22 Jan 2008

The Mist

Director: Frank Darabont

Starring: Thomas Jane, Marcia Gay Harden

Release: 2008-01-22

If Cloverfield is a monster movie for the YouTube generation, then The Mist is a horror movie for adults. This terrifically engaging and intelligent horror film is based on a Stephen King short story and directed by Frank Darabont, who has directed three other King tales including the excellent The Shawshank Redemption.

In The Mist, Thomas Jane plays an ordinary man who goes to supermarket to stock up on supplies after a storm ravages his home. Whilst he is in the supermarket, a man enters the supermarket and tells everyone to shut all the doors. There's a mist coming and "there's something in the mist", he says.

Well, there's something in the mist all right, and it sure ain't pretty...

Stretching for two hours, The Mist will keep you on the edge of suspense. You never quite see what's in the mist — and the occasional claws or fangs or tentacles that reach out to grab human beings are enough to scare you.

But what's even scarier than the unseen creatures are the monsters that human beings turn into when they're scared. Marcia Gay Harden is spectacular as a Christian fanatic who tries to stir the people in the supermarket into believing that the end is nigh, and the best way for them to repent is to punish the unbelievers.
Dark, chilling and utterly convincing, The Mist is the best horror film in recent times.