Wednesday, December 05, 2007

World's Shortest Movie Review: "The Mist"




Warning! Some minor spoilers ahead (marked in red)

Much Like: Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead, Storm of the Century

Summary: A heavy mist crawling with bizarre, nasty creatures enshrouds a small Maine town as a result of military experiments in interdimensional travel. The mist traps artist David Drayton (Thomas Jane) and his young son in a supermarket with a couple dozen other people. Among them, unfortunately, is a Bible-belting wackadoo named Mrs. Carmody (Marcia Gay Harden) who makes Carrie's mom look normal. She insists the Endtimes have arrived and only "expiation" can stave off destruction.

Upsides:

  • An old-school monster movie that's more story than gory, The Mist combines character-driven tension and suspense with a classic hint of the absurd. The local-yokel Stephen King touch remains intact; characters like tiny-but-tough grocer Ollie Weeks (Toby Jones of Infamous infamy) and a tough old bird named Irene (Frances Sternhagen, best known as Charlotte's mother-in-law on Sex & the City) take this beyond your average creepy-crawlies flick.
  • Mrs. Carmody's end actually drew applause.
  • While this is a conventional monster movie, I gleaned a few timely insights from it:
    - In hard times, sheer lunacy starts to sound logical. Beware the person who knows exactly what's going on and what to do about it - he/she is nuts, full of it, or both.
    - Messing around with interdimensional portals is bad, mm'kay?

Downsides: A sad-ass ending that jarred with the rest of the film; some over-the-top music


CGI tentacle graphic by Richie L. Roberts

5 comments:

tweetey30 said...

I read Storm of the Century when it was a new book from the library. Try reading it in Seven days and getting it back to the Library in time. LOL.. Yikes.

S.M. Elliott said...

I saw the movie and liked it a lot, but haven't read the book. That's one I should add to my list...but I doubt I could read it in 7 days.

tshsmom said...

Storm of the Century was extremely disturbing, but well done.

They'd have to kill me before I'd give my child to the devil!

S.M. Elliott said...

The child-sacrifice theme shows up in The Mist, too, but this time the guy doesn't go for it. I agree, that dude was an idiot.

tweetey30 said...

Well its far from being a new release now but this was when Jeff and I first moved to Green Bay so its almost 10 years now. Wow. That long...