Tabula Rasa

I finally got to see “The Mist” last night. First things first – I feel compelled and duty bound to warn anyone who’s an arachnophobe that The Mist doesn’t carry a warning but very obviously fucking should do that the film contains spiders. Fuck that “Warning: may contain mild peril” shit – if a film has those eight-legged freaks in it then I for one would like to fucking know about it before I sit down in a large, dark auditorium. That being said, even as someone afflicted with that particular phobia, I didn’t find it too bad as the beasties in question neither look like or, more to the point, move like real spiders. Alright, so I did keep my feet off the floor but generally, it wasn’t as bad as, well, Arachnophobia or, um, other films with monster spiders in (like Eight Legged Freaks which I still haven’t seen and can’t imagine ever doing so even though I really want to – how perverse is that?)

Anyway, aside from that heads up, overall I really enjoyed The Mist and would recommend it to anybody who likes horror films. More after the jump including potential spoiler-ish details.

Quick plot synopsis: the morning after a tremendous thunderstorm, a mysterious mist rolls down off the mountains into the town of Somewhere-or-othersville and “something” in the mist traps a number of town residents in the local supermarket. But as factions form and the survivors start fighting with each other, the monsters outside may be the least of their worries.

What I didn’t know before going in is that the Stephen King novella that it’s (pretty faithfully) adapted from is the primary inspiration for the game Half-Life which is by no means a bad thing seeing as how Half-Life and its sequel are some of my favourite games ever. The film could pretty much be a version of Half-life as told by citizens in the real world around the area where the game takes place (which keeps it vague enough for people who don’t know the game but will explain the plot to people who know it well). The script, by director Frank Darabont, is very good at delivering the scares and building up the tension even if the dialogue is, in places, a touch weak with some moments of misplaced (or unintentional) humour and the plot is a tad predictable in places but Darabont insisting that they keep the tone and, more importantly, the feeling of the climax of Stephen King’s story intact is undoubtedly a good thing. A very good thing.

The acting is a mixed bag but generally is satisfactory with Thomas Jane being a mostly believable protagonist and Marcia Gay Harden delivering a tour-de-force performance as Mrs Carmody, the local religious nut whose fire and brimstone teachings start having prophectic overtones when she proclaims that the events described in the Book of Revelation are coming to pass. She is perhaps the scariest thing in the film and that’s one of the major strengths of the movie – the portrayal of a group of survivors going all Lord of the Flies and turning on each other.

The only thing I didn’t like about the film was the fact that when I got home, I considered ripping up the screenplay I’m half way through writing because there were lots of shared ideas but then I remembered that the inspiration for my story was the same as Stephen King’s so we’re both ripping off the same thing. So that’s okay then. The Mist certainly made me reconsider one or two plot elements in mine – not because they’re similar but because I realised that my story takes a while to get going. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing but the danger of The Mist (apart from being given away in the title of the film) is introduced very early on and events at (what I considered to be) the end of the first act shows the audience what’s at stake in no uncertain terms and this is an area that I feel I need to work on.

I don’t know if this is going to be showing for very long so if it sounds like your cup of tea then you probably need to go see it soon. There are worse ways of spending a couple of hours and, if nothing else, the film will make you realise there are people in Hollywoodland who do actually have a sizable pair of testicles.

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