Based on a 1980 novella by Stephen King with an adaptation, “The Mist” is a 2000 film that largely follows David Drayton and his son Billy Drayton. They both depart to the grocery store to stock up on goods after the recent thunderstorm the night before, wiping down most of the town. Most of the people at the store are doing the same as David is doing, as well as not thinking twice about leaving their loved ones behind too.
The film expresses the fear of rationing food and water while running the risk of becoming dinner for a six legged creature known as “The Behemoth.”
When I watched the 2017 horror show remake of the original adaptation about five years ago, the monster was even more terrifying. It represented the fear of not knowing what was really out there by not showing what the monster looked like.
However, in the 2007 film, the monster was pixelated and fake looking. Although this was the case, I would prefer to rewatch the 2007 film rather than the 2017 T.V show remake. The film is more raw and isn’t drawn out like the T.V show.
Despite the presence of such a not-so-frightening beast, what I found most scary was the realism of situations presented in the film.
At the beginning of the movie, David Drayton took his child to the grocery store and didn’t bring his wife. While he was at the grocery store, there was a heavy amount of white foggy mist, blinding the characters from view of the parking lot. People tried to leave the store but were worried, for there was a lot of screaming and yelling into the abyss.
Someone brave enough eventually left the store to return to her little kids that she left at home, but screamed and never returned. Most of the beginning of the movie focuses on the fear of loved ones possibly being put into danger and not being able to do anything about it.
In the end, the director of the film Frank Daracbront really knew how to keep the viewer engaged throughout the movie by expressing the substantial mind of Stephen King so well that in the book “Stephen King Goes to the Movies!” by Stephen King, King includes his top 10 favorite movie adaptations on page 627, and “The Mist” was ranked in the top ten.
After watching the movie I am sure to check out “The Mist” from my local library. Although the SFX of the movie was cringy to look at once in a while, Daracbront and King made sure the watcher was just itching to know what was really in the depths of the mist.