The Mist (Frank Darabont, 2007)

[Antoine Doinel]

I don't really get the hype around this guy and I was prepared to write this picture off, but the trailer is really quite good.

However, having not read the book, it seems like it's giving away far, far too much of the plot.

[tavernier]

Doesn't it seem that all trailers do that nowadays?

[domino harvey]

I read the novella in middle school during my youthful flirtation with Stephen King. From what I remember of the plot, not a lot happens to begin with, it's more a mood-piece, so as far as spoilers go, very little of the very little that happens is actually revealed in that trailer. But I do remember the story fondly, which looking back is more than I can say for most of King's works-- Not an upbeat novella by any means, maybe one of his most pessimistic works. I'm very interested to see what Darabont (who has been trying to get this off the ground for at least a decade) does with it.

[The Invunche]

Give the Christian bitch to the monsters, please.

[Antoine Doinel]

Well, I certainly enjoyed the slap across the face she got during the trailer

[colinr0380]

I'm looking forward to this as the story in the Skeleton Crew collection was one of my favourite Stephen King stories - up there with The Raft, also in the same book. As I've said before, though, I'm a sucker for films where people are trapped together so that often leads me to judge films with these themes more leniently! The themes seem pretty similar to King's 'trapped in a gas station' story Trucks, and it seems interesting that the Skeleton Crew collection came out in 1985, a year before the film of Trucks that King directed himself, Maximum Overdrive, was released. So it seems this came from his 'trapped and menaced' period! (which would probably also include Cujo and The Shining going up to Misery and Gerald's Game)

Hopefully The Mist will be a much better film than Maximum Overdrive - that film could charitably be called a 'love it or hate it' film. Maximum Overdrive does have some fun moments such as the bridge opening car crash scene at the start, King's cameo as the shocked customer at the cash point ("This machine just called me an asshole!"), and the always welcome sight of a kid being run over by a steamroller! But that is also the problem - the film works best in the little set pieces (and then there are some clunkers such as trying to have a kid on a bike menaced by a slow moving lawnmower! or sprinklers!) while the main plot gets pretty boring. The problems seem to be that nobody is particularly likeable - a number of characters are given little to do, and those that do get some characterisation just get broad mannerisms. It is nice to see a pre-Simpsons Yeardley Smith in the cast but the character she plays is incredibly irritating! (EDIT: scratch the 'love it or hate it' section, after reading this essay I think there's no way to think that anyone could love it!)

Oh yes, there are also there are massive logic and plot holes throughout, more than even telling yourself that the film is only a fantasy about machines going haywire can excuse! And really over the top musical stings every time someone has something bad happen to them!

Yet despite it being a really bad film by any standards I have found that many sections of the film have stayed in my memory years after seeing it. I have fond memories of seeing a television series in 1993 called New Nightmares. The first episode, called Man-Machine, looked at robotics and science fiction with interviews with scientists as well as readings from novels and film clips - perhaps my fond remembrances of Maximum Overdrive came from a section of that episode where scenes of the car crash sequences from the film played while a section from Ballard's Crash was being read!

But back to The Mist. I'm hoping Frank Darabont can handle a more fantastical film as well as he did the more dramatic Stephen King adaptations, although as domino harvey said, about a half of the story is based on the characters not knowing what is in the mist and interacting with the others (i.e. fighting!). That trailer seems to show quite a bit of the story, from the splitting into camps to the person who seems to be the leader at that point going out into the mist with a rope around him, to first seeing the creatures. I can't remember whether it was explained in the book why the monsters didn't just smash through the windows of the store to get at the people inside, so you might have to suspend disbelief at that point!

Spoiler

One of the best parts of the story, which I hope they've kept in the film (Darabont in his previous films seems to keep faithful to King's stories) was the idea that the narrator and his young son, like everyone else, just survived in the store by complete chance of being in the right place at the right time. The story provides a very understandable motivation for the main character to get out of the store to try to get home to see what happened to his wife, left behind in an open and hard to barricade house when they went shopping (which is where the 'hope against rationality' theme comes in), and hopefully save her.

The story itself ends after his small group have escaped the store and is written as if the narrator is leaving an account of what happened at a restaurant they have stopped at before they journey on. So there isn't a traditional ending, or explanation for the phenomenon - in the original material at least.

Actually the ending of this story came vividly to mind when watching the girl leaving her story for somebody to find before moving on from the waystation in Time Of The Wolf.

