Author’s Note: I do discuss the ending of this film, so if you haven’t yet seen it, you might want to skip ahead to the technical shit.

We all know that Stephen King translates to the screen with mixed results. If it’s not supernatural horror, it gets acclaimed. The Green Mile and The Shawshank Redemption are highly lauded as some of the best this film generation has produced. His horror output hasn’t been so lucky outside of Misery, and most of the more respected of those film translations are more a vision of the director than they are of King, such is the case with Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining.

This is, of course, a mere observation. Personally, I love the B-movie cheese of King’s only directorial escapade, Maximum Overdrive. Carrie and Christine are other films that get spun with frequency at Casa de Shawn and I’m always transfixed when they appear on television randomly. I always walk into the next King film with average expectations, but I was frustrated quite a bit by The Mist for equally getting the integral parts of the short story right, and getting the ambiguousness absolutely wrong.

For those who haven’t yet had the pleasure of reading the story (which you should, it’s available currently on its own or as part of the Skeleton Crew anthology.) The Mist was about a man and his young child that gets stuck along with a group of his fellow townspeople inside a sleepy little supermarket. Why are they stuck? Well because a mist is outside. You may ask yourself, “What’s wrong with mist?” Well, nothing except that it’s quite thick and makes you unable to see what the rather large tentacles outside are attached to, and it also camouflages the acidic webbing of the exoskeleton armored spiders that are roughly the equivalent of a mid-sized dog.

So yeah, going outside would be risky for the shoppers. Luckily, there are plenty of cigarettes and beer in the store. There’s also enough Rocky Road and Baked Lays to last everyone quite a few days so you would think that everyone should be made in the shade. This isn’t the case though, because no one can be content with the fact that they’re lucky to even be alive and surrounded by food. They have to fight about stupid shit.

This was the core of King’s novella, and it’s the one area that The Mist’s script really excels. The idea is that there are no worse monsters than those you think you can trust because they are actually bat shit insane. This is initially made evident by the town’s raving lunatic Mrs. Carmody (Marcia Gay Harden, Into the Wild) who although completely not pious in her attitude is a devout follower of the one true vengeful God who is decimating this town for being worse than Sodom and Gomorrah. Almost everyone blows her off like the loon that she is, but as people begin to take their chances bolting out of the store and into their gory deaths, the remaining customers start to turn to her as their chosen leader.

There are a few people who have two or more brain cells that still have their synapses working. These people who have kept to themselves finally decide that they’d rather risk almost certain death outside the store than put up with Mrs. Carmody and her ever increasing congregation but now that the balance of power has shifted, they aren’t going to let them go quite so easily. In fact, God is demanding a sacrifice and who better to fit the bill then those who oppose her?

Okay, so here’s the deal. The Mist was shot quickly, and on the cheap. However, the atmosphere that the film has is great. The set designs for the only two main set pieces were brilliantly conceived. If not for the cheaply made creature FX (sorry KNB, but you fucked up – it happens) and the almost universally bad and obvious CGI, the atmosphere would have held to be as thick as the mist itself. I’m all for lowbudget, but plenty of effects can be done cheaply and the mist could be used to easily obscure most of the creatures, so they should have been able to create something much more convincing than what we see here. If this was a Sci-Fi Channel original motion picture, I could forgive this, but it isn’t. It’s a theatrical release with effects on par with Attack of the Gryphon. No matter how good the story is, I can’t accept that crap.

Here is where I’m going to talk about the ending. If you don’t want it spoiled, then you should just skip ahead to where I talk about the presentation (it’s good). You’ve been warned.

If you’ve read the book then you know doubt remember the awesomely ambiguous ending. The thinking people drive off to places unknown, pass under a huge Lovecraftian creature (which is in the movie and it’s the only effect that impresses) and continue to press on in hopes that they will get… somewhere. Apparently, this isn’t an acceptable end to a film, despite the fact I don’t know anyone who complained about the book. Anyway, Frank Darabont came up with the downer of an ending that is included on this film, where everyone dies except David who half a minute after killing his three new friends and his son, leaves the car to meet his end by whatever monster is lurking. Instead he’s greeted by the military, coming through the mist and making it disperse. Stephen King approved (and apparently loved) this adaptation.

So in other words, fuck both you guys.

It isn’t that it’s such a downer that bothers me. I don’t mind that the kid died. I don’t mind that David has to suffer. I don’t even mind that he killed the hot teacher too. What bothers me is two-fold. First, the original ending was perfect and wide open for any interpretation you want to bring to the table. I like that. It spurs discussion. The ending used in the film however only has two real potential takes. One is that fate is a goddamn bitch, and it woke up on the wrong side of the bed. The other, which I find even more offensive, is that it lends credence to Mrs. Carmody and her religious ridiculousness. Perhaps it’s my own personal beliefs getting in the way of appreciating this, but the novel painted Mrs. Carmody as the worse of the two evils, and that is why the people left had to leave. Making it so that only after the kid is sacrificed, by the hands of his own father can the mist be lifted seemingly contradicts the entire point of King’s story. Sure, now there is a Twilight Zone ending. It doesn’t mean it has any merit.

