At one time, screenwriter-director Frank Darabont was rumored to be filming his adaptation of the Stephen King novella The Mist in black and white, and although the film he actually made is in full, creepy color, it’s easy to see why the black and white would have been a good idea. This is an old-fashioned creature feature, based on an appealingly pulpy but minor King story from 1980, and Darabont mostly approaches it with an eye for economical scares and simple, direct storytelling. Although he’s tackled King twice before, Darabont isn’t exactly known for his economy (or his scares, for that matter): His previous two King adaptations, The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile, were both period dramas, critically acclaimed and beloved by audiences but more than a little bit grandiose.
The Mist occasionally takes on big ideas, but it does so in a modest way that prizes suspense over speechifying. The story is gratifyingly simple: After a particularly bad storm in one of King’s prototypical small New England towns, a mysterious mist rolls in, trapping a group of ordinary folks in a grocery store. The mist is pervasive and dangerous, full as it appears to be of malicious insect-like creatures. Hero David Drayton (Jane) tries to rally the townspeople and come up with a plan of survival, while doomsaying religious nutbag Mrs. Carmody (Harden) preaches that the end of days has arrived, and calls for human sacrifice.
Mrs. Carmody is about as cartoonish a villain as the CGI monsters lurking outside the store, and Harden overacts the hell out of the part. The film’s commentary on religious fundamentalism is sloppy, but its ability to build tension is much more effective, with Darabont making good use of the mist to show only the most disturbing bits of the creatures outside. Eventually, he shows more, and the special effects don’t quite live up to the anticipation, but in a way that’s perfectly of a piece with the film’s throwback tone. Darabont also shakes up his staid visual style, letting his camera dart and swoop like one of the otherworldly beasts, adding to the general sense of unease.
Where the director does stumble is in his ending, which departs from King’s ambiguous, optimistic finale in a big way. The dark and definitive ending is a cheap ploy to give the film a shocking twist, and is inconsistent with the characterization leading up to it. It’s a disappointing close to an otherwise satisfying film, a nice little creeper whose only limitations are its own efforts to be something more.
The Mist
***1/2
Thomas Jane, Marcia Gay Harden, Laurie Holden, Toby Jones
Directed by Frank Darabont
Rated R
Now playing