The Real Monsters are Us: "The Mist" (2007)

Marcia Gay Harden cannot keep her craziness to herself in "The Mist" (2007)

This blog was originally posted on MySpace on April 9, 2008, and in the interest of being environmentally friendly, I am reposting it here in its entirety:

Sunday afternoon, after Shaun and I got back from Charleston, we watched the movie "The Mist", which I expected would be the standard horror film.  I soon realized that I was mistaken.  Shortly into the film, I began to see that it was operating on more than one level, and was somewhat of an allegory.  I was impressed by the writing, direction, and visual effects, and especially so with the acting, which was of a higher quality usually found in horror films. 

What happens is fairly simple to explain, and occurs in a small Northeastern town (as typical of Stephen King stories).  Following an intense and violent electrical storm, a group of townspeople find themselves trapped inside a grocery store by an ominous mist that seems to appear from out of nowhere.  There is the usual cross section of people thrown together (a format that goes back to such classic disaster films as "The Poseidon Adventure" and "The Towering Inferno"), with our stalwart hero, the doubter, the unexpected hero, the spunky old people, an innocent child, and of course, the villain of the the piece.

Soon it turns out that the mist holds otherworldly dangers, although the trapped citizens are just as threatened by the fear, paranoia, and confusion going on inside the store.  Toby Jones, who was so good in "Infamous" (the other movie about Truman Capote), made a very disarming, unexpected little hero, and Thomas Jane, whose work I was not at all familiar with, stayed centered and grounded as the main character, around whom the story and more vivid supporting characters swirled.  Veteran character actress Frances Sternhagen (she’s won Tonys for Broadway and been on everything from "Cheers" to "Sex and the City" on television) won our laughter when she stands up to religious fanatic Mrs. Carmody (Former Oscar winner Marcia Gay Harden in the film’s best performance).  Harden’s character believeably goes from slightly off-center but still sympathetic, to downright frightening and vicious.

The film, which is already very dark in mood, takes a turn toward even more disturbing territory when we learn the truth about "the mist", and Mrs. Carmody becomes more unhinged, demanding Old Testament-style retribution from some of the other characters.  The movie may appear to be attacking or mocking religion, but what it actually is focusing on is the danger of fanatacism, and how in a confusing, scary situation the crowd can be whipped into a frenzy by one person with a charasmatic speaking style.  I was reminded of the single-minded posse from the classic "The Ox-Bow Incident", who are determined to host a hanging, whether the suspects are guilty or not.

As the movie rollercoastered to its ending, it again climbed to another level not usually found within the horror genre, putting the audience on the edge of a moral dilemmna faced by the characters.  The truly shocking ending surprised me, much more than such familiar "twist-ending" movies as "The Sixth Sense" and "The Usual Suspects"; I just did not see it coming.  I applaud the filmmakers for ending the movie in such a manner, and must admit that although I thought it was an extremely well made film, I don’t think I could ever sit through it again.