Reviews of The Mist

Não me convenceu

Posted : 1 month, 3 weeks ago on 7 November 2009 10:33 (A review of The Mist)

O Nevoeiro começa fraquinho, fica podre no meio e tem um final BABACA, prá dizer o mínimo. Não sei que conclusão podemos tirar disso, não sei se fui eu que não entendi a mensagem. Me sinto esquisita por não ter sentido medo de um filme que todo mundo está falando maravilhas. Mais do que isso, me sinto decepcionada. É o segundo filme do Stephen King (baseado numa história dele) que assisto e fico com cara de "q". Foi assim com 1408 e agora com O Nevoeiro. Apenas em uma cena ou outra que dá prá levar um sustinho [/aiquesusto!], mas a história como um todo não convence.


- Publicado originalmente em 14/11/08, no blog Respeite Meus Mullets.

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No coração das trevas

Posted : 11 months ago on 26 January 2009 05:41 (A review of The Mist)

"O Nevoeiro" é uma daquelas experiências que nos lembram para que o cinema é feito: nos transportar. Somos tirados da sala escura e colocados em meio àqueles personagens angustiados, desesperados por uma salvação que talvez nunca virá.

Adaptado de um conto de Stephen King, "O Nevoeiro" conta a história de uma cidadezinha que, depois de uma tempestade, é engolida por um nevoeiro. O filme é dirigido por Frank Darabont, já vetereano em adaptações de King. Antes, dirigiu "Um Sonho de Liberdade" e "À Espera de um Milagre".

O que torna "O Nevoeiro" o melhor filme de horror de 2008 é que Darabont entendeu que os monstros representam a escuridão da alma humana. E o terror que se tem da névoa é o mesmo que existe dentro de nós reprimido pela confiança nas instituições. E quando isto se ausenta, o ser humano é mais monstruoso e perverso do que qualquer criatura. E as criaturas não são o perigo real do filme.

O real perigo de "O Nevoeiro" se chama Sra. Carmody (Marcia Gay Harden), religiosa fanática que vê no nevoeiro o fim dos tempos e instala o caos dentro daquela comunidade. Marcia Gay Harden faz, depois de Ledger como o Coringa de "Cavaleiro das Trevas", a melhor atuação coadjuvante. Sra. Carmody junto de seus delírios e triunfos aterroriza tanto que concluimos que ela é o verdadeiro perigo do longa.

"O Nevoeiro" erra pouco apostando em algumas atuações caricatas e um breve romance desnecessário, mas que não tiram o mérito de melhor filme de horror visto em 2008 e uma das melhores adaptações das obras de Stephen King.

Só mais uma coisa: o final de "O Nevoeiro" é pertubador e um dos melhores que já vi em toda minha vida cinéfila.

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O Nevoeiro

Posted : 12 months ago on 29 December 2008 04:54 (A review of The Mist)

Sabe quando o filme acaba e você fica dividido entre se apaixonar pela história ou matar quem a escreveu? Pois foi essa minha reação. Mas quando li na capa do DVD que era uma adaptação de Stephen King, o mundo voltou a fazer sentido. Com meus eternos e declarados problemas com finais de filmes, um que me deixa tão perturbada assim só pode ser considerado ótimo. E olha que filme de monstros nesse estilo dificilmente me agradam.

O filme é extremamente fiel ao conto, e conforme já foi dito em reviews anteriores à minha, o final chega a ser previsível se você conhece o trabalho de King, tanto que mesmo antes de saber que era uma história dele, o final chegou a me passar pela cabeça, mas achei que seria demais. Uma curiosidade sobre esse desfecho é que, mesmo sendo a cara de Stephen King e um dos grandes fatores que fazem com que "O Nevoeiro" seja considerado uma das melhores adaptações de Stephen King para o cinema, não é o mesmo escrito por ele no conto do livro Tripulação de Esqueletos.

Sinopse: Depois que uma violenta tempestade devasta a cidade de Maine, David Drayton e seu filho de 8 anos correm para o mercado, antes que os suprimentos se esgotem. Porém, um estranho nevoeiro toma conta da cidade, deixando David e um grupo de pessoas presas no mercado. Logo descobrem que o nevoeiro esconde algo sobrenatural e que sair do mercado pode ser fatal. Mas conforme o grupo tenta desvendar o mistério, o caos se instala e fica evidente que as pessoas dentro do mercado podem tornar-se tão ameaçadoras quanto as criaturas do lado de fora.

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NB, when writing a movie with a SHITTY ending....

