The Mist

(2007) **** 1/2 

Impeccably-timed terror and chemistry between characters shapes one of my newly-discovered favorite horror movies: The Mist. My sister loaned this to me about two years ago when she was cleaning out her DVD collection to make room for more. I love my sis for a lot of reasons, but DVD hand-me-downs is probably in my top five. :-D 

JPX and 50P have reviewed this one in the past, both of which are insightful – and 50P's comment about “Government's got better things to spend our money on [than education]” makes me chuckle every time. I don't want to spend too much time summarizing since it's been reviewed twice, and very thoroughly. 

The thing that I love about cookie-cutter stories involving “a bunch o' people trapped in a large, enclosed space” is the fact that it doesn't really matter if there's a threatening force outside or not – because once personal relationships put one person against another, we've got a great story about humanity. It doesn't matter if the supermarket were surrounded by mist or by deadly bunnies.

Also available to put on your feet!

The computer effects of the evil nasty things range from absolutely terrifying to absolutely breathtaking. I'm one of a few people I know who will complain to no end about the abundance of CG-animation and effects in movies (in short, they suck! Bring back Muppets/Jim Henson stuff), but it brought a fantastic element to The Mist that I really enjoyed.

My main critique of the movie is the kid: some movie kids know-it-all, some are jackasses and get theirs in the end. But this one? This one's like a LOG. 

carrying kid in movie poster

He gets carried everywhere! C'mon, the kid's like what, seven years old? He can help loot for supplies! Or sing and dance and baby-talk in short, simple sentences when morale is low! 

But nooooooooooooooooo. He gets carried around everywhere like he's got pipe-cleaners for legs:

carrying kid away from danger

carrying kid in supermarket

carrying kid away from danger IN supermarket

Things would be a LOT different if I were running the show: “Time to grow the fuck up, Joey. Take this rifle and start shooting.” This sort of thing is PERFECTLY acceptable in other countries!

Do the right thing . . . do the COMMUNIST thing.

The ending didn't leave me feeling optimistic (not that it's supposed to), but rather unsettled, desperate, and full of sorrow. Then I saw that Stephen King wrote it and got pissed – I swear, that man's got a way with constructing stories that, for some reason, really get under my skin. 

I give it such a high rating because of the story of survival it depicts, peeling away the superficial worries we face day-to-day and seeing what lies underneath and to what lengths would we go to survive. If you were faced with the same challenges, would you do the same thing?