SCI FI PI

Released Feb 7
Starring Thomas Jane, Marcia Gay Harden, Andre Braugher
Director Frank Darabont
Rated MA

If you've ever loved a horror movie, go and see The Mist.

No mucking about, no excuses, no moderations. It is the most satisfying horror movie to be released in years. The only type of horror fan to be disappointed by this film will be those 'goreholics' who don't like any film that doesn't have someone's face or genitals being slowly ripped off to the latest grindcore soundtrack. To those, The Mist may seem 'vanilla'. For everyone else, it's a classic.



No, I don't think we parked in Giant Freakish Monster P5, either.


Stephen King first released the novella in the horror anthology Dark Forces in 1980, and then re-edited it for his seminal Skeleton Crew collection in 1985.

When Frank Darabont first started filmmaking, author King had a special system where he would option off the rights to his work to young filmmakers at a dollar a shot - Darabont wanted to option The Mist back then, but instead chose The Shawshank Redemption. Which did quite well.

Twenty years later, and the filmmaker with an encyclopaedic love of horror films has been 'pigeonholed' as a serious filmmaker. That may be the case, but just because someone's a 'serious' filmmaker doesn't mean they can't do a horror film - anyone who's seen Stanley Kubrick's The Shining will tell you that.

The plot is simple, the execution is elegant. With help from editors and cameramen (and camera style) from The Shield, this isn't a chocolate boxy horror film - nor is it an overly grainy shake-fest - it occupies a nice middle ground between immediacy and clarity.

Father and film poster artist David Drayton (Thomas Jane) takes his son and his neighbour to the local supermarket after a huge storm rips through their sleepy Maine town. With a strange mist oozing from the mountains, he leaves his wife at home to continue the clean up job.

On the drive into town convoys of soldiers are rushing past, away from the secretive local military base.

The scene is set. The Mist rolls in. And all hell breaks loose.



Hmm, did I remember to buy Mortein?


But is it actually hell? A group of frightened shoppers go from local colour to real people in short strokes and then, as the action heats up and the mask of civilization drops off, they become warriors on two sides - one lead by local crazy lady and god-botherer Mrs Carmody (Marcia Gay Harden) convinced that the end of days is at hand. And what with the bizarre creatures outside the pane-glass windows, not that far-fetched a theory.

She's on one side, Thomas Jane is on the other, just trying to stay alive and damn the religious interpretations. He's backed up by the excellent Toby (Infamous) Jones, William Sadler (a Darabont fave), and Laurie Holden. Andre Braugher plays the prickly next-door neighbour who has no time at all for either The Rapture or for stories about giant tentacles in the stock room.



Dammit, running out of Mortein...


This is the real meat of the movie, not the scary things. Although, the scary things are indeed scary, well-designed and presented with a real flair for horror - Darabont isn't above cheesy lines, nor obvious 'boo' moments. But it's not a talentless hack ticking off the 'things to do' list, it's someone really enjoying themselves, and that joy really shines through. So no matter how dramatic, horrific or nightmarish the action on screen, there's an undeniable sense of fun.

Even the ending, which will go down as one of the great (and controversial, and horrific, and wrenching) ones, is more about having fun with the genre than anything else.

The audience's mind is read in advance, so you never have a boring 'who's gonna die next' parade. The questions are: is it really the apocalypse? is there any hope? should they try to survive inside the supermarket, or risk travelling through The Mist? and if it isn't hell spewed open, what the hell is The Mist? and are we, as humans, basically good, or basically savage?

To find out, book your a ticket. It's a hell of a ride.




Oh no! Bye bye, Sherminator!