With the emphasis placed firmly on character, the battle lines are quickly drawn between factions inside the store. Frank Darabont's decision to include a black and white version of the film on the DVD is no mystery: this is a film that would have been a classic if made in the '40s or '50s. It doesn't matter if it's aliens, giant parasites or Voltron lurking in the shadows what matters is that the protagonists don't know what it is, and that escalating fear and paranoia is ultimately far more scary. Were the effects really that ropey? Is it a giant Octopus? Was that The Sherminator? But stick with its B-Movie sensibilities and you'll realise it's not about the monsters on the outside, it's about the poor bastards on the inside. The first big beastie reveal is a let down, a somewhat clichéd encounter that may have you looking a little puzzled. It might take you a while to get a handle on The Mist. It slowly descends on the small US town of Maine - King's own stomping ground - and traps 80 customers in a glass-fronted convenience store after a bloodied patron stumbles inside, screaming: "There's something in the mist!" Suitably freaked out, the shoppers go from mild panic to all-out terror when they lose a bag boy to a giant tentacled creature, realising there really is something big, slimy and pissed off outside. The mist itself is little more than a plot point a handy device that ramps up the atmosphere and simultaneously spares the blushes caused by low-budget effects work.
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Finally, some bright spark decided it merited a cinematic release in Britain, and it's a good thing, too: if The Fog was a pertinent example of everything that's wrong with modern sci-fi/horror, then The Mist is a great example of how to do it right.
Adapted from the Stephen King novel and released in November in the US, it's been awaiting a UK release for months - countries like Estonia, Latvia and even Kuwait got to see it before we did. First of all, forget any lingering thoughts you might have of the recent remake of John Carpenter's The Fog: the only thing it has in common with The Mist is shitty weather.