The Mist

The Mist 2007

• Director: Frank Darabont
• Based on the novella by Stephen King
• Cast: Thomas Jane, Marcia Gay Harden, Laurie Holden, Andre Braugher, Toby Jones, William Sadler, Jeffrey DeMunn, Frances Sternhagen, Nathan Gamble
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Thomas Jane – The Thin Red Line, Face/Off, Buffy the Vampire Slayer
• Marcia Gay Harden – Into the Wild, The Dead Girl, American Dreamz, Mona Lisa’s Smile, Mystic River, Pollack, Meet Joe Black, First Wives’ Club, Miller’s Crossing
• Laurie Holden – The X Files
• Andre Braugher – Homicide Life on the Street
• Toby Jones – Sherlock, The Hunger Games, The Man Who Knew Infinity, My Week with Marilyn, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Doctor Who, Kick Ass Girls St Trinian’s 2, Creation, Frost/Nixon, Amazing Grace, Infamous, Mrs Henderson Presents, Finding Neverland, Ladies in Lavender,  Hotel Splendide, Ever After, Naked, Orlando and he’s Dobby’s voice
• William Sadler – Fringe, Roswell, The Green Mile, The Shawshank Redemption
• Jeffrey DeMunn – Burn After Reading, The Green Mile, The X Files, The Shawshank Redemption, Hill Street Blues
• Francis Sternhagen – Julie and Julia, Misery, Independence Day
• Nathan Gamble – The Dark Knight
• Why? I liked it the first time
• Seen: Once before. Now 8 September 2019      

       Oh clever, the first scene is a young artist painting what insiders will recognise as a poster for Stephen King’s The Dark Tower. Then a big storm comes, causing great damage to the young family’s house. They see a mist coming across the lake. David (Jane), his son Billy (Gamble) and their cranky neighbour Benton (Braugher) head into town to the supermarket where people are buying up in face of what is clearly some kind of major disaster. The mist surrounds them, and they’re trapped. They panic, then deal, in different ways.

       This is Stephen King, folks. It’s creepy. It’s a study on human psychology in the face of the dangerous and incomprehensible. It looks into darkness. It doesn’t shy away from small town bigots and fanatics. And it has monsters. Really scary monsters.

       The hero David is too macho/handsome/all-wise/brave/generic to be believable or likeable but some of the supporting cast are good. Harden as the Christian fundamentalist. Jones as the supermarket manager. Braugher as the neighbour. Sternhagen as the old woman. Sadler is good and so is Gamble as the kid.

       This is Stephen King. Good vs evil. Stupidity vs reason. Good guys vs bad guys. There are some captivating nuances and it’s well filmed.

       This is Stephen King. Excessive in every way but addicting.

3 ½ * of 5