Halloween Movies - The Mist

There are two kinds of movies based on the works of the great Stephen King. There are those that simply suck and then there are those that are brilliant and do full justice to the author’s words – The Mist is one such excellent King movie. The movie of course was directed by Frank Darabont and it’s clear to see that he is a director who likes his actors – several of the actors appearing in this movie would go onto play main roles in the TV series, The Walking Dead.


This Mist at it’s most basic is a homage to all those 1950′s/60′s sci-fi movies but filtered through Stephen King’s fertile imagination.

What King did with his original story was to re-imagine those monster on the loose stories and give them a modern twist. What Frank Darabont has done with King’s story is film it with intelligence and a great sense of suspense, resulting in a fine horror movie. The director spends more time on creating believable characters than showing the monsters which only adds effect when the beasties are on screen, and there are such a lot of creepy-crawlie beasties on offer here. The ending, far bleaker than King’s original, is truly shocking. The first time you see this ending it leaves you stunned, which is not something you can’t honestly say about a lot of movies.

This is what horror movies should be like, and for genre that currently seems obsessed with torture porn, a movie like this is all the more refreshing. Anyone can hack off a leg or tear open a stomach, but only the best can bring truly imaginative works such as this to the page or screen.

One of the very best films based on the works of Stephen King.