Without a doubt one of my favorite horror movies of the past few years, The Mist pretends to be a horror movie but it turns out that the true terror is inside the hearts of the monster victims. The story premise is simple. A mist settles down over a small town after a terrible storm. There is something in the mist with large tentacles that likes to rip people in half and send stylized showers of blood raining down on the plate glass walls of the supermarket which houses a small group of survivors.
The monsters are cool and often genuinely scary but the true power of the film to frighten comes from the interactions between the group. The survivors, initially bound together by a sort of generalized fear soon turn on one another thanks in large part to Marcia Gay Harden's Mrs. Carmody, a would be prophet of God who convinces them that the mist and the monsters are payback for their intrusion into the business of God. Her portrayal is chillingly subtle at first but then explodes into full-fledged religious zeal that whips the crowd into a frenzied mob. The best scenes of the film are her long-winded speeches and accusations against mankind as she advocates for expiation. When she finally turns on one of the children, demanding a sacrifice, the movie takes on a tone that is much darker than any inspired by B-monsters.
The most refreshing thing about the film is that the actions of the characters actually made sense for the most part. Some suspension of disbelief is required to believe that they are so unwilling to accept the truth but for the most part the characters act logically. The ones that don't die--that's how life should be. The main protagonist, David, played by Thomas Jane, especially acts logically. There was only one moment in which his actions seemed a bit unbelievable--the moment he decided to try to leave the store because he is worried about Carmody and her "congregation." However, the next few scenes in which we finally see the extent of their zeal leave no doubt that one has a better chance with the monsters.
What's interesting about the screenplay is that it doesn't really matter what the monsters are or where they came from. They are really just a backdrop for some fascinating character studies. A lot of the film--the best parts-- have the same tension between characters as movies like 12 Angry Men and allow the character actors to really shine.
The film is also commendable for its controversial ending, one of my favorite in movie history. Although it split audiences, I found it to be one of the most poignant powerful moments in a horror movie that I have ever seen. After running out of gas while trying to escape the mist, and with giant monsters descending on the car. David uses the four remaining bullets in the gun to mercy-kill his son and the three people that escaped with him. Stricken with grief and pain, he stumbles out of the car into the mist screaming for the monsters to take him, begging for absolution and death. He hears a noise and turns to see a tank rolling through the mist with armed forces and flamethrowers and the answer to all of their problems....the look on his face when he realizes he has sacrificed his son unnecessarily is shocking and heartbreaking. It's a ballsy ending, as far as you can get from Hollywood's typical happy endings, but it works. In my opinion, it elevates the movie from good to excellent and proves that there are still some surprises coming out of Hollywood and from writers that some consider old news.
There are some missteps unfortunately. One scene which briefly introduces a romance between two unimportant characters could easily have been cut and feels haltingly out of place. However, you can't not forgive Darabont when he delivers scenes like the one in which a man ties a rope to his waist and heads into the mist trying to find a weapon. The camera hovers in the store watching the rope as it slowly unwinds, then is violently pulled taut and lifted into the sky. As the people pull it back in they find only the lower half of the body attached. The scene is so simply shot and yet so frightening and suspenseful that it makes one wish that three-time Oscar nominees like Darabont delivered less serious fare more often.
Additionally, the explanation provided for the monsters was overwhelmingly disappointing. Military experiments into other dimensions. An explanation wasn't necessary to the story but this one was terrible and just a little too science-fiction for my tastes. Although, the science fiction bound up in the giant, tentacled, acid spewing monsters didn't seem to bother me. Perhaps, because the CGI work was so well-done and the monsters so interesting to look at after they were finally revealed. The military experiment angle just seems tacked on with no real explanation and either needed to be fleshed out or removed completely. Although without it, we wouldn't have been given the terrifying scene where the mob turns on the final military member in the store as their first sacrifice.
Small problems like this are to be expected in movies that take as many risks as this film does and none are large enough to even threaten to derail the movie. I much prefer a horror film that takes risks, does something new and shocks me to the contrived remakes that Hollywood usually proffers.
No comments:
Post a Comment