Mrs Carmody also seems to continue a King tradition of authoritarian figures with either fundamental religious beliefs or abusive childhoods driven crazy by wild events and who then turn into (human) monsters themselves, and who in the end seem sadly pathetic more than totally evil. She seems to have a lot in common with both the priest who is revealed to be the werewolf in the earlier Cycle of the Werewolf and Craig Toomey from The Langoliers, who came a couple of years after and who seems to have been the epitome of that kind of character type.

[you gotta be kidding me]

So how does the story compare to Carpenter's The Fog?

As far as King adaptations go, I can only hope it's half as good as my personal favorite: The Mangler.

[flyonthewall2983]

Well, I certainly enjoyed the slap across the face she got during the trailer

It's a bit odd to me that the religious nut in the film is a female character, anyone else feel that way?

[The Invunche]

A man would have been less odd?

[exte]

This could be good, but there's way too many tv actors and way too much CGI for my taste. Hope it's not overblown with dialogue like "cut and run," etc...

[domino harvey]

This could be good, but there's way too many tv actors

I know you're not bad-mouthing Andre Braugher

[flyonthewall2983]

A man would have been less odd?

A man would have been more cliche, I suspect.

This actually seems to have on OK cast, despite some people's beliefs. I liked Thomas Jane in Boogie Nights, Thursday and The Thin Red Line. Andre Braugher, enough said*. It also has Darabont veterans William Sadler, Jeffrey DeMunn, and Brian Libby. Depending on how you view it, and if it's faithful to the book (which Frank has sort of a track record of), it might be good.

*Does anyone remember the show he did for FX, Thief?

[The Invunche]

*Does anyone remember the show he did for FX, Thief?

Yes, it started out good, but by the end I wasn't sad it was cancelled.

[flyonthewall2983]

I don't mean to get off track with this, but the way the last episode ended, it seemed like it was only meant for one season, as strange as that sounds. The same goes for that show that was on Spike recently, The Kill Point.

[domino harvey]

Thief was always intended to be a one season affair, it's better to think of it as a miniseries.

[The Invunche]

I'm sure I read an interview with Andre Braugher where he talked about the show being canceled by low ratings.

Not that Wikipedia is especially trustworthy, but:

Despite critical acclaim, the show failed to garner significant ratings and FX declined to extend the series.

[flyonthewall2983]

Thief was always intended to be a one season affair, it's better to think of it as a miniseries.

Thought so. The show had some problems, but a marvelous cast, most of which were killed off if I remember right.

[souvenir]

If people want to spin Thief as intended only for one season that's fine, but Andre Braugher, in the press conference following his deserved Emmy win, said it was canceled because not enough viewers watched the show. I think if the viewers had been there then it would have been extended with a new storyline, but they weren't so it wasn't.

[domino harvey]

lol I just looked at Wikipedia too and was about come back and say "If you trust Wikipedia"... Worth noting that the Emmy Braugher won was for lead actor in a miniseries or movie, not Drama series.

[domino harvey]

Who knew the board was so full Braugherphiles! =D>

[John Cope]

I liked Thomas Jane in Boogie Nights, Thursday and The Thin Red Line.

Of course, he still has the vague stench of Dreamcatcher about him (not to mention The Velocity of Gary).

If people want to spin Thief as intended only for one season that's fine, but Andre Braugher, in the press conference following his deserved Emmy win, said it was canceled because not enough viewers watched the show.

I don't know anything about that series--I'm still in mourning over the loss of CBS' Hack, which employed not only Braugher but also the always excellent David Morse.

[flyonthewall2983]

I liked Thomas Jane in Boogie Nights, Thursday and The Thin Red Line.

Of course, he still has the vague stench of Dreamcatcher about him (not to mention The Velocity of Gary).

Yeah, but that's like 3 against 1 and a half. I also forgot to mention the excellent Stander.

[cdnchris]

I liked Thomas Jane in Boogie Nights, Thursday and The Thin Red Line.

Of course, he still has the vague stench of Dreamcatcher about him (not to mention The Velocity of Gary).

Yeah, but that's like 3 against 1 and a half. I also forgot to mention the excellent Stander.

If I was to make a top 25 of the WORST movies I've ever seen, Dreamcatcher would be in there (it had monsters that came out of your asshole for Christ's sake.) That almost nullifies the three others mentioned.

[flyonthewall2983]

Which, strangely enough, brings us back to the movie in question, The Mist.

[domino harvey]

"Get back to Marge
re: Horror"