Face-Off: The Mist vs. It

Thomas Jane as David Drayton
Marcia Gay Harden as Mrs. Carmody
Laurie Holden as Amanda Dumfries
Andre Braugher as Brent Norton
Toby Jones as Ollie Weeks
William Sadler as Jim Grondin
Alex Davalos as Sally
Sam Witwer as Wayne Jessup
Frances Sternhagen as Irene Reppler

Having tackled two of the most notable and lauded Stephen King adaptations of the past (THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION, THE GREEN MILE), Frank Darabont was the perfect person to handle the dramatic heft and strong themes that permeate the Lovecraftian horror elements of THE MIST. While the creatures ripped from nightmares and the unflinching use of gore deliver some of the purest pleasures of the genre, what Darabont clearly focuses on is the intensity and atmosphere of the scenario, which involves a group of people locked in a grocery store with little hope of survival or knowledge of what's happening. Darabont understood that what makes the story work is how these people respond to this ambiguous, looming danger, meaning that when fear is all that's left it will cause people to do terrible things, desperate things. His decision to go for a documentary style make for a gripping portrayal of the setting, taking a terrifying scenario and making it feel as real and human as it could be. Again, this is what made him perfect for the movie because, as with his previous King movies, he proved a master of digging to the route of the powerful, timely themes in the story and making them the star attraction. The suspense is palpable, and he emphasizes the unknown threat by never giving away too much information — like when shit first starts to go down — and all we see are ambulances whizzing by, military personnel having hushed talking, and the town alarms blazing. Yes, yes, he does deliver on the creature terror and all that fun stuff, but the suspense inside the store is what makes the movie work so well, and Darabont's grounded, insightful, realistic approach makes this equal parts a horror movie and sociological experiment ripped straight out of hell.

If there's a perk to adapting a novella vs. a 1,000-page book, it's that you may actually have room to add on the story and build up from it rather than figure out what piles of material to take away. As said before, Darabont knows exactly how to make a King adaptation resonate because in his scripts and directing style he knows precisely what the root and heart of the story are and pulls it front and center with but subtly and power. With his scripting duties here he crafts an immediately suspenseful story that effortlessly flows into something menacing and a reflection of humanity when pushed to the limits. King's story is one about fear, and how our fear of even the most faceless, ambiguous things we're confronted with a choice on how to respond — we can either act rationally and with hope, or with greater fear and panic. Darabont's script pushed the story where it needs to go by clearly defining groups of major characters and figuring out their place in the chaos, and letting those factions become more and more divided as the movie goes on. These plot points are strong, motivated by genuine, monster-driven terror that paints a clear picture of a scenario like this could very realistically play out. It's a fascinating little story filled with characters who get plenty of insightful and often funny observations about the world around them, and Darabont makes the story his own as a way of driving home the themes in ways King even did. While his story as a more hopeful ending, the ending of the movie has become one of the great, tragic twists of modern horror, with the lead character having to shoot everyone in the car after all hope seems lost, only to see rescue come moments later. The idea here is that pinpoint the folly of losing hope, and that you can't let brash reactions overtake your sense of rationality. Darabont deserves immense credit for taking the story there, proving there are few people are capable of touching a King story as himself.

Bits:

Tree in the Window

Incoming Victim

The Mist Rolls In

Venturing On Her Own

Tentacles Unleashed

Carmody’s Speech

The Bugs

Chaos in the Store

Webbed Up

Demon Spiders

Mob Justice

Carmody Down

Into the Mist/Inter-dimensional Monsters

One Way Out

Twist! 

Lines:

Amanda: "I can't accept that. People are basically good; decent. My god, David, we're a civilized society."
David: "Sure, as long as the machines are working and you can dial 911. But you take those things away, you throw people in the dark, you scare the shit out of them – no more rules."

—–

Ollie: "As a species we're fundamentally insane. Put more than two of us in a room, we pick sides and start dreaming up reasons to kill one another. Why do you think we invented politics and religion?"

—–

Mrs. Carmody: "I'll tell you what. The day I need a friend like you, I'll just have myself a little squat and shit one out."

—–

Dan: "Don't go out there! There's something in the mist!

