Barbelith Underground > Film, TV & Theatre > Darabont's adaptation of King's novella THE MIST

I really liked the film. Never read the story either so I had no clue what to expect. Saw the black and white version, which helped to make it feel even more bleak and otherworldly. The ending was totally unexpected but very effective. It reminded me of those horror movies that haunted me as a kid, the ones where the heroes very nearly defeat the horror but are devoured at the very end and then the credits role (like the first Nightmare on Elm Street or the cheesy but strangely engaging Lair of the White Worm).

The timing of the mist clearing/the army's arrival totally worked for me. The film is about hope in the face of utter despair, and the places it can take you. The interesting thing is that it lead most of the characters down the path of violence. Only one person showed both courage and faith without violence, the first person to enter the mist, the woman looking for her kids.

Thomas Jane fought against the despair as best he could but he was doomed from the start. He was set up right away as someone confrontational and not afraid to use his fists (which is kinda odd for an artist, isn't it?). He was also set-up as lacking in better-judgement, in the scene where he says he knew he should have saved his paintings from the storm but simply neglected to. So here we have a strong headed and somewhat domineering character with a lazy propensity for action. In the final act, he loses faith in the safety of the super market and decides it's better to drive off into nowhere, an odd aimless choice. Without an anchor for his hope, seeing his dead wife, and driving around for who knows how long through utter nothingness only to be confronted with an impossibly large creature shortly after running out of gas - well, his already flimsy faith ran out of gas too. His tank of hope hit empty. He witnessed enough people get mutilated and then eaten alive by the creatures of the mist that there was NO WAY he would let his son or the others meet such a fate too. He finally gave in to his long surging fear and despair.

This surrender NEEDED to coincide with the clearing of the mist. The two events were bound, in terms of the ebb and flow of the larger issues at play, and structurally it makes sense. Having TJ roam around for a few minutes is unnecessary and perhaps too realistic for such a fantastical film. More (and perhaps most) importantly, right after that pivotal moment, we are reunited with the woman from the beginning. In a slow tracking shot we see her, reunited with her kids, riding a military van and being transported to safety. TJ gave in to fear and despair and this led him to violence and tragedy. The woman who faced the uncertainty of the mist intent on finding and protecting her children ultimately found rescue and hope.