The Mist

The Mist gets going pretty quick. An initial plot device gets the main characters to the principal location and a impenetrable mist covers the whole scene. People come in bloodied ranting about things in the mist. The plot unfolds in various ways as the people are trapped in a grocery store terrified about what is out in the mist and falling to their own human irrationalism.

The first twenty minutes to half hour of this film are really effective. The mist rolls in and is thick and only an occasional scream punctuates the atmosphere. What has happened is unclear beyond a sole man saying there is something in the mist. The characters are generic to be sure but decently developed. The biggest disappointment might be actually seeing what is in the mist, a menagerie of various cgi creatures that in some ways dispel the tension.

There are a series of rather decently orchestrated action sequences that work pretty well. Sadly these moments are brought down by a rather trite storyline involving a crazed evangelical who slowly plays on the collective conscience of the trapped survivors. Marcia Gay Harden seems to be just playing through the paces in this role.

I have only one final thing to say and its going to be very cryptic because it deals with the ending. The original story had a more ambiguous but bleak ending. This film removes the ambiguity but tries to one up the bleakness. When it first happens I actually said holy crap, that scene alone makes it worth it but now several hours later I'm less sure. What happens next might actually make it cheap and symbolic.

Still what works in the film carries it passably across the finish line in my opinion. So if you like non-slasher horror films, you might give this one a chance.