[Gort]

Gort's Quick DVD Review: The Mist

Wow! It's been a long time since a movie has actually had me white knuckle riveted to my seat. While "The Mist" is a "it flies, crawls and stalks" creature flick, it also addresses some humanist issues regarding how we act when the power goes out, and we're crowded together in hopes of working out the survival issues.

The film starts out with action relatively quick, with a mist descending from the nearby mountains onto a small, Maine town; it helps that in the mountains is an army base, where scientists have been experimenting with a window to other dimensions. Well, the window becomes a gate, and a manner of creatures, from small to extraordinarily huge, start showing up everywhere. We don't see them right away, but something dangerous is in the mist, so people begin running for the supermarket for safety (including the protaganist and his 6 year old son), and this is where the fun begins. When a bag boy attempts to go outside and is grabbed my huge tentacles, the freakout starts - some people, the ones who didn't witness the act, think it's a joke, while those that did see the event are convinced a great danger has certainly befallen them. It doesn't help that there's a religious nut in their midst espousing the end of the world; this adds to the tension in a great way, because now we have a conflict within the ranks of those trying to survive. When it becomes obvious that there are all kinds of creatures outside hungry for blood that our supermarket survivalists start trying to fend off, the group is soon divided into the those following blindly the word of God (it's the end of the world - says so right here in the Book of Revelations!!) and those trying to exert rationale. Things eventually get nasty between the two groups, and the rational folks break out; by the time they reach the protagonist's vehicle, there are only five left. Armed with only a handgun and four bullets, they start driving till they run out of gas. The tragic, gut wrenching end is near and I won't spoil it for you, although I will say it was somewhat predictable.

I really liked this movie; I don't typically enjoy gorey monster flicks, but this was an entertaining and engaging film, imo. I thought the writing (Stephen King) was smart, and the acting was great. The Mist had a great pace, and the 126 minutes went by quickly.

4 stars outta 5 and recommended. Entertaining!
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- Tom Carter

"You can't stop the waves but you can learn to surf" - Jack Kornfield

[Lunatique]

I'll definitely check it out.

I think the last time a horror flick had me at the edge of my seat was The Descent.

[Jimmyjimjim]

YES!!! I loved this movie!!!

My only complaint (and I'm going to get an argument here) is the ending. Not that I didn't like it (I DID), but I thought it was out of character for them all. They should have been portrayed as more desperate early on to do that.

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I think VERY few fathers would do that to their child unless a most gruesome death was literally knocking on the door.

[Gort]

I agree; I thought the ending was a bit off course, and it left me massively bummed out - tragic!
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- Tom Carter

"You can't stop the waves but you can learn to surf" - Jack Kornfield

[neff]

This movie has some of the most stupid scenes i've ever seen.

1 outta 5 (1 Point for Special Effects)
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[Ben Mauro]

i enjoyed it but i thought the overall the acting was cheesy, especially the religious zealot woman.

[Max]

Hm, you made me interested,...now I really gotta see this movie.

[Gort]

Neff - it was an ironic experience for me, because your thoughts on The Mist echo my thoughts on Cloverfield, which I thought was a huge, stupid piece of crap and waste of film. I rarely - and I mean rarely - watch "monster" flicks; I've never really liked them, but imo I found The Mist engaging, but I can see where you're coming from.
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- Tom Carter

"You can't stop the waves but you can learn to surf" - Jack Kornfield

[Affected]

Great ending! Wasn't expecting anything quite that uncompromising.

There was some logical slack there that at times made it a little hard to relate to the people - for example, at the beginning some folks didn't seem to believe there was any danger at all, but stayed in the store anyway?

Regardless, I have a soft spot for horror films where death is indiscriminate and unpredictable. A couple of hours well wasted.

edit: I also quite liked the look of some of the creatures, there was something old-school about them...

