Well here we are, my first movie review on my blog. I decided to do it on the new acclaimed horror/mystery fiesta known as "The Mist, Frank Darabonts version of the novella from Stephen King. First thing is first, if anyone is going to do a film based on King material, it HAS to be Darabont. Shawshank, Green Mile, now The Mist. I've been waiting for this film for as long as I can remember. I did read the novella in high school and was a big fan, the characters are some of Kings best, but this new ending that Frank Darabont has created completely crushes Kings ending, in my opinion. Many won't agree with this, then again many will.
In my opinion, this is a perfect horror film. Yes they could have found a better lead role for Thomas Jane, I've never been too impressed by him as an actor, but to give him some credit he did do a good enough job and took on a pretty difficult role. I love Andre Braugher as an actor, think he is highly underrated and underused. And I'm glad the kid actor didn't suck. There are few things I hate more then a kid being cast because he is either cute, or because he is the directors nephew. And I liked that he wasn't talking like a 40 year old guy trying to write children's dialog, he talked like a kid. Marcia Gay Harden, wow, what more can be said? As soon as I heard she would be cast as Mrs. Carmody I pointed my finger and said now THAT is a great casting, she can anything as far as I'm concerned. This role took ruthlessness and aggression, she has to make us absolutely despise her? Does she? I certainly hope she did because when I'm on the edge of my seat while hearing Carmodys rants my mind is seriously twisted.
Now, onto the plot/book comparisons. Could the creatures have turned out any better? No way, Darabont NAILS the creatures compared on the novella. How they are described in the book is exactly how they look on screen. Although, like many have pointed out, the scene with the ENORMOUS creature that could make a blue whale seem like a trout was only described in the book as being legs with little bugs covering it. In the film you can see the whole body, which is fine by me but that's about its only flaw. The creatures are terrifying, and pretty damn cool at that. The use of the mist involved with some of these creatures make them even more creepier. When you're not scared by the insanely good CGI of the creatures you have to be scared of the people involved in this incident. It really captures the realistic human likelihood in such conditions, people need answers to the things surrounding them, they need comfort, and they'll do anything to get with their backs against the wall. Us humans fear anything that could dominate our species and they'll go through drastic measures to fix it. Very, very scary situations.
I must start another paragraph about this. Aside from the marvelous ending there is one scene in this film that people should take note of. The "Pharmacy Scene". To the viewers who havent seen this film yet and are planning on seeing it, brace yourself for the pharmacy scene, for it is one of the most well crafted horror scenes I've EVER seen, period. Without giving away too much I'll just say that from the start to end of this scene gave me chills down my spine, all the horror elements you look for in a film are just piled into this scene, the use of sounds, the environment around them, lightening and camera angles, then it gets insane. I'm not an easy person to scare and hardly ever get scared during film....but this scene scared the hell out of me.
The ending, well, some people say it took guts for Darabont to do this ending, and quite frankly it did. Not only is it way more riskier, but people almost ALWAYS choose the book over the movie. I don't know why, but maybe it makes people feel smart, because they are choosing reading over just seeing. If King wrote the movie ending, and Frank Darabont wrote the book ending, there would not be a single person saying Darabont's was better. They'd be calling Darabont a pansy, catering to Hollywood, afraid to make a really horrific ending like King. Not only did I believe this ending was better for the story but I do think it lives up to the hype and IS one of the best endings to a horror film I've ever seen.
Bottom line is if you want a break from all the baity Oscar films out there, I highly suggest you go see The Mist. It's as entertaining and shows a great deal of film talent as a film that's in Oscar contention right now. One of the best films of the year. Come to think about it, Wednesday I had a damn good day, pulled a double feature and saw No Country for Old Men and The Mist, I was one happy boy scout I'll say that. Both films lived up to my expectations and then some. Wow.
