Director Frank Darabont has made a reputation – and even been nominated for an Oscar or two – adapting the lesser-known works of horror author Stephen King to the big screen. Unlike others who adapt King’s material, Darabont tends to choose King stories more grounded in reality and human drama than in demon-possessed cars and salespeople trying to hawk Branson homes for sale who stop at the wrong small town overnight. His films, The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile stand head-and-shoulders above nearly every other King story ever adapted to film, and, some might argue, were often among the best films released in their respective years.
That’s high praise, especially for a director primarily of Stephen King films, but The Mist is an entirely different beast. The most supernatural-oriented Stephen King film Darabont’s ever taken on, he is in somewhat unfamiliar territory. While the film reflects King’s penchant for creating sharp, recognizable, believable characters and compelling stories, the supernatural content is a bit more B-movie than Darabont has taken on before.
Based on a short story included in Dark Forces, a horror anthology first published in 1980, it was later included in Skeleton Crew, King’s 1985 collection of his own short fiction. The original story ran approximately 155 pages in length.
As a movie, The Mist stays close to the King source material, as Darabont’s films often do. Unfortunately, the creatures encountered in the course of the story are far more B-movie in variety than the usual tone Darabont achieves with his other King adaptations. Also, some characters, such as the religious zealot Mrs. Carmody, come off as thinner, more clichéd portrayals on film than the insightful narrative flow of the prose story.
The basic premise is that after a severe thunderstorm in a small Maine coastal village, a thick mist forms and advances on the town. A number of folks are at the local supermarket when the mist hits town and, inside the mist, large creatures exist that prey on any living thing they can find. Some are tentacle, others are lobster-like, some seem like prehistoric-sized mosquitoes and the like. All of them are bloodthirsty.
In essence, it’s a classic horror tale setup, similar in tone and setting to George A. Romero’s Dawn of the Dead (set at a shopping mall). Romero is a close associate of King’s, by the way. While Darabont carries off the film as well as can be expected, the source material doesn’t ask the deeper questions that his previous efforts asked, such as the durability of the human spirit found in Shawshank Redemption or the morality of capital punishment found in The Green Mile.
No, The Mist is more solidly in the camp of a Saturday afternoon fright fest. Sure, there is a minor theme developed with a trio of soldiers caught in the supermarket and whether government testing and weapons research might be the cause of the current onslaught. But the film simply lacks the depth that made Darabont’s two previous King adaptations such instant classics.
This is not to say that The Mist is unenjoyable, but it certainly is more akin, as King might say, to a McDonald’s Happy Meal, rather than a steak dinner. It’s a darn fine McDonald’s Happy Meal, but in the end, no more than that.
The DVD commentary on the film provides some great insights on the work of adapting King to the screen, and comments on his other attempts at it, from Darabont himself, although it would have been far more entertaining had the discussion included King as well. The deluxe, two-DVD package was plenty of extras and features, included a version of the film in black and white, which Darabont reveals as his initial vision for the flick.
While there is plenty to enjoy, the standard DVD presentation would have been made even more memorable on Blu-Ray HD. Much was made at the time of release about the final five minutes of the film, trumpeted to be a shocker no one should share.
I won’t violate King and Darabont’s wishes by revealing the secret ending, save to say that in it, there is at least an attempt to open up a morality discussion about the decisions made by the characters in the closing scenes. In the classic King story, the ending was indistinct and fuzzy on the payoff; the group of survivors drove into an uncertain future. In the film, there is more of a payoff on the fates of each character; whether this new ending is more appealing or not will be a subject of debate among all who see the film.
Gory and filled with a bit more profanity than some folks will feel comfortable with, the film remains rated R on DVD, foregoing the current trend to released nearly every film ever made only in ruder, cruder Unrated versions. But even as an R-rated DVD, there is never the sense that Darabont and King have held anything back from realizing their vision in this film to the fullest extent possible, like it or not.