Posted : 1 year ago on 25 December 2008 04:55 (A review of The Mist)

started kind of promising, at the first sight of tentacles I was sceptical... Still, dispite of strange/bad dialog and fishy explanations it wasn't a total trainwreck until the very end... I'm sorry, but when you make the viewer watch an apacolypse for 2,5 hours, the ending better be freakin good! Theres no need to spill my guts on how it ended, but I dare claim, that it is hands down the WORST ending I have EVER seen... It was like something an angry 14 year old would write on an essay, just to piss of the teacher who had to read 10 pages of crappy grammer. AND, when you throe in words like "alternate dimension" or "portal to another world", I better see some sort of fancy shit, not just a bad actor uttering a few sentences with no visual stuff...

Don't waste 2,5 perfectly usable hours of lifetime on this crap....

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A misty, mastery web, of wonder.

Posted : 1 year, 1 month ago on 26 November 2008 08:59 (A review of The Mist)

Amanda Dunfrey: You don't have much faith in humanity, do you?
Dan Miller: None, whatsoever.

A freak storm unleashes a species of blood-thirsty creatures on a small town, where a small band of citizens hole-up in a supermarket and fight for their lives.

Thomas Jane: David Drayton

Let's start by saying Frank Darabont can do no wrong when faced with bringing any novel to life in a movie adaptation. He wonderfully brought The Green Mile to life, as well as one of the greatest film adapt efforts in film history, The Shawshank Redemption.
The Mist is relievedly not another gore fest or a predictable slasher effort. Granted it has its fair share of gruesome violent happenings, but it is the signature way in which King develops his characters and focuses on human nature, that turbulent emotion that allows Mist to succeed.
As a novella, The Mist is—like most of King's work—pulpy, scary, and compelling. The film, written and directed by Frank Darabont, is a stunning adaptation that manages to capture the slow burn of dread and desperation that permeates the novella. And while there is an uncanny titular similarity to John Carpenter's The Fog, this is an altogether different beast of bereavement.

The premise is of a simple nature, a brutal storm whips through a small community, movie poster artist David Drayton and his son, Bill(Nathan Gamble) head into town for supplies, accompanied by Norton(Andre Braugher), their argumentative next-door neighbour. Once they arrive at a small shopping plaza, a thick menacing mist descends upon them, capturing a large number of people inside a grocery store. The utter randomness of these proceeding is enough to make one puzzled yet I was glued to the screen, it turns out there are prehistoric-looking monsters waiting in the shrouded mystery and the inhabitants of the store become increasingly desperate for survival against the creatures that lurk out there.

''It appears we may have a problem of some magnitude.''

What transpires in Mist has alot of parallels to George Romero's Night of the Living Dead, a B movie whose guerrilla fearlessness and intellect pushed it into legitimacy and cult legend proportions. The Mist is as much about things that go bump in the night styling as the way in which trapped humans respond to such a fantastic dilemma. Like Living Dead the breakdown of social order and martial law is addressed and analyzed, the role of the military comes into focus, religious fundamentalism is embodied by evil self proclaimed visionary Mrs. Carmody(Marcia Gay Harden), a fire-and-brimstone type who becomes a macabre, sacrifice-minded beacon to the store's desperate denizens. In an era where most of today's horror crowd expects Hostels or SAWs every time they walk into a cinema, Darabont's script is built on a principle of logic and authentic human action (even when characters do things we know are unwise, their rationality is convincingly displayed for us to dissect) as opposed to manipulative twists and anticlimaxes. The ending is at once ballsy, depressing, and right.
The Mist is less about otherworldly monsters, but more about mankind's uncanny ability to be the monster, to do evil upon each other.

That being said, The Mist of course also works as well as a traditional horror film, with several genuinely scary sequences involving mutant hybrids of prehistoric looking pterodactyls, infectious houseflies, and acid spewing spiders. The CG is well-utilized and the sharp editing keeps it from being overdone. Darabont transforms the creatures—which are essentially '50s B-movie fodder—into absolutely convincing visions of hell. This film jolts current horror trends by actually scaring the audience instead of merely repulsing them.
Interestingly enough to finish off, The Mist is the opposite of The Shawshank Redemption in one crucial way. The Shawshank Redemption was about hope, friendship and life, The Mist is about hopelessness, despair and death. One thing that they do have in common in relation to each other is an astonishing conclusion. The ending of The Mist is wonderful, horrific, twisted and shocking resulting in having King's print all over it. The Mist is a true horror film in the sense it gives us a real ending, not a glossed over feel good one, but one that is believable, and that in itself is inspiration to me.

''As a species we're fundamentally insane. Put more than two of us in a room, we pick sides and start dreaming up ways to kill one another. Why do you think we invented politics and religion?''

