Cinema
The Mist (15) ****
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| Toby's BO problem had attracted the local wildlife |
WRITER-director Frank Darabont (The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile) delves once more into author Stephen King's twisted imagination for a skin-crawling thriller about a small town under siege from bloodthirsty creatures.
On paper, this horrific yarn sounds suspiciously like a rip-off of John Carpenter's 1980 classic The Fog. Spookily, King's novella was originally published as part of an anthology that same year, then reprinted in an edited form as part of the celebrated 1985 short story collection Skeleton Crew.
In the aftermath of a devastating storm, which uproots trees and decimates power lines, the sleepy community of Bridgton, Maine is submerged in thick, choking mist that refuses to dissipate.
Illustrator David (Thomas Jane) and his eight-year-old son Billy seek refuge in the local supermarket run by Ollie (Toby Jones).
The aisles are full of familiar faces including belligerent next-door neighbour Brent, pretty schoolteacher Amanda, deranged Bible basher Mrs Carmody and cashier Norm.
When one shop worker is killed by a multi-tentacled beast in the swirling mist, the townsfolk face a battle for survival against a menagerie of carnivorous beasties like nothing they have seen before.
Although it may lack the emotional wallop of Darabont's previous Oscar-nominated work, The Mist seeps under our skin as the survivors separate into warring factions, each willing to use violence to keep the voracious creatures and one another at bay.
Some of the visual effects aren't sufficiently polished and some of the supporting characters are thinly sketched but the downbeat finale certainly takes the breath away.
See it at the Empire.
3:56pm Friday 4th July 2008
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