Frank Darabont directs Thomas Jane, Marcia Gay Harden and Toby Jones in this horror where a town is besieged by a opaque mist which contains creatures from another dimension.

Most current conversations about The Mist focus on its infamously devastating and bleak ending. It is a one-off humdinger. One so shocking and daring that you might not even have seen such a thing attempted in the decade of pessimistic finales: the Seventies. That’s just one of this Stephen King adaptation’s standout strengths. Darabont shrinks America into a crowded supermarket and the realpolitik of the besieged survivors feels like an even more apt assessment of the USA now than it did 15 years ago. And the always reliable Thomas Jane gets his showiest lead role and finds real vulnerability inbetween the more macho stuff. Yet what I really wanna talk about is the Lovecraftian monster FX work. Which is just superb. Outstanding in this modern era, combining sublime design with expert execution. Take a bow KNB EFX Group this must be your finest hour. A set of invading tentacles attached to some unseen gargantuan. A skinless pterodactyl eating every moving thing in sight. Five generations of acid web shooting arachnid, each larger than the next. Terrifying beasts from beyond which cause carnage with frequent excess. The Mist is a horror movie so perfect that even though I know Darabont shot it with a Black & White release in mind I always watch the colour one. I love it in its originally released form so why mess with perfection?

10

Perfect Double Bill: Maximum Overdrive (1985)

Check out my wife Natalie’s Point Horror blog https://cornsyrup.co.uk

We also do a podcast together called The Worst Movies We Own. It is available on Spotify or here https://letterboxd.com/bobbycarroll/list/the-worst-movies-we-own-podcast-ranking-and/