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Decent Stephen King horror adaptation

Posted : 1 year, 4 months ago on 19 August 2008 03:17 (A review of The Mist)

"As a species we're fundamentally insane. Put more than two of us in a room, we pick sides and start dreaming up ways to kill one another. Why do you think we invented politics and religion?"

When it comes to adapting narratives from the maestro of horror literature, Stephen King, the outcomes have proved to be largely diverse. Stephen King's original novella of The Mist carries a fascinating premise and it was destined to be adapted for the big screen. King's largest fanatics must have breathed a collective sigh of relief when it was announced that the cinematic rendering of The Mist would be helmed by writer/director Frank Darabont. This prolific screenwriter-come-director earned his reputation after creating two successful film adaptations of Stephen King novels (The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile). On top of this, Darabont's career started in horror when he wrote A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (one of the franchise's best), The Fly II and The Blob. Hence The Mist marks Darabont returning to form.

In the long run, the film received a varying critical reception. Darabont's fanboys of course faithfully lapped up the production while others couldn't grapple everything on offer. Darabont's The Mist possessed mountains of potential, but it's clear Darabont has passed his golden years (those familiar with Darabont's version of Indiana Jones 4 will undoubtedly agree). His script here strives too hard to impart sophistication in the backdrop of a standard horror movie. At the end of the day this challenging amalgamation tries to master too many things at once with limited success.

Following a ferocious storm in the town of Maine, a mysterious mist cloud begins to congregate the next morning. David Drayton (Jane) is an artist residing in Maine whose house is severely damaged by the violent storm. David travels into town with his son (Gamble) and neighbour (Braugher). As the dense, mysterious mist starts enveloping the entire area, David and his son are among a large group of terrified townspeople that become trapped in the local grocery store. David soon ascertains that there are things lurking in the mist...horrifying creatures that aren't of this world. As these said creatures surround the grocery store, residents must band together for a chance at survival. However, due to the disposition of human nature, David begins to wonder what is more threatening: the deadly creatures prowling in the mist, or those inside the store...the human kind that David has always thought of as his friends and neighbours.

The provocative and masterful screenplay penned by Frank Darabont explores and examines the dangers of human nature in our existing culture. He keeps the scares taut and frightening: when a large creature appears it's usually enshrouded in the thick mist. However the greatest aspect of the script is also the film's greatest flaw: the use of conventional characters. Darabont's intention was to essentially construct a social commentary to display the consequences of human nature in the worst of situations. He uses these character stereotypes as a way to hold up a mirror in order for us to see our modern society. The philosophical discussions play a profound role in the dialogue as well. However, using clichéd characters also retracts from the entire experience. As an audience it's easy to predict what will transpire next. By all means it's admirable to arrange a social commentary in the precincts of a mainstream horror movie, but it simply doesn't work as well as Darabont had intended.

That said, the people within the grocery store are ostensibly divided into two diverse categories - extras and protagonists. The extras do absolutely nothing useful while the protagonists, established early in the picture, do all the work. There's no dimension between the two types of characters.

Furthermore, it initially appears that Darabont is completely in control of the material. When the mist covers the grocery store, the mystery of what's lurking outside will incite fear in his audience and will send a chill down your spine. The drama is executed in completely believable detail as well. Although clichéd, the characters are credible creations who take sides, get on each other's nerves, try their best and make mistakes. Darabont perceptibly aspired for this to be an extremely smart horror movie, one that isn't entirely B-Grade when one sits back and chortles as victims are picked off singularly. The brilliance dims when the monsters appear. The CGI is decent at best, but hardly a visceral or convincing experience nor are they anything to brag about. Then Darabont's crime is damaging the credibility. As the loading bay doors close, the tentacles that crawl through are obviously abundantly strong: too strong, in fact, for the metal door. In effect we realise that the creatures can break into the store at any time, and their hesitance is only on the part of the screenwriting.

Unfortunately Darabont appears incapable of orchestrating the mayhem in the horror scenes as the creatures attack. Everything just happens in one big mess. While realistic in the sense that plenty of things would occur during an attack, it's the unrealistic time management on the part of the editor that destroys the effect. For example we see someone set on fire. He starts burning, then we cut away to different situations for a few minutes before returning to the flaming man as if only a few seconds later.

The Mist is virtually devoid of a soundtrack until the conclusion nears. This effective approach allows the ambient noises to play a primary role in setting the atmosphere. The roar of the creatures provokes intense fear, and by the end even a sudden noise is petrifying. Darabont is also capable of manufacturing a hook that keeps one immersed in the film until its conclusion. Despite dodgy editing, the mayhem and horror is wholly engaging. Of course the characters act like idiots at times, but again it comes back to the natural consequences of human nature during a perilous situation.

