Stephen King Month: The Mist

4.5 Stars - Good

Let's talk about Frank Darabont, a terrific director who has a great track record with directing Stephen King works, so far he has directed The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile and today's offering, The Mist, based on the novella collected in Skeleton Crew. He also owns the film rights to The Long Walk, another of the Bachman books, I really hope he makes it soon.

The mist tells the story of a group of people who get trapped in a supermarket by a mysterious mist filled with otherworldly creatures. As time goes by people's fears start to get the better of them and they give into paranoia and start to turn on one another. The question begins to be raised of which is more monstrous, the creatures in The Mist, or the people trapped in the building?

The film is very good, really capturing the terror of what it would be to get trapped by something you can't fight against and can't really see. The performances are all strong enough to carry across this film and the only gripe I really have with it is that the CGI creatures can look a bit goofy.

As an adaptation it is another rare example where it surpasses the book in some ways. For one it removes the scene where the main character sleeps with a woman in the store, which feels a bit out of place given how close he clearly is to his wife and son and of course it changes the ending to something far more depressing than the book, and it is so much better that way.

Welcome Aboard. Enjoy The Ride.

In short, a really good film, well worth a watch.