The Mist (Two-Disc Collector’s Edition) [Blu-ray]

2 Comments

1. H. Schneider

   October 13, 2010 at 4:37 am

   Review by H. Schneider for The Mist (Two-Disc Collector’s Edition) [Blu-ray]
   Rating:
   This is of course not your standard dumb monster horror flick, not with a King novella as material and Darabont doing the movie. But it is also not quite satisfactory.
   
   There is too much being in two minds going on here! Just look at the reviews, so many of them: so many are absolutely enchanted, so many others are totally put off. That must mean something.
   
   The reviewers’ split mirrors quite appropriately the film’s own schizophrenia: it is about important issues of the American society of today, about its separation in camps, about the split of modern and scientific rationalism versus the spirit of biblical literalism. Pragmatism versus Old Testament is the main message. But the plot is based on the horror vision of science gone wrong, of monsters born out of the hubris of military scientists.
   
   How can one get disentangled from that spiderweb? One can’t easily, and the ending has a nice touch of futility. Don’t get too logical about the ending, many will be frustrated by it, one can even argue that it is not logical, but it is certainly a powerful message.
   
   Before watching the film, I knew little about it and somehow hoped that it would be creative with using mist for horror. Then the fact that the mist is actually just hiding monsters came as a bit of disappointment, it somehow cheapened the film. On the other hand, the monsters are quite good, with a distinct Boschian quality. Finally, the main monster is of course good old M.G.Harden who preaches the fear of an apocalyptic kind of god very effectively. Sort of a Lady of the Flies.

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2. Mike Liddell

   October 13, 2010 at 3:11 am

   Review by Mike Liddell for The Mist (Two-Disc Collector’s Edition) [Blu-ray]
   Rating:
   On the two disc edition of The Mist, on disc 2 there is a glorious Black and White version of the film, with an introduction by the director Frank Darabont. Darabont says he originally wanted The Mist to be in B&W and be a throwback to the 50’s and 60’s horror movies such as Night of the Living Dead, which I felt it had a lot in common with. Darabont says this can be considered his director’s cut. I knew he directed two other King favorites The Shawshank Redemption (Two-Disc Special Edition) and The Green Mile, but I didn’t realize his other contributions to the horror genre, until I checked out IMDB. Starting in 1980 as a production assistant on Hell Night and going on to write the screenplays for A Nightmare on Elm Street 3 – Dream Warriors, The Blob, The Fly II (Collector’s Edition), and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.

   The Mist is an entertaining, at times infuriating, tragic horror film filled with fun scares in the form of 50s and 60s era monsters lurking in the mist outside and the uglier monsters inside that apply to our present day, a true creature double feature.

   Darabont reminded me of Romero and his use of horror and social commentary. Here he makes an atmospheric horror movie, our main character, David Drayton, played by, Thomas Jane, (Deep Blue Sea) designs posters for horror movies, followed by a big storm, and ultimately has David and his son (mom at home) trapped in a supermarket with the towns people. Similar to the mall in Dawn of the Dead [Blu-ray] evil lurks outside the market, not in the form of zombies that can be seen, but old school monsters that lurk out in the mist. That’s the surface of the film, but as we go through the layers we find much more, such as the monsters that lurk inside the supermarket. Human nature, when afraid and backed into a corner and the role the military plays once the smoke clears are some of the movie’s other factors.

   The Black and White Version is the way to go, to get that old school feel the director intended, even the way the title on the dvd is written is like an old monster movie. Highly Recommended, one of King’s best film adaptations.

   2 DISC DVD FEATURES (FROM BACK OF DVD)
   
   DISC I Features Commentary by Writer/Director Frank Darabont – Deleted Scenes with optional commentary – Drew Struzan: An appreciation of an artist – Behind the scenes webisodes – Trailer Gallery Dolby Dig 5.1
   
   DISC II – Frank Darabont introduces The Mist in Black & White – The Director’s Vision: The Complete Feature Film in Black & White – When Darkness came : The Making of the mist – Taming the beast – The making of scene 35 – Monsters among us: A look at the creature FX – The Horror of it all: The visual FX of the mist. Dolby Dig 5.1

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