The Mist
2007 · Directed by Frank Darabont
Original language: English
- horror
- science fiction
- thriller
The story
After a violent storm, a dense cloud of mist envelops a small Maine town, trapping David Drayton and his five-year-old son in a local grocery store with other local residents. They soon discover that the mist conceals deadly horrors that threaten their lives, and worse, their sanity.
What it’s like
Grey, washed-out daylight bleeds through the fog that presses against every window of a small-town supermarket, and most of the film unfolds under the hard white glare of fluorescent tubes that buzz overhead and make every face look bloodless. Frank Darabont frames the store with a claustrophobic, handheld-leaning intimacy, pushing into tight aisles and close faces, then cutting to the impenetrable grey outside where shapes move without form. The sound design does much of the work: muffled, wet thuds beyond the doors, a sparse, mournful score that swells sharply at the worst moments, and long stretches of near-silence broken by panic. The mood is bleak, suffocating dread that tips into paranoia and religious fervour as survivors turn on each other. Violence is frequent and sometimes brutal, with creature attacks, gore and a few graphic deaths, plus a harrowing, disturbing ending that lands hard. It suits a late-night, alone-in-the-dark watch rather than anything light, and it is for viewers who want tense, grim monster horror that uses its confined setting to explore fear, fanaticism and despair.
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