The film is almost completely redeemed by its ending. This ending left me absolutely speechless. It's a courageous, bold and un-Hollywood move to create an ending of this kind. It's powerful, hard-hitting and absolutely amazing. The ambiguous religious symbolism is played with throughout the running time, and the possible relevance to religion is left open for interpretation. For a horror movie, Darabont must get credit for this audacious conclusion.

The film is also well performed by a mostly ensemble cast. Thomas Jane will forever, through my eyes, be seen as The Punisher. However, he offers arguably his greatest performance here. At first calm and friendly as well as being a family man, we watch as his morals and attitude descends and eventually creates a different person. The final scene in particular is emotionally-straining.
Marcia Gay Harden offers a convincing performance as a religious nut, obsessed with proving that the mist is the will of God. Her character grows highly irritating, which is predominantly the point so Harden did her job correctly.
Laurie Holden believably plays alongside Thomas Jane in a character that is, surprisingly, not very clichéd. There is no predictable love story at all.
I must give a brief mention to William Sadler, who I remember for his performance in Die Hard 2. Here, Sadler is a clichéd bumpkin who displays a deep side as well.
Toby Jones is also among the finest members of the cast whose character is appealing and fascinating.

Bloodcurdling and confronting in the correct degree, Frank Darabont's The Mist is an apocalyptic visualisation of humanity's devolution as doom descends in the form of a thick cloud of mist. His penetrating screenplay fascinatingly conveys a hard-hitting, horrific morality play about the clashing of archetypes in the most extraordinary of circumstances. The creature designs are sublime although the special effects are barely passable.
All in all, The Mist has the right mixture of intrigue and horror to create a spellbinding, albeit flawed horror movie.

Cal's favourite highlight: the old lady with one heck of a badass attitude who uses weapons in the form of cans of peas and flames!

7.3/10

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horrible horror

Posted : 1 year, 6 months ago on 8 June 2008 03:05 (A review of The Mist)

Based on a Stephen King novella, what else can a viewer expect but gore and monsters? Oh yes, stupid dialog and stupid people. Honestly, I've yet to see a horror picture that is worth watching.

Marcia Gay Harden's character's mouth should have been taped with super strong tape; that religious lady was so annoying! (Harden was excellent in this performance, as I think that was the point with her character.)
There are some good performances in this film.
There were also some great lines in there, including some by Harden's character when she's praying in the bathroom, and other true comments about people's belief in humanity.
Special effects were quite decent and well done.

I only watched until the end to find out if anyone got out alive... otherwise I'd have stopped. So the story is interesting, but when it does become obvious what happened, it just feels stupid and a waste of time.
It's a horrible horror picture that is way too long.


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Help yourself: watch something else

Posted : 1 year, 8 months ago on 24 April 2008 11:11 (A review of The Mist)

I didn't read the book, so I will only focus on what I saw on the screen.

I often wonder why is it so necessary for scary movies or thrillers for the characters (most of the times nearly ALL of them)to be completely stupid for the script to go on. That talks about the incompetence of the screenplay writer (at least).

This movie was one of the finest examples of it. Every single character is more retarded than the one before. The only one that seemed a logical human being was the child.

The movie seems to depend on this for the disasters to happen. When you create a stupid movie, yes, you can only rely on stupid characters to do stupid stuff that leads them into disaster.

The sad thing is that if it was well thought, disasters can happen without EVERYBODY being imbecile.

The end just ties everything with a bow, proving once again my point.

And I saw it because someone recommended it highly!!!

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Another Stephen King masterpiece

Posted : 1 year, 9 months ago on 26 March 2008 12:14 (A review of The Mist)

We all know Stephen King is the undisputed master when it comes to horror novels, but not all his works have translated well to the big screen. But I'm glad to say this one, based on a novella (mini-novel) of his, is a beauty. When I read it a few years back in college, I remember thinking 'man, this would make an awesome movie!' so I was excited when I found out that not only was it coming out, but that Frank Darabont was at the helm. The critics came, and many were harsh towards it. I suppose they just didnt except such a King-style ending. lol

All the things that make King special are in this film; the slow build-up of suspense, the complete unexplained mystery, a raving lunatic, terrifying monsters, and finally, the end.

And what an ending. Speechless. wow

THAT alone is worth the price of admission (or at least a rental). The ending. Predictable if you know King (as Voxy points out in her review), but shocking nonetheless.

Well, that, and the justice dealt to the crazy bible thumper. It's been a while that I stood up and yelled 'YES MUTHAFUCKAA!' at my TV. :)

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