When people hear the name Stephen King, movies like “The Shining” or “Misery” come to mind. Characters from books like “It” and “Pet Cemetary” can scare full-grown adults.
Yes, Stephen King has made his mark on both horror literature and film with terrifying classics.
“The Mist,” however, was not that.
This movie will not go down as a classic in cinematic history, but it did offer a good time. It offered what audiences these days seem to be craving: big, scary, mutant bugs.
Its seems nowadays that nothing frightens packed theaters like a huge insect crawling up someone’s arm. Historically, King doesn’t put his name on movies of which he doesn’t approve. That’s the difference between 1980’s “The Shining” and 1997’s “Stephen King’s The Shining.”
As the opening credits rolled in King’s name was mysteriously absent, and it was obvious why. With a reputation as good as his, this film was not up to snuff. “The Mist” is a short story about a U.S. military screw up that leads to bugs invading from another dimension. King realized this plot was not worth a full novel, yet no one else realized it wasn’t worth a two-hour film.
The whole bit about the bugs and the military was pathetic, but that’s not to say the movie was all bad. The characters are what made the movie worth watching, because just as the audience was screaming at the sight of these creatures, they screamed just as loudly at the actions of the characters.
Marcia Gay Harden, who won an Academy Award for “Pollock” in 2000, was the greatest character of the movie. Playing a religious zealot, she urged the people around her to worship her for fear of the end of the world.
Once the fog rolled in, and creatures started killing off people, the movie was centered in a grocery store where a dozen people locked themselves inside.
She used the Bible to convert everyone and formed a lynch mob against Thomas Jane, the star of the show, and his son.
Without Harden, this movie would have been half of what it was, and “The Mist” wasn’t all that great to begin with.