widowed and the subject is not elaborated upon. They also discuss the Arrowhead Project, some kind of military operation that is the subject of much talk in the town, though no one knows exactly what it is.
They soon find out. Arriving at the supermarket, they make their way inside and are milling about with about half the town's population when suddenly several people near the front windows take note of the thick mist rolling in. Shortly after that a man comes charging into the store, face covered in blood, screaming that "something in the fog" took a friend of his and he heard him screaming.
The mist soon completely obscures the view of the parking lot, and the people inside the store become quite naturally uneasy. And it gets worse in fairly short order: suddenly, the entire store shakes as if a massive earthquake has taken place. And before too long they discover that there are...things...out there in the mist. Living things. Things right out of your worst nightmares. The visual horrors range from a creature with multiple tentacles to foot-long insects that look made of stainless steel to vaguely pterodactyl-like flying things that eat the insects, other nightmarish creatures only seen through the haze. The visual effects are first-rate; I should warn you: if you're phobic about either insects or spiders, this one may not be for you.
At one point David goes in the back to get a furniture pad to use as a blanket for his son; the store generator's exhaust is plugged and the back room is filling with fumes. Three store employees decide to send one stock boy out to unclog the exhaust. David, who has heard noises outside, tries to talk them out of it, but they are determined, and the stock boy ends up being the mist's first casualty as one of the many-tentacled nightmares carries him off.
Back in the store and badly shaken, David and store employee Ollie Weeks (Toby Jones) attempt to tell the others what has happened. David chooses Brent Norton as a potential leader, but Norton, to David's utter horror, chooses to believe that they are playing some sort of trick on him, and refuses to listen. Town Selectman Dan Miller (Jeffrey DeMunn) and schoolteacher Irene Reppler (Frances Sternhagen) soon come to David's side, as does Amanda Dunfrey (Laurie Holden), a married woman about David's age with a husband at home, who just happens to have a gun in her purse, for what that may be worth.
Finally, there is the town crazy woman, Mrs Carmody. Stephen King uses religious themes often in his works, and he is particularly fond of religious extremists. Margaret White in CARRIE was his first major religious fanatic character, and Mrs Carmody is a darker and more Old Testament twist on Margaret White. Played to a fare-thee-well by Marcia Gay Harden in a performance that was robbed at Oscar time, Mrs Carmody becomes the driving force behind the decision to try to escape.
As King adaptations go, THE MIST is one of the best ever filmed. My only complaint is they changed the ending. I won't spoil it except to say that the novella's ending leaves a lot of loose ends, with the survivors' fate left in doubt. The film ties up all the loose ends and provides the story with a resolution, but it is an unsatisfactory one in my opinion and the tantalizing open ended finale of the novella was far better.
This is a minor quibble, however, as I am only talking about the last ten minutes or so of what otherwise is a great horror flick.