Nerds That Geek Movie Review: ‘The Mist’

Written by Scott Edwards and John Edward Betancourt

Scott's Review
Seeing things from our nightmares may be one of the scariest things we could ever experience. With nobody really knowing what scares us, we keep these fears hidden away as our dreams are our own. Even though we may remember bits and pieces of what has happened during our dreams and wake up in cold sweats from our nightmares, we can only remember a small fraction of what has happened while we were sleeping. It is sad, but for the most part, I don’t think we really want to know what our subconscious is trying to tell us, especially if it does not come with good vibes.

David Drayton is working on his new piece of art for a movie poster as a storm starts moving through town. As he does not expect anything too bad to come from it, he leaves all of his art in his drawing room and follows his wife and son, to protect them from the threat. Waking up in the morning, David finds that the storm has knocked his grandfather’s tree through his window, causing all of his work to be damaged beyond repair. When his son Billy comes running from the back yard, David finds he has another storm brewing that he will have to battle as his neighbor’s old dead tree has flattened his boathouse. Knowing that it is nobody's fault but the storm's, David plans a trip into town to get supplies to fix up his home, but he will add another member to his trip as his neighbor needs a ride into town.

Although David and his neighbor Mr. Norton have never been friends, this kind of cooperation is a big step forward in their relationship and they start to talk to each other as people, not rivals. The local grocery store is packed with people preparing for the worst since the power is out, and everyone is just trying to get home and be with their families when a strange mist comes rolling into the parking lot. Nobody knows what it is, but when a local comes running in from it, yelling to shut and lock the doors, all of the shoppers start to wonder what it was that he saw. When David and his friends in the store get together, they decide to do a little bit of recon around the store and find out that the exhaust port for the store's generator is blocked and they need to clear it before the gas fumes get too strong in the building. 

Opening the back-delivery door to allow one of the bag boys to become a hero will change the small group's lives forever as a group of tentacles come reaching in through the opening and try to grab anything that has a heartbeat. Losing one of the group to this ‘thing’ that is outside, the group tries to reason with the rest of the shoppers in the store and tell them exactly what they are dealing with, but not being able to win everyone over leaves the store divided. With some people wanting to leave and get back home with their loved ones, along with one woman that turns to her savior for answers, the customers all start to choose their own paths of finding a way to escape the terror that is outside of the doors. David tries to keep his cool, but with his son’s life in danger as well, he knows that whatever he does, he will not allow himself to leave his boy fatherless. 

This is one of my favorite horror movies of all time and it is not because of the monsters that roam the unknown, it is the people and how they react to the situation they have been placed in that makes this film so great. This is one of the only films that I have found myself actually hating a character and the only reason why is that the actress played her so well. I don’t find that in many films these days and it is kind of reminds me why I like this film so much. With a great, strong cast and a fantastic script, this movie captured lightning in a bottle in my opinion and will always be on my horror shelf, ready to watch when I need something to break me out of any funk. Stay Scared.

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John's Review
There is a great battle that still rages on in film; the book versus the movie. It's a valid struggle, as since we have all sat down and enjoyed an incredible novel one time or another, only to have it play out in horrible fashion on the big screen.  As the years progress, it seems the growing opinion is that the book will always win out, with its unique ability to capture our imagination in ways that film simply cannot. 

For one such author, Stephen King, it has been a mixed bag of results when it comes to movie adaptations of his work since there have been about as many winners as there have been losers. For every Graveyard Shift there is a Misery. Or for every Thinner there is an It. It seems that King's work on film will either be an utter disaster or a critical and box office darling.   

But out of all of Stephen King's work, only one director has actually managed to bring about quality and spot on adaptations of his stories. That man, is Frank Darabont and his gorgeous adaptations of The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile garnered him a well-deserved reputation in the film industry. But Darabont is a student of horror, having cut his teeth as the screenwriter of the 1988 remake of The Blob, and it seems only fitting that he felt the need to take on a lesser known scary Stephen King short story; The Mist.

Simply put, Darabont absolutely strikes gold with this film. It is intense, gory and unmercifully brutal. The creatures truly look other-wordly, thanks to the fine work of KNB EFX studios and they make you squirm in your seat when they appear on screen. The acting shines with excellent performances from Thomas Jane, Andre Braugher and Marcia Gay Harden. In fact, you'll even find some Walking Dead alumni in Jeffrey DeMunn, Laurie Holden and Melissa McBride peppered throughout the film. But while we are treated to a fine ensemble cast, the true wonder of this film is the sheer horror that it portrays on screen. Every frame of this film from the moment the mist arrives in front of the store, boils with intensity. At no point are you left comfortable again. From the things that roam outside to the evil building within, this is a movie that not only takes you on an emotional roller coaster, it also leaves you deeply disturbed with the decisions the characters make. At times you may see it coming, but that doesn't prepare you for the raw disgust you will feel at witnessing good people turn into something so despicable.  

Take all of that and throw in a devastating ending and you leave the theater or turn off your Blu-ray player feeling utterly defeated and wondering what you need to do to raise your spirits up if only for a moment. So, why praise such a dismal and bleak film?  Because this is unadulterated horror. The genre has never been about the monster or the shadows in the night, it has always been about who we are and what some of us truly are deep down. If anything, the tagline for this film said it best; 'Fear Changes Everything' and after watching The Mist, I completely agree.  

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