—–

Irene: "Shut up, you miserable buzzard! Stoning people who piss you off is perfectly okay. They do it in the Bible, don't they? And I got lots of peas!"

—–

Ollie: "Leave it alone, David. You can't convince some people there's a fire even when their hair is burning. Denial is a powerful thing."

—–

David: "He's a fucking kid. He's supposed to be stupid. What's your excuse?"

—–

Brent: "David, there's nothing out there. Nothing in the mist."
David: "What if you're wrong?"
Brent: "Then, I guess… the joke will be on me afterall."

There are plenty of gory, creature-feature thrills to be had in THE MIST, but the real terror comes from the horrific reflection of humanity that makes up the rest of the movie. Letting the suspense wash over like a mist on over the hills (get it??), the terror slowly escalates as tensions rise in the store, with the terrible obnoxious and just plain terrible Mrs. Comrody stoking the flames with her babble about the end times. What makes it such an unsettling experience is watching everyone unfold and then accept the fact this is human nature simply playing out as it would on a more fantastical canvas. People would start to wonder what to do, discover survival may not be so easy, and then divulge into pack mentality that seeks to destroy everything outside of that pack. One of the most jarring scenes involves the attack on a young military man, as the mob descends on him after they learn he knew about what the government was doing with their work, and thus beat and stab him, all before throwing him out into the mist. There is something so nerve-wracking about looking face to face with our worse impulses, and this is something we see in some of the strongest outings the genre has to offer (look at the recently released US as an example).

Awards:

Golden Schmoes:

Nominee:

• Most Underrated Movie
• Best Horror Movie
• Most Memorable Moment: "Final Sequence"

**6 Wins & 11 Nominations per IMDb**

Praise:

Rotten Tomatoes: 72% (65% Audience Score)

Metacritic: 58 (7.0 Audience)

IMDb: 7.2

Money:

$25 million ($57 million globally)

What makes THE MIST such a fascinating piece of suspense and horror is how the story traps a group of characters within the terrifying, bleak sceanrio and is then driven by how they react to the chaos they're thrust into. As perceptive characters like David and Ollie note, when you put people in positions like this, the comforts of normal society gone and nothing but fear left in its place, people will believe anything and be reduced to their most primal instincts, namely survival. I covered in the "Terror" section that this is what makes the movie so eternally unnerving, thanks to how Darabont clearly places the characters into distinct groups, whether they be the rational individuals just trying to survive and retain their sense of humanity, or the radicals reduced to base, irrational responses. Where THE MIST loses this category is that, as strong as those lines in the sand and the major character's motivations within them are, the mystery of the sceanrio itself and the urgency to escalate tensions lessens room for individual personalities of characters to shine through. Most of the shop goers are merely bodies in a room, while primary characters like David, Ollie and Amanda are each defined and motivated by the same exact thing, which is the desire to survive while maintaining a sense of rationality. Beyond that, it's hard to unearth anything more about them, which is not a criticism of the writing by any means, but moreso just the result of having to keep the story moving and focus on the larger themes at hand. Mrs. Carmody, on the other hand, is an endlessly fascinating figure whose behavior pushes and pulls in all sorts of different directions, with Marcia Gay Harden delivering such a bravado performance it almost seems like a one-woman show. The point I'm trying to make is that both movies here have impressive ensemble casts, but this movie utlizes it's band of characters more as defined groups (think a far more bloody take on a sociology experiment) than fully fleshed out, unique characters (something the short-lived TV series probably meant to expand on), while the movie next door was able to get so much more out of its young cast to immensley effective results. 

Both of these movies deal with the concept of fear and how we react to it and challenge it, but each on vastly different levels. For my money, that theme is actually stronger and more well-realized in THE MIST, because it harnesses those themes through a jarring, often brutal, sometimes nightmarish but always relevant lens. A product of the Bush-era, THE MIST paints two sides of people in chaos, with those who keep their heads on the shoulders and persevere with thought during times of crisis, and those who respond with judgment, mania and — in terms Mrs. Comrody would understand — fire and brimstone. Darabont makes these themes the center of his movie and explores them with tight scripting and direction, taking things even further with a gut-punching ending that means to bring the lesson home about how we must respond to fear and the challenges that come with life, as big and omnipresent as they are. Darabont had a vision and point with this movie, and it's never not clear.