Also, I was under the immediate impression that perhaps this must be another poor sort of remake of The Fog (1980) having a similar sort of idea. However, I think that this film was very nerve-wracking and exciting by the 'mist' that shrouded the small town in the US, and the desperate expressions of the poor innocent human victims trying to escape.
The film is directed by Frank Darabont, and lasts a long run time of 126 minutes. After a violent storm in a community in Maine, the local artist Dave Drayton (Thomas Jane) drives from his lake-side house with his son Billy (Nathan Gamble) and his arrogant neighbour, lawyer Brent Norton (Andre Braugher), to the supermarket to get supplies. On the way, they see a heavy mist, and later, see military convoys, police, fire trucks, and ambulances heading into it. In the supermarket, a frantic local arrives crying that there is something alive in the mist. The manager closes the front entrance but the store is enclosed by the mist. David, another client and two employees go to the back of the store to start the backup generator. When they open the back entrance, Norm the cashier (Chris Owen) is seized and dragged away by fierce tentacles. David and two survivors succeed in closing the loading door. When they tell the rest of the people in the store what happened, Brent does not trust his own perception, believing it is a prank. The God-fearing Mrs. Carmody (Marcia Gay Harden) preaches the Apocalypse and says that she is the agent of the Lord on Earth. Soon the group discovers that they are under siege by blood-thirsty creatures from another dimension that have reached our planet through a window opened by a failed military research project. The crazy Mrs. Carmody has many followers and starts to make dangerous speeches. Absent any alternatives, a small group led by David decides to take a chance, leave the supermarket, and get to his car, hoping to escape the mist.
I thought the general CGI of the mist was successfully portrayed and looked fairly real to an extent. It genuinely scared me as I thought it created an immediate sort of claustrophobic atmosphere and caused me to be startled from the beginning of the film. The supermarket was an essential location in the film for me since the majority of the victims were stuck in it, and I loved the idea of the two different groups forming inside the supermarket - one willing to accept the mist as the Apocalypse and the other planning to escape to the cars outside to make a run for it. This location was pivotal for me in expressing the fear of the victims as it was clearly enclosed with the mist, and the momentum and violence was developed very well within this one place due to the panic and stress from the people. Also the ending - oh my, it is a real shock!
I struggled to find any elements within this film that I thought was pretty disappointing. You could say the ending was disappointing, however I thought it was perfectly apt. The only one thing I could suggest that was weak was the creature that had tentacles. Okay, so it creeped me out a bit - some tentacles randomly swooping out at the victims in the shop. Think realistically but, how is some sort of sea creature with tentacles going to survive on the land...
Overall, I really can't criticise this film at all! It really is a successful horror film to me, creating and developing a tense atmosphere and certainly momentum. I highly recommend this film to all horror fans - although you may class it as a 'thriller' - but it is definitely a fantastic film with a sublime ending.
Agreed, this was an awesome movie. Originally it surpassed my own expectations and on returning to it later, still holds up on replay value.
ReplyDeleteThis movie is one for the books.
Yes I agree with you! Definitely exceeded my expectations, good film.
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