Plot summary (with possible spoilers): One night a violent thunderstorm sweeps through the town of Bridgton, Maine, leaving extreme wreckage in its wake. The next morning, David Drayton (played by Thomas Jane) surveys the damage to his property and decides that he better head off to town to pick up supplies before the supermarket is cleaned out by other residents. David brings along son Billy (Nathan Gamble) and neighbor Brent Norton (Andre Braugher), leaving wife Stephanie (Kelly Collins Lintz) at home to begin putting things back in order.
On the way to town, David and Brent notice a lot of military vehicles heading in the opposite direction, but they don’t make too much of it. Their focus is simply on getting supplies, which is what lots of other people are doing at the crowded supermarket.
While in the supermarket, the patrons notice a heavy mist rolling down from the surrounding mountains. The mist is dense enough to reduce visibility to zero, which gets the patrons worrying about how they’re going to return home. Then someone runs into the store with a bloody nose, screaming that no one should venture into the mist. The supermarket patrons don’t quite know what to make of the screamer, but don’t really take him seriously — yet.
Things change when a bag boy tries to go outside to fix the store’s only generator. He’s viciously attacked by a tentacled monster that severs his body at the waist. David manages to slice of a piece of the monster, which later serves as evidence that something is indeed out there.
The rest of the films shows the arguments, fights, and killings that take place in the store as the patrons try to decide what they’re supposed to do. Eventually a small group breaks away from the pack and goes on an expedition outside to find out what’s going on. Things look bleak, with no apparent signs of survivors anywhere — which leads to the group taking a drastic final step.
My Reaction: This was one of the few Stephen King stories that I didn’t read in the original prior to seeing the film. As a result, I have nothing to compare the events of the film to. I know that the ending wasn’t faithful to the novella, but I have no idea how the rest compares.
Anyway, I am a bit torn about The Mist. On the one hand, the idea of a monstrous creature hiding in a fog just seems so utterly absurd and laughable that I could hardly work up any tension while watching. I know the film was supposed to be more about the pack mentality than about the monster, but still… it was just hard to get invested in this premise. On the other hand, I actually liked the ending because it didn’t follow the typical pattern of the Army swooping in at the last minute to save the day. Yes, the Army swooped in, but just a few minutes too late, as it turned out.
One thing I don’t understand is why the David’s posse didn’t try to escape on foot once the gas ran out. I mean, there was only one creature, right? And it couldn’t be everywhere at once, right? So they had a pretty good shot of making it to a safe haven without getting torn apart.
Overall, I guess The Mist was about as good as most Stephen King films, which is to say rather average. The events at the end weren’t quite enough to make up for what transpired before, so I give this movie 5.5 stars out of 10.