“The Mist” is a film directed by Frank Darabont, based on Stephen King’s novel. The movie begins with a catastrophic thunderstorm that strikes a small town of Bridgton, Maine, which then followed by a freak and mysterious mist that terrified everyone in the town. Most of the scenes are taken in a supermarket where David Drayton (Thomas Jane) and his son, Billy (Nathan Gamble), together with other townspeople stock up their supplies. Out of the blue, a bleeding man runs into the store and keeps yelling that there is ‘something’ in the mist and many has died in the mist. This situation makes people in the store curious and disbelieves until they see another man being killed in the mist by a squid-like creature with tentacles. After knowing that those horrible creatures do feed on humans, everyone start to freak out. Mrs. Carmody (Marcia Gay Harden) who claims to be the messianic leader whipped up people in the store to believe in her words that this is God’s punishment to humankind, but some don’t believe in her.
The mist blow into the town in a mysterious form at first. Suddenly, townspeople are screaming, missing or being killed from nowhere. ‘Something’ is out there in the mist! Inside the store become a mess with a blink of an eye after the mist pounding hardly on the roofs, windows, and doors. Then, when a creature with tentacles snatches a man, without knowing what the creature really is, fear in the story begins to grow. Later on, the ‘thing’ in the mist appears to be some sort of giant alien insects, in which they kill man with just a single bite or with their poison silk. The most chaos happens when the giant like insects break through the glass and start attacking people in the store.
When other people are dying one by one, being killed or suicide, the rest start panic especially in a helpless situation. Those remain alive in the store divide into two groups. One of the group lead by David, who try to figure out ways that can save themselves; the other group lead by Mrs. Carmody, who believe her has a direct line with God and see these whole situation as a repayment of God for human sinful actions. David and Mrs. Carmody, both have their own conception of survive. Mrs. Carmody is the more extreme one as she advocates the idea of blood sacrifice in order to expiation. Also, Mrs. Carmody incites others to kill those who against the will of God, creating another pandemonium – dreadfulness that occur in between human themselves. David is the one that tries so hard to keep everyone alive, but of course there are those who just ignore his advices, eventually get killed. In the very last part, David feels very regrets for not staying in the store with the rest of them as some innocent people die because of him.
Not only “The Mist”, director Frank Darabont also directed the other two film that are based on Stephen King’s work – “The Shawshank Redemption” and “The Green Mile”. I think Mr. Darabont does a pretty good job in “The Mist” as he makes the movie has the tense start from the beginning and grow even stronger when ‘thing’ in the mist become visible. The acting in this film is stunning, special credit to Marcia Gay Harden. The role that she plays makes me unforgettable maybe because I feel that she is quite annoying. The special effect in this film is spectacular though not much special effect is used. The appearance of those giant insect creatures quite frightening but fascinating.
Basically, the horror of this film is due to the giant alien insect creatures that most probably come from the other planet. In addition, this film includes some mysterious part, as no one knows when the ‘thing’ in the mist will kill him or her. Those alien insect creatures just appear in nowhere and the heavy mist makes the attack invisible. Furthermore, there are a few scenes that are nauseating, for example the tentacles of those creature snatches down the flesh or half the body, making the scene looks bloody. If you are those who do not enjoy watching super scary movie such as “Saw”, “The Grudge” or “Ju-On”, I can assure you that you will enjoy watching this film as this film isn’t terribly frightening. This film is presented in a much more disgusting way than chilling. By the way, if you prefer to watch alien-like creature such as the movie “Aliens”, I highly recommend you to watch “The Mist”.
Lastly, I find this movie really engrossing as the ending is indeed awesome and is totally out of my expectation. I do not expect that there will be a twist in the end. In fact, the ending part has two opposite sentiment in it, a gloomy ending contrast with a pleased ending.
Film Filosophy 