The Mist – Two Disc Collector’s Edition (DVD)

 

Picture: C+     Sound: B-     Extras: D     Film: D

 

 

After doing two non-Horror Stephen King adaptations (the decent Shawshank Redemption and overrated Green Mile), Frank Darabont decided to go the monster route with King’s The Mist (2007), an attempt to do a deluxe version of Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds (1963) with creatures no one has ever seen before, illicit appeals to populism and every convention and cliché imaginable.  If you want to see why the Stanley Kubrick version of King’s The Shining works over the TV mini-series, you can watch this release and see why “just enough” is never enough for a King work and why most film’s of his work are disasters.

 

Thomas Jane is a family man who is doing his best to raise his son in a good area, but suddenly, when at a hardware store, a giant fog bank arrives and with it, it soon becomes apparent to all something that kills with minimal provocation.  A religious woman (Marcia Gay Harden, who almost steals what little film is here) starts to think it is a prophecy and everyone goes nuts.

 

At just overt two hours, this starts out with a good set-up that has some promise, but soon implodes into everything we’ve seen before and done much better.  There is a lack of suspense here too, which is replaced by pseudo-intelligent attempts to pull at the audience as if they are dumb in an almost condescending way.  Hitchcock would have never stopped to this level, but Darabont and King are more than happy to.  That should give you an idea of the time-waster you get here.  Some other cast members are good too, but after the first reel, this one goes up in stream.

 

The anamorphically enhance 1.85 X 1 image has some good moments, but is often soft because of fog and bad digital effects.  Director of Photography Rohn Schmidt is consistent, but not very original in his work here, with no shots very clever or memorable.  The Dolby Digital 5.1 mix is lively as such a genre film should be and though there is nothing special about the mix, it probably would have worked better in DTS.  Extras on DVD 1 include deleted scenes with optional commentary, a feature length audio commentary by Darabont, trailer gallery, webisodes and Drew Struzan: An Appreciation of an Artist.  DVD 2 has the film in a black and white version, three visual effects featurettes and a making of piece.  A limited edition collectible booklet comes with early editions.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo