 Collector's Edition (2-Disc - Color and B&W) Tagline: Belief divides them, mystery surrounds Them, but fear changes everything. From legendary frightmaster Stephen King and Academy Award nominated director Frank Darabont (The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile) comes one of the most tense and terrifying films since The Shining. Storyline: Everyone thinks of it as a harmless lightning storm. When Dave Drayton notices a strange mist on the lake, he thinks nothing of it. When he, his son, Billy Drayton, and his neighbor Brent Norton travel to the supermarket, the unthinkable happens. On their way to the market, they see the army, firefighters, and the police heading toward the mist. When he sees this Brent mentions something about "Project Arrowhead", a secret military project that no one knows about. As they are shopping, they see three soldiers walk in, pick up a few things, then head toward the mist. All eighty of the store's shoppers have no clue what is going on until an old man runs in the market with a bloody nose and declares "Something in the mist!" He tells them to close the door. About five seconds after they close the door, the entire store shakes, as though it has been lifted several feet above the ground. When Norm the bag-boy volunteers to go out, he is dragged away by a creature with large squid-like tentacles that have mouths, teeth, and arms. After Dave and the other three fight off the tentacles, they warn everyone in the store what is out there. Upon hearing this, Mrs. Carmody exclaims that it is the End Time and that God is punishing them. People don't believe it, but finally Mrs. Carmody has almost everyone in the store on her side. Does 'Project Arrowhead' have anything to do with this? Will Dave Drayton, his son, and his friends make it out alive as they make a last stand against this destruction? Or will they be taken by the demon-like creatures of 'The Mist'? - Written by mviedirctr354 Reviewer's Note: Reviewed by Martin Liebman, September 14, 2008 It appears we may have a problem of some magnitude here. The Mist works on several levels to create a picture that represents the pinnacle of the Horror genre, the most obvious level of success the film achieves being its ambiguous nature. We learn more about the film's title matter and its effects throughout the movie, and the idea behind it isn't all that new (but it is a little-tapped concept that definitely needs more exploration in the future, and hopefully in movies that come close to the quality of The Mist), but we never learn independently from the characters what it is that we are to fear. Instead, we the audience become something of a background character, an involved bystander in the film, and are privy to not one ounce of information the characters don't know, and we're genuinely shocked, saddened, and frustrated several times throughout the movie, again as if we had a life and death stake in the story and were experiencing the events of the film first-hand with the characters who, always in the forefront, were possessed of the nerve, the raw courage, to explore the unknown environment created by the mist. Second, the originality of the film goes undisputed. No doubt, viewers can see elements of other Horror movies scattered throughout the film, from Invasion of the Body Snatchers to Aliens, and fans might even see a few shots that may remind them of one of this film's contemporaries, Cloverfield, but under the expert craftsmanship of director Frank Darabont (The Shawshank Redemption), the film is as fresh as any I've seen, particularly with regard to the Horror genre. Third, The Mist benefits from an excellent cast of characters who don't act -- they become you and me: average, everyday people who are as lost, scared, untrusting, unsure, and even sometimes as stupid as we might be in such a situation. The movie rarely feels scripted and never feels forced. Instead, it exudes a natural, lifelike element that draws its audience in and emotionally and psychologically invests them like few other pictures of this nature before it. David Drayton (Thomas Jane, The Punisher) is an artist living with his wife and son in small town, USA. Following a terrible thunderstorm that knocks out the power, ruins David's latest painting, and uproots a decades-old tree that falls through the home, David, his son Billy (Nathan Gamble, The Dark Knight), and next door neighbor with whom David is at-odds, Brent (Andre Braugher, Glory), head to the local Food House Supermarket to pick up a few supplies. Before they can complete their shopping, a terrible mist covers the store, much to the shock of the customers and employees inside. A man runs into the store, bloodied, shouting, "something in the mist!" As confusion ensues and it becomes obvious to David and a few others trapped in the store that something horrible is indeed in the mist -- something that is waiting for those people who are foolish to leave the store. Factions within the store begin to form, one group rallying around David, and another around a religious zealot named Mrs. Carmody (Marcia Gay Harden, The Invisible). Unless those trapped in the store can