The Mist

Oscar nominee Frank Darabont follows up his two acclaimed Stephen King adaptations — The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile — with another novella by the master of horror. A long time coming, The Mist bypasses the human spirit study we’re used to from this pair for a classic monster movie fright that harkens back to the days of Ray Harryhausen and the "creature feature.” In a small Rhode Island town, an unexplained mist rolls in, trapping a number of the community in a local supermarket. As the monsters lurking within the vapour begin to terrorise and pick off the townsfolk, the movie examines the larger conflict between the humans. Quickly sides are forged (the "good” led by Thomas Jane’s David; the "bad” led by Marcia Gay Harden’s Bible-gyrating Mrs. Carmody) and a divide via politics and religion forces the bigger scare. Darabont makes good on his first real attempt at King’s horror-ific side, going for some real nasty moments, showing little mercy on his characters. The claustrophobic setting feeds the unavoidable cabin fever, while the mist itself, especially in the film’s shocking last minutes, encapsulates the chills King’s words convey so easily. Some of the CGI does fail to keep your imagination suspended but the multiple in-depth featurettes explain with great detail how much hands-on work was involved in the making of the film. Darabont’s jovial voice is enough to keep you glued to his commentary, as he uncovers all of the details and talks about some of the old school methods they used to convince viewers on a low budget. In the "making of,” they cover basically all of the bases the FX featurettes miss, with actor interviews, thematic reveals and a nice simile by King, who describes his relationship with Darabont as "good together like chocolate and peanut butter.” The DVD’s best feature though comes via a black and white presentation of the picture, which really does enhance the classic feel of the film’s ’50s influence — even when poor Norm the bagboy is getting torn apart by the deadly tentacles.