The Mist (2007) | Plot, Cast & Horror Facts

The Mist is a 2007 horror film by Frank Darabont, adapted from Stephen King, about townspeople trapped in a supermarket by a monster-filled mist.

At a Glance

Overview

After a violent thunderstorm hits Bridgton, Maine, painter David Drayton finds a tree through the window of his lakeside home. The next morning, a thick mist is rolling across the lake. David drives into town with his eight-year-old son, Billy, and their neighbor, attorney Brent Norton, to buy supplies, passing military convoys on the way. At the supermarket, a terrified local, Dan Miller, runs in warning of something deadly in the mist. A siren sounds, the mist swallows the building, and dozens of shoppers are trapped inside.

The first proof of what lies outside comes when bagger Norm is dragged away by tentacles at the loading dock. Then come giant insects drawn to the lights, winged predators that crash through the windows, and spider-like creatures in the pharmacy next door. But Frank Darabont always insisted his film was about “the monsters inside” more than the ones in the mist. Mrs. Carmody, a religious fanatic, begins preaching that the mist is God’s punishment, and as the night goes on her followers grow in number and in violence. Like John Carpenter’s The Thing, The Mist is a siege film where fear and suspicion among the trapped people become as deadly as the creatures.

Production

Darabont first read Stephen King’s novella in the 1980 anthology Dark Forces and considered it for his directorial debut, but made The Shawshank Redemption (1994) and The Green Mile (1999) first. He began writing the screenplay by December 2004, and the project moved from Paramount to Dimension Films in 2006. Darabont wanted a “very direct, muscular” film and wrote a new, far darker ending, which King praised. He also added an explanation for the mist: a military experiment called the Arrowhead Project, which opened a doorway to another dimension.

Filming began in February 2007 at StageWorks of Louisiana in Shreveport. Darabont brought in the camera crew from an episode of The Shield he had directed, aiming for a “fluid, ragged documentary” look, and shot on grainy 400 ASA film. William Sadler, Jeffrey DeMunn and Brian Libby, all veterans of his earlier King films, joined the cast. Mark Isham composed the score, used sparingly, and Dead Can Dance’s “Host of Seraphim” plays over the final scenes.

Cast

• Thomas Jane as David Drayton
• Marcia Gay Harden as Mrs. Carmody
• Laurie Holden as Amanda Dumfries
• Andre Braugher as Brent Norton
• Toby Jones as Ollie Weeks
• William Sadler as Jim Grondin
• Jeffrey DeMunn as Dan Miller
• Frances Sternhagen as Irene Reppler
• Nathan Gamble as Billy Drayton
• Sam Witwer as Private Wayne Jessup

Reception

The Mist opened on November 21, 2007, taking $8.9 million in its first weekend and about $57.3 million worldwide in total. Rotten Tomatoes lists 74 percent approval from 152 reviews, crediting its camerawork and “politically incisive script,” while Metacritic’s score is 58 out of 100. CinemaScore audiences gave it a C, largely because of the ending. James Berardinelli called it “dark, tense, and punctuated by just enough gore,” and Entertainment Weekly called Harden’s performance brilliant, though Roger Ebert gave it two stars out of four. Harden won Best Supporting Actress at the Saturn Awards, and Bloody Disgusting later ranked it fourth among the top horror films of the decade. Its ending in particular remains one of the most debated in modern horror.

Spoiler: The Ending

A captured soldier, Private Jessup, admits the mist came from a military experiment, and Carmody’s followers stab him and throw him outside to the creatures. The next morning Carmody demands that Billy and Amanda be sacrificed, and Ollie shoots her dead. David’s small group runs for his car. Ollie and others are killed on the way, but David, Billy, Amanda, Dan and Irene drive off into the mist. They pass David’s house, where his wife Stephanie is dead, and see a colossal creature walk over the road. When the gas runs out, the adults agree there is no hope. David uses the last four bullets to kill the others, including Billy, then steps outside begging the monsters to take him. Instead the mist lifts, and Army trucks roll past, destroying the creatures and carrying survivors to safety. David collapses, screaming.

Trivia & Facts

• Stephen King approved Darabont’s bleak new ending, which is not in the novella.
• William Sadler voiced David Drayton in a 1986 audiobook of The Mist before playing Jim in the film.
• Darabont offered King a small role, which went to Brian Libby when King declined to travel.
• David’s opening painting is a Dark Tower image created by poster artist Drew Struzan.
• Home video special editions included Darabont’s black and white version of the film.
• The film was adapted into a 2017 television series on Spike.