I don't say this type of thing about Stephen King works often: I find the man to be a popular hack who glosses over the amateurish quality of his bloated work with excellent openings and superexposition. Of his work, I only consider Cujo, The Stand, and The Shining as books worthy of attention. The Dark Tower series is one of the WORST pieces of shit I've ever seen written by human beings and I think he should stick to his non-horror short fiction, which is where he is at his best.
The Mist at first seems (and might actually be) a simple B-movie story or Twilight Zone episode with a budget running on fumes, but the way it's told and edited is light years beyond the genre and is actually better than most of the best A-list horror movies in history. The details are easy to find on Amazon or wikipedia, or even in the book and reviews, so I won't mention them, but the story almot pales compared the EXPERIENCE...the actual EXPERIENCE of watching it.
The film is GENUINELY frightening, not for the CGI monsters or hackneyed shock moments--there's only one in the whole film--but for the overwhelming sense of claustrophobic dread that pervades every inch of the movie once the mist descends on the supermarket; I felt like I was watching The Shining for the first time again, so torturous was the tension. Frank Darabont brilliantly manages to deliberately show cliched monster moments in brilliantly subversive ways: every time a monster shows up, we see the characters REACTING to it's appearance before we actually see it; the violence and gore is usually kept off-screen; the spooky clues only become noticed by the audience as the characters become aware of it (no winking or hinting to the viewer there's a monster in the room); and best of all, the movie is shot in a documentary fashion, avoiding music, stylized cuts, deliberately humorous moments, and heroic action.
Two Examples:
1. The first time a tentacle appears, there's no music, no flashy cuts, so overwhelming soundtrack. The action alternates between fast and slow, the characters are completely dumbstruck, and the scene feels chillingly clumsy, which makes it very scary. The sequence feels like watching real people panicking in their own unique ways as they try to figure out how to stop an inevitable doom.
2. When pterodactyl-ish creatures break into the store by accident, an attempt to kill them with fire backfires horribly and absurdly, causing more damage than benefit. The main character Drayson--who is too normal to be a hero--is forced to chase it down and beat it to death with a mop handle, which is no easy task.
I read most of The Mist last week before the movie came out to compare it, and there are some differences, in particular, the ending. Without giving it away, I'll say that not only is the movie ending better than the book, but it's also 100 times more powerful. Although fans of short stories won't be too surprised by the turn of events--not a twist--it doesn't make the impact any less powerful; this is the kind of ending The Village wishes it could have had. The film does have it's flaws, but they're mostly connected to the strengths, and at worst neutralize each other rather than work against each other. The scenery chewing Marcia Gay Harden (the real villain of the movie) is distracting, but also very human, since her fear and fading sanity are just as moving as her sermons are grating.
If this review seems a bit glowing, there's a reason. I'm genuinely suprised that a Stephen King movie can actually be this effective and this good, and THAT is worth mentioning. I honestly can't think of a better film to recommend seeing this year than The Mist.
The Mist at first seems (and might actually be) a simple B-movie story or Twilight Zone episode with a budget running on fumes, but the way it's told and edited is light years beyond the genre and is actually better than most of the best A-list horror movies in history. The details are easy to find on Amazon or wikipedia, or even in the book and reviews, so I won't mention them, but the story almot pales compared the EXPERIENCE...the actual EXPERIENCE of watching it.
The film is GENUINELY frightening, not for the CGI monsters or hackneyed shock moments--there's only one in the whole film--but for the overwhelming sense of claustrophobic dread that pervades every inch of the movie once the mist descends on the supermarket; I felt like I was watching The Shining for the first time again, so torturous was the tension. Frank Darabont brilliantly manages to deliberately show cliched monster moments in brilliantly subversive ways: every time a monster shows up, we see the characters REACTING to it's appearance before we actually see it; the violence and gore is usually kept off-screen; the spooky clues only become noticed by the audience as the characters become aware of it (no winking or hinting to the viewer there's a monster in the room); and best of all, the movie is shot in a documentary fashion, avoiding music, stylized cuts, deliberately humorous moments, and heroic action.
Two Examples:
1. The first time a tentacle appears, there's no music, no flashy cuts, so overwhelming soundtrack. The action alternates between fast and slow, the characters are completely dumbstruck, and the scene feels chillingly clumsy, which makes it very scary. The sequence feels like watching real people panicking in their own unique ways as they try to figure out how to stop an inevitable doom.
2. When pterodactyl-ish creatures break into the store by accident, an attempt to kill them with fire backfires horribly and absurdly, causing more damage than benefit. The main character Drayson--who is too normal to be a hero--is forced to chase it down and beat it to death with a mop handle, which is no easy task.
I read most of The Mist last week before the movie came out to compare it, and there are some differences, in particular, the ending. Without giving it away, I'll say that not only is the movie ending better than the book, but it's also 100 times more powerful. Although fans of short stories won't be too surprised by the turn of events--not a twist--it doesn't make the impact any less powerful; this is the kind of ending The Village wishes it could have had. The film does have it's flaws, but they're mostly connected to the strengths, and at worst neutralize each other rather than work against each other. The scenery chewing Marcia Gay Harden (the real villain of the movie) is distracting, but also very human, since her fear and fading sanity are just as moving as her sermons are grating.
If this review seems a bit glowing, there's a reason. I'm genuinely suprised that a Stephen King movie can actually be this effective and this good, and THAT is worth mentioning. I honestly can't think of a better film to recommend seeing this year than The Mist.
He is one of the only authors who can make literally me squeal with joy just at the way he turns a phrase, instills such emotional investment that I simply can't read fast enough toward the end of a book, and is the yardstick I've always held every one of my own creations against. (I always fall short, of course; but then, that just makes me keep working harder. 