I like Darabont, and I like King yet somehow they both got together and fucked up the movie on its own and defaced the original intention of the book at the same time. If this is going to be a fad in Hollywood, I’ll start working on my screenplay for Casablanca where Rick boards the plane at the end or a Godzilla film where after awakened by an atomic explosion, Zilla flips over and hits the snooze button.

Fuck this movie.

Presentation
While the FX might be fairly unexciting, the presentation on this disc certainly isn’t. The Mist looks great and very sharp, (even in the black and white version we’ll mention in a bit) so you’re likely not going to find much, if anything to complain about. The sound is your standard 5.1 track, but the action and score actually does pack a little punch to it so you’re going to have some fun with the LFE particularly. The French too, can get in on the surround fun, but the Spanish speaking audience will have to settle for subtitles while watching. Overall, this is a very strong release that fans will dig.

Extras
Audio Commentary with Writer/Director Frank Darabont –
The movie left me cold, but this commentary was awesome. I really dug listening to Darabont rap poetic about what they did and why they did it. Darabont definitely came prepared for this commentary track and it shows. It’s fully packed with the factoids and any fan of this film will want to give this one a listen.

Deleted Scenes (with optional Commentary) – (14:48)
Stuff that wasn’t bad, but wasn’t really needed either. Almost all of these were cut for time obviously, and in the commentary, Darabont pretty much tells you that.

Drew Struzan: An Appreciation of an Artist – (7:29)
While certainly a short piece, this is, without a doubt, my favorite feature on this set. Drew Struzan is quite simply the best and most iconic film poster artist. He did Blade Runner, he did the Back to the Future, Star Wars, and Indiana Jones series. He still makes posters today, and every single one is a work of art, regardless of ones opinion on the film. He’s given a wonderful nod at the beginning of The Mist, as the main character is an artist, but he’s given full acknowledgement here in this feature. Drew… You’re the fucking man!

Webisodes – (10:17)
Three webisodes are included, which are short but show a fun but of on-the-set stuff. The first one showcases the “earthquake” simulation. The second shows how they did the “burning man” sequence. Finally the third and best was a spotlight on Frances Sternhagen being, as Darabont describes, a badass with a trigger torch and a spray bottle. These were admittedly fun to watch, and this is coming from a non-fan.

Trailer Gallery –
It seems like it has been forever since I’ve seen multiple trailers on a DVD, but happily, the Weinstein’s have given us all three theatrical trailers for The Mist. I wish this was done for every film.

Introduction to the B&W version by Frank Darabont – (3:18)
Essentially, this is just Darabont talking about his desire to make The Mist in black and white, and his justification of black and white as an art form. Personally, this didn’t mean much to me, because I agree with his comments. If you’re curious though, this is definitely the director’s preferred version of the film.

The Director’s Vision: The Complete Feature Film in Black and White –
The big reason for you to go two-discer is this one. I’ll fully admit the film does work better in black and white. The creature FX, for one aren’t quite as obviously CG’d. It’s still the exact same movie though, so if you didn’t like it in color, you won’t like it colorless.

When Darkness Came: The Making of The Mist – (37:26)
This is a fairly standard, but enjoyable feature covering almost every aspect of production from Darabont first reading the book in the Dark Forces anthology through the years and years of time it took to get The Mist off the ground. Interviews are included with most of the cast and crew and there is the expected on-set behind-the-scenes type of stuff.

Taming the Beast: Shooting Scene 35 – (12:12)
Scene 35 was the big scene where some creatures actually get in the store and the customers need to fight them off. It’s a huge scene and this feature focuses exclusively on it. This is a really well done scene and all the minutiae about it is included here.

Monsters Among Us: A Look at the Creature FX – (12:47)
For a novel everyone loved, KNB’s designs are some of the most uninspired of all time, from people who’ve had a great track record. But that’s my opinion. If you feel differently, you might get something out of it. I didn’t. Of course, maybe I’m just desensitized from so many genre FX features.

The Horror of it All: The Visual FX of The Mist – (16:05)
Maybe I’m a bit harsh on KNB, because the worst visual effect in YEARS (the tentacle attack in the loading dock) came from the douchebags at Café FX. Want to see how a lot of work goes in to making even the shittiest effect, you’ll find that here. You’ll never believe that these are the same guys who worked on Pan’s Labyrinth.

The Bottom Line
I hated this bastardization of a great short novel, but it does have its own group of fans and many of those fans have disposable income. If you’re in the market for this film, you’ll get a really good DVD with a stellar transfer and great audio, you’ll also find some of the great supplements. Fans of The Mist will want to pick this up. Other people should probably give it a rent first and decide if it’s worth a spot on their shelves.

		The Mist – Two-Disc Collector’s Edition
1		Feature - Fuck this movie. Fuck it in its widely acclaimed ass.
4		Video - Once again, the Weinstein’s deliver a nice DVD.
4		Audio - Fantastic, and I didn’t even like this movie.
5		Extras - The black and white version is interesting, but the rest of the features shine.

3.5