#15: The Mist (2007)

"There's something in the mist!"

And, I can assure you, it's not gorillas.

So, here's the second film in the countdown based on Stephen King's work (and not the last, either!) Here's the plot rundown:

In the wake of a violent thunderstorm, artist David Drayton (Thomas Jane) drives into the town of Bridgton (which- unlike many of Stephen King's other locales- is a real place) for supplies, accompanied by his litigious neighbor (Andre Braugher) and his young son (Nathan Gamble.) But while waiting in line at the local supermarket a strange mist descends . . . and before long it becomes clear that there is something malevolent within it.

I'm not entirely certain why I enjoy this film so much- its special effects aren't necessarily the best, and its dialogue can often be regarded as stilted. Perhaps it's just the overall sense of doom that pervades the film. It certainly doesn't seem as though any of its characters are safe from a horrifying death at the hands (tentacles?) of the Lovecraftian monsters lurking in the mist- and the grisly fates that befall much of the cast are morbidly entertaining in their own right.

Speaking of monsters, I often think of this film as a companion piece to a pair of films that came out in 2008: Cloverfield and The Dark Knight. Sure, all three of these films have radically different plots, characters, and outcomes, but I can't help but think that all of them are subconsciously dealing with the same issue (thinly veiled terrorism, okay?) After all, all of these films ask the basic question: "When push comes to shove, are people inherently good or evil?" The Dark Knight and Cloverfield seem to suggest that, for all of our flaws, human nature is inherently good . . . but The Mist tends to weigh in on the "most people are only as good as the world allows them to be" camp, and so, despite this film's heavy reliance on creatures from another dimension, the most frightening monsters in it are, for lack of a better term, us. Sure, there's a super religious woman (Mrs. Carmody, played by Marcia Gay Harden- King seems to have a real issue with blindly religious women) who provides a focus for our outrage, but she is only the rallying point for a small army of apparently sycophantic zealots ready to kill for a place in heaven.

Anyhow, if you have a taste for creature flicks, check this one out. But I suppose I should warn you: the ending is something of a bummer.

Check in tomorrow for #14!

Update: By the way, Nathan Gamble also happens to be Jim Gordon's son in The Dark Knight . . . and the primary female protagonist of The Mist (Laurie Holden) also appears in 2006's Silent Hill, another movie in which a mist-enshrouded town appears to be populated by monsters. Type-casting anyone?