come to terms with one another and work together to save themselves from the evil outside, the burgeoning distrust, anger, and hatred inside just may prove to be more horrific than any terror that awaits them outside the store. The Mist never falters in continuing to elevate the level of tension felt throughout. A few brief introductory scenes at the beginning of the movie will be your only reprieve from the nail-biting intensity of the picture. It builds and builds and builds, crescendoing with a climax so anti-Hollywood and gut-wrenching that, even were the movie a failure until the ending, it would receive plenty of credit from me for its daring and slap-in-the-face of convention. The ending is one you will never forget and may haunt you forever, and leave you questioning your self-worth, that of those around you, your crisis management skills, your sanity, and more. The Mist is also unique in that many viewers will not want the movie to end, despite the almost too-intense-to-bear aura of the picture, for it is so well done in every facet of filmmaking that the cessation of the experience and the snap back into reality is quite the jarring experience. On the other hand, the first time you see the movie you may want to get to the end as quickly as possible just to find out what will happen. Indeed, The Mist brings with it more emotion, and such a broad range of emotion at that, that we become as torn and confused as the characters themselves. The Mist is also unique in that it creates a modern-day Horror movie with plenty of elements that hearken back to the glory days of Science Fiction and Horror in the 1950s. While the movie sometimes borrows elements from newer entires into the genre, there are plenty of clues that give the movie a 1950s feel. Similar to Christian Nyby's 1951 classic The Thing From Another World, we often hear dialogue spoken in a hush between a small group of people, while in the background we can barely hear the conversations of others in the room. This lends a very realistic and non-cinematic feel to the movie. This does a few things. First of all, it firmly entrenches us in one of the groups without excluding us from what else is going on in real-time. All too often movies tend to forget about everything else in the world except for what the camera is framing. Not here. It almost feels like a first-person film during many sequences, as the camera becomes our eyes and ears and allows us to practically participate in the film, rather than being a distant, uninvolved spectator. Second, it aids in creating a cramped, intense, overbearing feeling, so that we sense we are surviving with a group of people at odds with one another inside the supermarket. As we focus our attention on one group, we notice other groups are busy at work talking and figuring things out elsewhere in the store; then, just as such a scenario might happen in real life, this background group will simply step forward and interrupt the group we've been focusing on. There is not often that perfect sense of movie timing where a key conversation is only interrupted when it is complete. Characters come and go and speak seemingly on their own time and their own terms. The dialogue also conveys the "classic" experience of a 50s monster movie. For example, Thomas Jane's delivery offers a perfect example as he speaks as a confused authority on the events occurring outside the store and in the back room. Listen to the scene in chapter four when he tells the guys in the back room not to go out and fix the generator, or in chapter six when he tries to explain to the store's customers what he saw in the back room. They're prime examples. The Mist is a fantastic Horror movie with just the right combination of elements, not to mention directorial style, that make it a standout in the genre. The movie is bold in its ending and plays out with a different sort of dramatic flair that we don't see all that often in movies, and it comes across almost as unscripted and therefore very real. The throwback style of the film, hearkening back to some Monster Movie classics and featuring dialogue delivery in-line with such classics give the film a traditional feel in a world of contemporary cheap, uninteresting, and repetitious horror. Fans are even given the option, through this set, to experience the film in color or in Frank Darabont's preferred black and white version, which he calls his "director's cut." He had always envisioned shooting in black and white, and the inclusion of both versions is most welcome. Weinstein's Blu-ray release is a great one. Both the color and black and white version look good in high definition. The soundtrack features great atmospherics and imaging, but lacks punch in several scenes. The supplements are entertaining and informative, with the director's commentary being one of the better I've heard. The Mist is a different style of Horror movie than we're used to, and it's most refreshing; fantastically tense and bold in its direction, story, and ending. The Mist is highly recommended! [Show Spoiler] IMDb Rating (11/26/10): 7.4/10 from 79,191 users
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