THE MIST
US, 2007, 126 minutes, Colour.
Thomas Jane, Marcia Gaye Harden, Laurie Holden, Andrew Braugher, Toby Jones, William Sadler, Jeffrey De Munn, Frances Sternhagen, Nathan Gamble, Alexa Davalos.
Directed by Frank Darabont.
Frank Darabont made a great impact in the 1990s with his version of a Stephen King story, The Shawshank Redemption. Here he has adapted King again but that is where any resemblance ends. The Mist has a plot like the B- Budget science fiction and monster movies of 50 years ago. Not that that is not a good thing. It is just that a writer like Darabont ought to be able to do smarter writing than this. The production values are of a higher class than some of the conventional and cliché dialogue (which echoes the shocks and fears of the past) but Darabont has been saving time and energy instead by scripting with less intelligence and wit, dishing up an over-expletive-filled screenplay which grates rather than communicates the terror the protagonists are going through.
Quite a long film, it spends most of its time in a supermarket where a group of shoppers are trapped when a mysterious mist descends after a ferocious storm. Some terrified people take refuge in the market after friends had disappeared. It soon appears that there are monsters in the mist and it is too dangerous to leave.
With a group like this there are the heroes, the villains and the annoyers. Thomas Jane is the hero (with a small son) along with Toby Jones as the manager of the supermarket. They dig in and barricade against the monsters. Frances Sternhagen is the elderly schoolteacher who tells people what’s what. Included in the villains is William Sadler as a cowardly tough who resents city people who make his town their holiday home. But it is the annoyer who steals the show by her incessant annoyance, aggravation, religious fervour and apocalyptic warnings. Marcia Gaye Harden plays the local born again leader (who also has a mouth for expletives despite God being on her side) and lays it on – though she terrifies many of the shoppers into conversion.
The monsters are actually monstrous (blame military experiments) and there is quite some tension as we watch (and wonder what we might do in such – impossible , we hope – circumstances).
The ending does not let us off.
1.The popularity of Stephen King stories? Horror and terror?
2.A monster movie, old B-budget plots? The dialogue, the crass aspects of the dialogue? A bigger than B-budget treatment?
3.The plausibility of the plot, the mystery of the mist, the monsters? Other dimensions and crossing dimensions?
4.The east coast town, the lake, the mist, the shopping mall, the market, the parking area, the musical score?
5.The interiors, the use of the supermarket? The loading bay?
6.The initial storm, David Drayton and his art, the tree crashing through the window, the effect on the family, his wife? Brent Norton and the clashes? The issues of suing? Their going into town together? Into the supermarket?
7.The supermarket, normal, Ollie Weekes as the manager? His staff? Dan Miller and his crashing into the supermarket, his story of the mist, the monsters, people disappearing in the mist?
8.The action in the loading bay: Jim and the others, their daring Drayton, insulting him, insulting the out-of-towners? The young man going out, the tentacles pulling him out, the cutting off of the tentacle? Jim and his cowardly behaviour? The claw? Telling Brent Norton, the others? Norton taking it as a joke? Continuing to talk about suing? His group going out – and his being destroyed?
9.The protection of the supermarket, the bags of fertiliser against the windows, taping the windows? The group atmosphere? Mrs Carmody? and her reaction? Religious overtones? The military presence? The appearance of the creatures in the light, the fire, the burning of part of the store? Joe, burnt, coping? The son of David, his being cared for by the women, by Amanda?
10.The atmosphere of fear, David, Ollie and the gun, Dan Miller, Billy, with the woman, the stories?
11.The group coping through the night, venturing out, going to the pharmacy, finding the pods and the creatures?
12.Mrs Carmody and her preaching, apocalyptic – yet crass in her language? Her madness? People slapping her? The night, gathering more followers, becoming more fanatical, the discussions about a brutal God, issues of blame, the soldier and his being attacked, sacrificed, having their eyes on the boy? Irene Repler and her shooting Mrs Carmody? The group cowering?
13.Sally, her place in the town, friends, work in the supermarket, the date, her being bitten, her death?
14.The plans to confront the creatures, getting to the car, part of the group getting caught, blowing the horn, getting inside the car, the remnant?
15.Driving, the enormous creatures, the vehicles on the side of the road, the continued mist, the lack of fuel? The despair? Not having enough bullets?
16.The tanks, the offer of help? The irony of David having killed the passengers? Surviving? The pessimistic ending?
17.Themes of human nature, disaster, the response? Heroism and fanaticism? The background of the military, experiments and irresponsibility?
