Film: Steven King's 'The Mist'

[mariacallas]

I think the religious freaks in the store were more horrifying than the creatures in the mist.
Pretty good flick.

totally! I liked this movie. But that religious ZEALOT in the store truly was horrifying...and made me more uncomfortable than any tentacled "monster" ever could.

 

[tambourine-man]

70% on rotten tomatoes, a generally positive set of short reviews, people giving it the "good for what it does" summary, and a bunch of positive comments on the torrent boards... so I decided to give it a go.

This film is fucking dreadful... even for a Stephen King adaptation. You know how almost all Stephen King films get turned into those low-quality, made-for-TV films? Well... this is barely above that in terms of quality. That's not to say that there's anything wrong with made-for-TV films... they're something of a dirty pleasure as far as I'm concerned - especially where there's the faintest whiff of end-of-the-world, disaster scenarios. But The Mist is ham-fistedly written as a screenplay with some rather huge plot holes that make suspension of disbelief somewhat difficult.

I have no idea if King's original story was as loosely bound as the screenplay turned out to be. I like to think that they've cut corners here and there for the screenplay, because the King books I've read - though an easy read - seemed to leave no major plot holes, which is what gave them such a grim fatalism.

Spoiler: The Mist - Plothole 1

Can anybody really explain why these super aggressive bugs and dinosaurs waited patiently outside the store for people to leave... but didn't bother to make an effort to break through the plate glass windows? I know it made reference to the windows early on in the film which led to the characters piling dog biscuits against the windows, but it just struck me as a major problem.

Spoiler: The Mist - Plothole 2

The final drive in the jeep. They repeatedly mentioned that they'd go as far as the tank would take them. Uh... why didn't they just stop for gas along the way? Four adults in the car = four chances to top up the tank. Even if the pumps were out of order, they could have siphoned some from the abandoned cars along the way.

It's also horribly, horribly clichéd. The religious nutter, the hick converts, the disbelieving out-of-towner - all of whom do things that follow the standard horror framework of stupidity... meaning it was just too damn irritating to be considered enjoyable. In it's defence, King wrote this before Scream laid all of Horrorwood's clichés to bare. The result is that it suffers because of what appears like an outdated and comparatively lazy script. Perhaps it would have been better to revise the plot and update it accordingly.

And then there's the ending...

I'm just so glad that The Mist didn't cop out like so many movies before it and give you a happy,sun shining,birds singing ending!

It was very dark and bleak and spit right in the face of happy ending Hollywood.

Spoiler: The Mist - The ending

Nah... false dichotomy, man. A film can have a rewarding ending without being "Hollywood". I don't think it really spat in the face of Hollywood endings - especially considering how many Hollywood clichés were peppered throughout the film. This wasn't about sticking it to the industry... this was just a pretty spiteful ending to a very sub-par film. Perhaps if the rest of the film had been high-quality with genuinely interesting characters, the ending would have been more shocking (I actually thought the film would end with the four gunshots going off, leaving David Drayton to contemplate his fate, then quietly fade to black... which would have worked with greater power).

Instead we got a slightly teenage approach to horror irony, where he killed everyone including his child, but... oh noes... teh army was just around teh corner!!11!! lolololol pwned. 8)

Total gash IMO.

Laurie Holden was perfectly cast though.

 

[L2R]

Spoiler: The Mist - Plothole 1

Can anybody really explain why these super aggressive bugs and dinosaurs waited patiently outside the store for people to leave... but didn't bother to make an effort to break through the plate glass windows? I know it made reference to the windows early on in the film which led to the characters piling dog biscuits against the windows, but it just struck me as a major problem.

Spoiler: The Mist - Plothole 2

The final drive in the jeep. They repeatedly mentioned that they'd go as far as the tank would take them. Uh... why didn't they just stop for gas along the way? Four adults in the car = four chances to top up the tank. Even if the pumps were out of order, they could have siphoned some from the abandoned cars along the way.

according to the book,

Spoiler: the mist

the creatures relied on smell to hunt. the vehicle and the store both made the people invisible.
well it's only theorised by the main character but as soon as the door opens they're set upon.

It's also horribly, horribly clichéd. The religious nutter, the hick converts, the disbelieving out-of-towner - all of whom do things that follow the standard horror framework of stupidity... meaning it was just too damn irritating to be considered enjoyable. In it's defence, King wrote this before Scream laid all of Horrorwood's clichés to bare. The result is that it suffers because of what appears like an outdated and comparatively lazy script. Perhaps it would have been better to revise the plot and update it accordingly.

the film is very accurate to the original story.

And then there's the ending...

Spoiler: The Mist - The ending

Nah... false dichotomy, man. A film can have a rewarding ending without being "Hollywood". I don't think it really spat in the face of Hollywood endings - especially considering how many Hollywood clichés were peppered throughout the film. This wasn't about sticking it to the industry... this was just a pretty spiteful ending to a very sub-par film. Perhaps if the rest of the film had been high-quality with genuinely interesting characters, the ending would have been more shocking (I actually thought the film would end with the four gunshots going off, leaving David Drayton to contemplate his fate, then quietly fade to black... which would have worked with greater power).

Instead we got a slightly teenage approach to horror irony, where he killed everyone including his child, but... oh noes... teh army was just around teh corner!!11!! lolololol pwned. 8)

Total gash IMO.

Laurie Holden was perfectly cast though.

you'll probably like the book's ending more then. the ironic punch at the end is not there at all.

 

[GreatSpaceCoaster]

Boring and underwhelming with a horrible ending. Very disappointing the way a good premise was wasted by those involved.

P.S. The book was much better

 

[mcwally]

bad movie, none of the actors were particularly convincing, and was predictable script, only just watchable for mine

 

[spaceyourbass]

I thought 1408 was a shitty adaptation as well (although it made The Mist look like The Godfather)

Haha glad I didn't rent it. I thought 1408 was a good alternative to the average "scary movie," and parts of it basically show people what it's like to have a bad trip.

 

[Daisybabe]

I just watched the movie on dvd and thought it was really damn good. I can remember reading the story and being angry just by reading Carmody's words on the page, but then to see them acted out by an irl-zealot made me feel beyond pissed off. To think that there are many people out there who are just like that scares me more than any creature, real or supernatural. I also dislike the "God, or death" theme. There are so many more options, including cake.

The one nitpick plot hole I noticed was:

NSFW:

Aside from "REFUEL, you morons!" that is, is that they were on the interstate, driving, driving, so how/why did they end up on some going nowhere old logging road? THAT road is not going to get you the hell out of Dodge very well.