Film Friday: The Mist (2007) Movie Review

Title: The Mist
Genre: Horror
Directed by: Frank Darabont
Written by: Frank Darabont
Starring:
Thomas Jane
Marcia Gay Harden
Laurie Holden
Andre Braugher
Release Date: November 21st, 2007
Rating: 2.5/5

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Since I wrote a review of The Mist on Monday, I want to primarily talk about the differences between the book and movie.

My main problem with the movie is its need to be...well...cinematic. By that I mean that elements of the novel are translated into film language, to its detriment I think. One thing is the need to A. have the 'jump at you' scares and B. show off the creatures. To address the first complaint, earlier on before you see the creatures, it is more terrifying than when you do because you mind fills in the blanks and creates something far worse than the designers can create. (this is in no way to harp on Berni Wrightson's designs which are, as with all his work, awesome.) But they resort instead to have them jump out of the fog at the audience for cheap thrills rather than creating an atmospheric horror movie like The Thing.

This goes into the next part: showing off the monsters. Part of the terror is not seeing The Thing or the alien in Alien, but knowing it could appear at any moment, to keep you on the edge of your seat. In The Mist  they are all over the place and, as such, when they do attack it is less terrifying and has less of an impact on the audience. In most horror movies, less is more is often a plus, and I feel they could have had less of the monsters with more of an impact.

The ending. I don't want to ruin either the book or movie, but lets just say the movie was extremely maudlin and heavy handed with its ending. I prefer the book's ending myself.

However, what is most important is the characters and their interactions and I think the movie is fairly successful in this regard. Much like the book, the film is very visceral with its characters and you either like the characters or hate them (you only have to look at youtube comments on the trailer to see this). Despite this, I can't get past the ending. I am in the middle of the road on this movie, I like parts, don't like others. So, if you are intrigued by the book, or the trailer, watching the movie adaptation certainly won't hurt.