There's no doubt Stephen King is the king of the written horror, although not every book of his makes a good film, Tommy Knockers and Dreamcatcher to name but two. Cr**ing aliens on the toilet makes for a good movie Stephen? But when it does work you know your going to be entertained, IT, Christine and Cujo some early classics. Not a lot of people know that King wrote the Shawshank Redemption, adapted and then directed by Frank Darabont, The Mist their third collaboration, all three rather excellent movies, maybe The Green Mile the weakest of the trio.

-The Cast-

-The Mist-

The local supermarket is busy, the storm worse than they thought - in many ways - telecommunications in this part of the world apparently not stretching to cell phones and internet to find out what's going on, seemingly banned in horror movies because they kill off any tempo and integrity. But soon the whole town is enveloped by a mysterious mist, apparently emanating from the nearby military base where 'Operation Arrowhead' is underway, the flood sirens ominously waling as the emergency vehicles of all description race down the high street suggesting the worse is still to come.

So should they risk the mist to get home to their families and business or is there indeed something out there? With a good mix of blue and white-collar locals in the store the debate rages; class, race and religion the early dividing lines in the pecking order for leadership. But when it attacks the loading bay and claims its first victim the extreme threat is realised by a handful in the store, their unbelievable description of what's out there still laughed off as a fairy story by most of them. Some soon venture out but do not return, and as the body count rises and threat becomes unimaginable to the increasingly terrified masses huddled in the store, it comes down to a power-play between David's blossoming heroics and the forked religious tongue of bible basher Mrs. Carmody (Marcia Gay Harden) to decide their fete. She sees their unfolding horror as the 'End of Days', Gods judgment upon this earth, and only the Lord will save them from it if they listen to her words of guidance, which an ever increasing number do as the night darkens, so David's band of followers fewer and fewer...

The Mist is great stuff and an excellent paced and scary tale, essentially The War of the Worlds meets Vin Diesels, Pitch Black. Apocalypse meets the fear of the dark. The cast are pretty unknown and so add authenticity so you are not distracted by which star will last the longest and so 100% into the story and menace of the growing threat, this comfortably well clear of any of that teen slasher nonsense territory where they are whacked in order of cool and looks that we get over run with these days. Like I said though the distinct lack of cell phones in these films is becoming a credibility problem.

Keeping within the Romero traditions of caging in a very normal bunch of people into one place and let the unsuspecting hero's evolve from that group, but the superior unseen horror unfolding around them to cut off their escape, this is suitably claustrophobic and entertaining. I was a little concerned with the Islamic requiem playing over that grim ending that suggested something that wasn't in the book but I'm presuming it was picked because it was powerful foreboding music so it does work in context.

-Audio Commentary-

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Imdb.com scores it 7.4 out of 10 (58, 810 votes)
RuN-TiMe 126 minutes
Any 5 films for 5 nights for £5 deal at Blockbusters. .
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