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The Mist

An okay flick while watching it, but nothing memorable. Not mystifying (ba-da-bum). Too bad, it had much potential being a good Stephen King story and with Frank Darabont at the helm.

• Premise

There was no consistency with the creatures. The first one, with tentacles, was interesting enough because it provoked wonder as to what the full body was. I enjoyed the small flying things because they resembled mutant mosquitoes. But then my the thrill waned with the larger flying creatures…they didn’t look like, say, mutant pigeons or eagles, but mini pterodactyls. Though I liked the spiders, the lack of connection between all of the creatures by that point left me frustrated. And that got worse with the larger and larger thingies in Act 3.

The simple, scary thing would’ve been to monstrify existing animals. Whatever the army experiment was that caused the crisis, mutating insects, birds and animals would’ve been freaky and acceptable. Creating new types of creatures was a stretch. Or- the creatures should’ve been all new types with no resemblance to anything known. By going partly in each direction, the movie failed to create a singular vision as to what happened in the military accident and failed to create a singular feeling of fright.

• Character, Structure/Plot

The crazy religious lady was a fun character, but the movie went too far in making her a preacher/prophet with followers. Perhaps if only three others had become her disciples, I would’ve accepted it. But it got comical- people in the theatre snickered during these scenes- when so many clung to her and acted like they were in a church and cult.

• End, Character

At the very end, when Tom Jane and the other survivors in the vehicle decided to end it themselves, the impression was that Tom had shot them. And that irked me…one, it seemed much more likely that each would’ve shot him or herself and two, it weakened the characters to give up the fight. I imagine: the elderly man and woman took their lives in the vehicle and Tom, his child and the woman continued on foot and only at the last second when a creature was feet away, did the woman and kid shoot themselves with Tom running away and finally being saved. (Though kudos to the movie for such a painful ending with the army rolling in moments after Tom shot the others.)

• Little thing

There was never a clear idea as to how many people were stuck in the supermarket. In the beginning, the number fifty entered my mind. That thought was jolted loose during a scene in the middle when, after a number had already died inside the building and out- a large crowd of seemingly new faces was shown in the background. That was awkward, as if another fifty people had been there the whole time and were just being shown.

“Interview” with director Frank Darabont.

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