Harry screams in THE MIST!!!

When I first heard the story of THE MIST it was with the stunning innovation of 3D sound. After I bought that cassette (remember those) – I read the novella. This wasn’t a high-minded Stephen King story… what it reminded me of was those wondrous B-movies of the 50s. Films like INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS and MONOLITH MONSTERS or INVASION OF THE SAUCER MEN. It had elements of my favorite horror film for most of my life (and some days, it still holds the top spot), I am referring to NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD. The king of the B horror movies. Low budget, schlocky and fatalistic. Often times in the B horror genre, the movies didn’t give you the gosh gee whiz happy ending that those watching LEAVE IT TO BEAVER believed in. A man screaming madly down the street, “THEY’RE HERE ALREADY” isn’t hopeful… nor is Duane Jones’ peek at his “rescuers” at the end of NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD. Low budget horror could be as dark or goofy as the filmmakers wanted – and THE MIST by Frank Darabont is a refreshingly invigorating breath of fresh air to the genre of Horror. I can’t really communicate to you just how much I enjoy screening films for audiences at the Alamo Drafthouse – it is one of my favorite things… somewhere behind Sex, Writing and Good Food. However, after most of the screenings I can usually count the extremely grateful folks, the ones that come over to introduce themselves and thank me for setting up the screening on a single hand…. And usually after one of these screenings, I’m lucky if I get a single review of the film. Well, after our recent screening of THE MIST, I was inundated by horror fans profoundly thankful for the experience of seeing THE MIST with the Q&A by Frank Darabont and Greg Nicotero. And over a dozen rave reviews. Well THE MIST was always, to me, Stephen King’s remake of NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD with a dimensional rift that substituted slightly Lovecraftian things into our world to torment our characters trapped in a singular building cut off from the rest of the world… in which, paranoia, fighting and some really good ideas turn into really shitty situations. It’s classic old school B-horror… and after a decade or two of slasher horror, self-referential smug horror, shitty vampire flicks, the advent of the torture porn genre, the J-horror and its remake off-shoots and then the million Zombie movies… to finally see a horror movie that is just an honest to goodness evil monster last-stand movie is bliss. So – how is THE MIST? It’s pure fucking Stephen King, it feels exactly like the story, yes, there’s changes – but the changes are all about toughening the story up and giving it the conclusion that was faithful to the roots that King was mining when he cooked this sucker up! Thomas Jane is our lantern-jawed protagonist. For all intents and purposes – he’s Drew Struzan… and the poster he’s painting when we meet his character is probably Stephen King fans’ collective wet dream. Jane’s David Drayton is a nice guy – he’d had a bad night and a bad morning of discovering... well, finding his life disrupted by the previous night’s storm. His wife is going to clean up the house while he and his son, Billy, played by the amazing Nathan Gamble – go into town for supplies. You might have seen young Nathan as the unfortunate boy in BABEL – and we’ll next see him as James Gordon Jr. in THE DARK KNIGHT. He’s an excitable young boy, but a sensitive kid. What I love is that he totally looks and acts like a real sensitive boy – not a scary Hollywood beta-boy. Anyway – they hit the Grocery store when, the proverbial mist hits the fan. Now here’s the thing… the film isn’t a realistic tale about the end… it has realistic aspects, but the film is still absolutely loyal to King’s B-movie inspirations… There’s that gallows humor of King’s… the cynical look at society when our worst nightmares begin knocking on the windows and rattling the doors between us and the outside world. It’s frightening and I would hope that it’d be unrealistic… that’s kinda what you have to keep telling yourself while you’re in a larger crowd of strangers watching mass-hysteria in theory. But, what would happen if when I left my seat and went to the lobby – there was a mist, thick as fog, and giant creatures that defy any and all laws of nature in our world? Would Tim League go nuts with his axe? I’m sure of it… but what would my friend Roland do? He probably has a gun in his car, would he rush out to get it – and die? Probably. And my friend and poster artist Gordon Jones – his wife and baby boy are out there somewhere – would he stay safe with us – or venture out into the monstrous unknown? And what about that quirky person, that’s always been one judgment day from being a prophet of death? Who knows? We like to think that in the face of horror – we’d pull together like in New York on 9/11… but what about the days after? When we started planning invasions and supporting them blindly? And that was with a horror we knew was out there… terrorism? How would the world react to 600 ft creatures, giant insects and flying 4 winged pterobat creatures? AND then there’s the tentacles? I don’t think rational people would react rationally to tentacled terrors in the mist. Thomas Jane and Nathan Gamble aren’t the only stand-outs in terms of the performances that deal with these horrors. Andre Braugher’s townie lawyer is great as a man that doesn’t believe in things that go bump in the night – and that doesn’t trust these small town folks and their superstitions and fears. There’s Laurie Holden’s Amanda Dumfries – a lovely newcomer to the town, that’s a new teacher at the school. She slowly eases her way out of the background until she’s a major character. That’s what I like about this film – by not going with huge movie stars – you kinda forget what the rules of the genre are – who could live – who could die and how it could all happen. The obvious stand-out character is Marcia Gay Harden’s MRS. CARMODY. A nightmare to be holed up with any day of the week, but on the day that society faces creatures from Stephen King’s ID? Fucking forget it. Marcia does wonders with a character that I had always considered as a fairly one-dimensional shrew in the original story. It’s all done on her face – as her prayers seem answered – and her prophecies eerily come to pass – with each event, she becomes more and more convinced that she is the vessel that God is speaking through… that her beliefs, all these years, her rampant convictions – have finally been answered. She’s every bit as scared as anyone else, but she’s always been living in fear – in this pressure cooker of fear – she’s swimming like those odd shrimp creatures that Cameron photographed swimming in those volcanic undersea tubes. However, I can’t say she’s my favorite character… I hate her too much. No, my favorite character is played by Toby Jones ( Truman Capote in INFAMOUS ). He just plays that older grocery bagger, that nice guy that has a simple job, a simple life and never wanted a day of excitement – well, he kinda feels the absolute most reasonable and human being through this all. He faces it all with exasperated exhaustion. He reminds me a bit of Paul Williams and I think that’s absolutely why I love him so much. So now – let’s talk about the critters. They never look real real. They’re not off this universe or dimension. They’re crazy and freaky and awesome. But you know what they really are? They’re scary. They look much better than what we’ve seen online – and they’re mean fuckers. When the glass breaks… fucking hell. The Pharmacy? Fuck. And… well… I’ll let you discover the other moments of scares. This isn’t a movie for most critics – in fact, I predict it’ll leave many critics scratching their head – trying to figure Frank Darabont out on this one. But then, they never read THE MIST – they didn’t listen to the audio play. They think of SHAWSHANK and GREEN MILE as the tone and timbre of a Frank Darabont / Stephen King film. I love those films – but I don’t really think of those films and STAND BY ME as the Stephen King I fell in love with. This is STEPHEN KING – Balls to the Wall Societal Horror tale with seriously wicked things going bump in the night. What Frank has done is this… he’s made 3 absolutely perfect Stephen King adaptations – and his first out and out Stephen King HORROR feature. It is a great B-horror monster fest served up with A-production values and acting. If you’re a fan of King’s. If you love classic horror and monster films – you’ll eat this up!