The Mist (2007)

Stephen King is truly the master of horror and suspense, but I can’t give all the credit to King on this one. The screenplay and direction the film took felt close to flawless in my opinion, not to mention the stellar acting performances from this very diverse cast. As far as horror goes, this movie creeped me out more than any movie has in a very long time. I really don’t like spiders, roaches or mosquitos, and some of the creatures in this film were literally all three. This movie tested my gag reflex more than once, but for some reason I enjoyed every minute of it.

The Mist (2007) is based on a novella by Stephen King. It was directed by Frank Darabont and written by Frank Darabont and Stephen King. It stars Thomas Jane and Laurie Holden. David Drayton (Jane) lives in Maine with his wife and son. One night there is a huge storm that causes a tree to break through their window and cause some damage. There is a blackout, so David and his young son go into town to pick up supplies. The store is crowded due to the power outage. While they are in the store, a thick mist suddenly rolls into the parking lot. At that same moment a man runs in saying his friend was grabbed by something in the mist. What follows is a story about what happens to a group of people when they become trapped, isolated and scared. David must do everything he can to protect his son, despite the chaos surrounding them.

A lot of Stephen King's works have been adapted to the screen, but they are not always successful. However it seems when King teams up with Frank Darabont, they produce nothing but gold. Before this film, they collaborated on The Shawshank Redemption (1994) and The Green Mile (1999), so clearly they work well together. Darabont actually meant for The Mist (2007) to be viewed in black and white, a tribute to classic horror films such as Night of the Living Dead (1968). One of my favorite things about Stephen King is the way he brings life to all the characters in his stories. In this film he shows how people who are stricken with fear and have nowhere to go can develop an unhealthy mentality, and be just as dangerous as the creatures in the mist. All the actors were phenomenal, and I love that no less than seven actors from the TV series The Walking Dead (2010) are in this film, and Frank Darabont even helped create the series. The special effects and gore makeup in this film were above and beyond some of the creepiest details I have seen in a horror film in a long time.

I would recommend this film to anyone who loves horror and Stephen King, but be prepared to cringe often.

• William Sadler, who plays Jim, was also in two other movies that were adapted from Stephen King’s work: The Shawshank Redemption (1994) and The Green Mile (1999), which were also both directed by Frank Darabont.
• Thomas Jane, Toby Jones, Sam Witwer and Nathan Gamble have all been in Marvel/DC related material.
• Seven of the actors in this film went on to play roles in the TV series The Walking Dead (2010), which Darabont developed and executive-produced for the first two seasons.. They were Jeffrey DeMunn, Melissa McBride, Laurie Holden, Juan Gabriel Pareja, Cheri Dvorak, Sam Witwer and Tiffany Morgan.
• Thomas Jane was the first actor that Darabont sent the script to.
• Darabont wanted to cast King in a supporting role, an offer that King turned down because he did not want to travel to film the part.
• This is Thomas Jane’s second Stephen King movie. He played Henry in Dreamcatcher (2003).

• The Mist (2007) is based on a novella that Stephen King published in 1980 in the Dark Forces anthology..
• This film was co-written and directed by Frank Darabont, who was interested in making this film since the 80’s.
• This movie started filming in Shreveport, Louisiana in February 2007. The entire movie was filmed in Louisiana and Texas.
• This film was commercially released in the US and Canada on November 21, 2007.
• Darabont revealed that he always wanted to shoot the film in black and white, and the black and white version released on The Mist (2007) blu-ray in 2008 is his preferred version.
• Darabont revised the ending of the film to be darker than the novella’s ending, a change which King was open to.
• The budget for this film was 18 million dollars and made a total of 57.3 million in the box office.