Another
film based on a book that Stephen King paid someone to write, 'The
Mist' is a moderately good horror film with a very 50's (Darabont intended to be in black and white, which would have looked way better - and you should have seen the original poster) kind of a feeling. The premise is something like
'Half-Life' mixed with 'Evolution' (not as good as the former, better
than the latter). In fact, the creators of 'Half-Life' cited the book
as a major influence (Major Influence).
Another
(mildly) interesting fact outwith the universe of this fiction: there are quite a
few 'The Walking Dead' actors in this - probably because the director
is Frank Darabont, who did the first few years of 'The Walking Dead'
before he was fired and then sued AMC for $280,000,000.
Grossly
rich people aside, this film was alright. The acting wasn't anything
special and some of the effects were a bit eh, but that's not the point with a throw-back like this, and it was
entertaining and suspenseful. I'm bored of there being little to no
explanation of events in things like this though - I'd have loved
something from the perspective of the generals in charge of this
whole operation, or maybe someone working there (like, I don't know,
'Half-Life'?)
The
creature design was neat though, and some of the deaths were flat-out
horrifying (the under-skin spiders being one of my favourites). I also
enjoyed the big “fuck you” ending, though it didn't so much make
me do a Darth Vader “NOOOOO” of anguish than make me chuckle and
slow-clap. They took a big lump of screen time to remind us about how shitty monotheism is too, which felt a little unnecessary but at least gave some characters something to do (I hope the fanatics they left in the store were devoured shortly thereafter by imaginatively designed CG monsters).
I
liked the bleakness of this, and I liked the ending, I just think it
could have been much better. I haven't read the book or anything but
I'm guessing this is a fairly spot-on rendition, and I think the idea
could be expanded on quite a bit. It was good though. A little
cheesy, I think intentionally so, but good.
Oh
yeah! And Toby Jones from 'Detectorists' (one of the best comedies of
all time, and also he's been in a load of other things) and that guy
from that show about cops I don't watch was in this too!
The Mist: 51.2