31 Days of Halloween Films #8: The Mist
The Breakdown: Shit has hit the fan in Small Town, USA, as a dense fog has engulfed the area and survivors have taken refuge inside of the local supermarket. Society de-evolves and the terrors outside come to match the terrors inside as the survivors, shoddily led by Tom Jane, try to weather the storm.
The Lowdown: The Mist was such a misunderstood film upon its’ release. I really wish more people had given this a chance as the film is a fantastic dramatic horror/thriller that has more in common with The Thing than it does The Fog. Great horror movies can be broken down to their simple premise and retain strength. Night of the Living Dead remains scary because people have a fear of, well, hordes of people. It is a primal, base level fear that comes from an aversion to large groups that makes people continually come back to the zombie genre. The Mist tackles the question of trust with fantastic results. Without getting overtly gory or sacrificing its’ script for well thought-out characters, Frank Darabont weaves a tale about the breakdown of society and morals in a controlled environment, providing a true psychological horror not successfully tackled in the genre too often.
The performances take this film a long way, and they start with Tom “Motherfucker” Jane. In my opinion, Jane doesn’t get enough credit for his acting chops. From a cameo in Scott Pilgrim to his fantastic turn in Boogie Nights, Tom Jane has proven repeatedly he has the chops for serious leading man roles like this one, and he excels at it here. It helps that he is surrounded with a bevy of great characters such as Marcia Gay Harden, Andre Braugher, Toby Jones and Jeffrey DeMunn. They bring a realism and provide multiple perspectives on the situation, in some cases causing a lot of the main conflict throughout the film.
From a story perspective, The Mist makes some amazing stylistic choices, the first of which is choosing to never go outside the supermarket until late in the third act. Not being able to see outside or get a perspective on what’s happening makes the tension of the situation that much worse. Why is the mist here? What are these creatures and how did they get here? Could Marcia Gay Harden be more of a douchebag? Darabont presents us all of these questions and does a great job suspending the creepy vibe throughout the runtime. His direction provides most of the “Oh Shit!” moments, including the amazing ending. I’ve heard people say this film is too bleak, and I guess I can see that, but only to a point. The film hinges on the idea that people need to have faith that things will get better. At the climax of the film, it is Jane’s character who has no faith and does the unthinkable to save his son from having to die a horrible death. It’s a pivotal moment in a film that, up until that point, was solid. The climax elevates The Mist to the level of high-art, and I love it for that.
The Comedown: You know you’re doing something right when you change the ending to a story and the original author says “yeah, your version is better”. Without a happy ending or explanation for the occurrences, The Mist has balls. This stands as my favorite performance out of Jane, and Darabont’s most bold directing gig yet. You can see where he went on to do some groundwork for The Walking Dead, as the way people interact with one-another here is very similar to some of the issues Rick and the survivors face in the prison. If you’re still not quite in the mood for the spooktacular Halloween stuff yet, The Mist is a good flick to ease you into the season, now at the quarter-way mark to the big day. It has a great cast, solid direction and a surprisingly powerful conclusion. Plus it has Tom Jane killing kids, so what’s not to like here?