The Mist

I have an odd affection for this atrocious Stephen King adaptation about a strange mist that brings a plague of monsters to a Maine town.

Sadly, King adaptations seem to be more often Hollywoodized bubblegum pap like "1408" than "The Shining". This is the former. Aside from the unfortunately usual cringeworthy standards so many King adaptations seem to have, this one scrapes the bottom of the barrel even worse: unbelievable and clichéd story points obviously contrived to add "drama" but only succeeding in adding cringe, two-dimensional characters, and of course the de riguer overally tv-movie-quality productions which King's stories too often attract.

Roger Ebert called it a "competently made Horrible Things Pouncing on People movie", but I think he was being generous. There are moments of true incompetence here, which is surprising, as it was directed by Frank Darabont, who also adapted "The Shawshank Redemption" and "The Green Mile". Suspension of disbelief is just not possible here because of the very obvious and frequent flaws, so the film never becomes engaging for me. People just don't act like that.

Still, somehow, I rewatch it occasionally. It does have its rare, fleeting moments... never more than a few seconds, but a few individual images are memorable. It's almost like they brought in a skilled horror director to "punch it up" this mess of stupidity with occasional genuinely good shock and horror visual beats. I dunno. I can't ever recommend it overall, it's just way too contrived and feels mass-produced. But still, I rewatch it occasionally for those maybe three cool moments that seem so out of place in the middle of this mess. If I was 10 I'd probably have thought it was really cool... maybe?

It's more Lovecraftian than a lot of horror, which I suppose is a point in it's favor... a less "jump out and say boo" and more "creepy crawlies on the edge of your peripheral vision" type of monster flick. The special effects were by the same outfit that did "Pan's Labyrinth", so, there's some hint of quality there, at least.

It also has a very dark ending, but only if you think about it, because the director managed to mangle any sense of visceral impact the film might have had. Seriously disturbing images barely register.

I'm tempted to give this a "Je Nais Se Quois" tag. But I can't. It's just too bad a movie. And I almost want to give it "Bad But I Like It", but, I don't like it. Still... Hmmmm. I mean, it's definitely the worst movie I've ever rewatched several times over the years. [shrug]