The Mist: Chilling Viewing in a US Election Year

Frank Darabont’s near-flawless masterpiece of horror is memorably devastating, with alarming contemporary political resonance

Credit: MGM/Dimension

Warning: Contains spoilers

Despite mostly decent reviews, Frank Darabont’s horror film The Mist came and went from cinemas in 2007 without being a huge hit. I was one of the few who went to see it, and as such, was richly rewarded. Of course, “rewarded” is a subjective term, as the feel-bad, punch-in-the-guts, emotional devastation of the finale is now the stuff of legend. But for those wired for the masochistic catharsis of the genre, The Mist leaves one reeling, seriously impressed in a wow-they-went-there sort of way, before feeling the need to lie down in a darkened room in a traumatised foetal position. I should add that Stephen King’s original novella doesn’t end the same way, but the author completely endorsed Darabont’s finale.

However, it isn’t just the ending that makes The Mist a nigh-on flawless masterpiece. It’s the political subtext, which feels even more chillingly relevant today. For those unfamiliar with the plot, it concerns Maine artist David Drayton (Thomas Jane), who, along with his young son Billy (Nathan Gamble), winds up under siege in a local supermarket when a mysterious mist surrounds it. There are monstrous entities in the mist, but where do they come from? Is this God’s judgement? Or do the soldiers in the supermarket, stationed at a nearby top-secret research facility, know more than they’re letting on? Have their scientists been playing God with parallel universes?

Fundamentalist nutjob Mrs Carmody (Marcia Gay Harden) thinks the Day of Judgement has arrived and begins to whip some of the customers into a religious frenzy. Others think she’s insane, but slowly, most fall under her sway. In the meantime, those with their heads screwed on — David, schoolteachers Amanda (Laurie Holden) and Irene (Frances Sternhagen), as well as supermarket staff Mike (Andy Stahl) and Ollie (Toby Jones), and a few others — try to deal with the escalating menace from without, as the horrible creatures attack at regular intervals. But the threat from within ultimately proves far more frightening.