[Gort]

Yeah - that ending was pretty wrenching but good. As a Dad, I would've held out; I could never bring myself to killing my daughter.
_________________
- Tom Carter

"You can't stop the waves but you can learn to surf" - Jack Kornfield

[Max]

Hmm. I just watched it. What can I say.
This could have been great as a short movie. Taking the first 10 and last 10 Minutes,...

SPOILERS INCLUDED

The only thing that truly, truly saved this movie for me was the ending.

The only creature for me in this film was this incredibly, INCREDIBLY annoying woman who seemed to dominate the whole plot. Maybe I am unfair here,...because I just hate such "god will kill you all" - ideologies so much that I can't just look away or ignore it. I nearly stopped watching this film when suddenly everyone became mad, following her path,...I just though,..wtf? Never!

I laughed out loud when the old woman threw this can on her. And when she finally got screwed...well. I was just waiting for this.

But letting aside this nutty girl. The characters were portrayed quite good. But some were simply unconvincing. Noone changes his/her point of view so fast. Some of the dialoge scenes were really, really stupid, I echo Neff here. Those scenes might have worked in the book. Not in the movie.

The creatures were rather boring. I wasn't afraid. Neighter tensed...well, I hate spiders,...yuck. Those gave me abit of that horror feeling I was hoping to get more of. Yeah,...I was disappointed,...

But then, when the gigantic creature walks over their car I understood, there must be something big going on,...it gave me abit of that fantasy feeling combined with a dramatic (abit clich�) score. The following silent scene was impressive. When he finally shot everyone,...well, I couldn't believe it. It was very intense. And the very last twist,...was even more incredible. I never thought it would end this way. I wasn't expecting this. That made it a Stephen King flick. Wihout that,..I would have forgotten this movie fast.

Thanks for the tipp. I still think 90% of the movie were weird/bad however the ending saved it. Eventho noone would ever kill 4 people including a loved one if there is hope left. And as we see, there should have been hope left.

[Affected]

I looked up "The Descent", which was mentioned here, and that led me to the film "Dog Soldiers", a British werewolf film. It's firmly tongue-in-cheek, although more monster horror than comedy. The plot, typed out, is decidedly run-of-the-mill, but the execution was quite amusing.

[Max]

Dog Soldiers? Heh, another flick I gotta check out ;D

[Lunatique]

I just finished watching it. It was very entertaining, and I liked it enough to think it's one of the better horror films I've seen in a long time.




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I think the writing had some problems, although it was a noble attempt to pick the angle of human behavior during a major crisis and let that be the dominating theme (much like Night of the Living Dead was). But the main problems for me were:

1) The religious looney woman element was pushed too far. The people were portrayed as too easily swayed by her. At least half of the people in there should not have fallen for her Old Testament rantings, instead of just a small handful. They should have added a scene in there where some of the people who appeared to have been swayed by her came to their senses as soon as she started to push for sacrifice and blood, and that the only reason the crazies had an upper hand was because they got hold of something very dangerous and used it as a threatening weapon against the others. I refuse to believe the majority in that supermarket would be so easily controlled, regardless of the circumstance.

2) I saw the ending coming as soon as they hinted at suicide after the gas ran out. I immediately thought "it's going to be one of those ironic endings." I actually would've preferred that they were ready to do it, and just before pulling the trigger they see the treads of the tank roll by. I did like the part where you see the woman from the beginning with her kids on the military truck though. In the end I guess the overall message is that none of us know what the fuck we're doing and none of us is every truly right or wrong--we just don't know jack shit and never will, no matter how much conviction we have. I do agree that it was out of character for them to give up so soon though. I think they should have been in absolute hopeless hell and chaos to decide to off themselves, not just from running out of gas.

*END SPOILER*




Thanks to Gort for pointing this one out. I probably wouldn't have watched it otherwise, since I thought it was going to be like The Fog (which I didn't like when I watched it again as an adult--the remake is even worse).

[Ben Mauro]

if you liked Dog soldiers i would check out the guys other films, equally cheesy fun. 'The Descent' and the recent 'Doomsday'. good fun.