{"id":2185,"date":"2011-10-09T22:19:51","date_gmt":"2011-10-10T03:19:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/zepfhyr.com\/blog\/?p=2185"},"modified":"2020-02-06T21:22:55","modified_gmt":"2020-02-07T03:22:55","slug":"scary-movie-month-day-9-the-mist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zepfhyr.com\/blog\/2011\/10\/scary-movie-month-day-9-the-mist\/","title":{"rendered":"Scary Movie Month – Day 9 – The Mist"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Mist<\/a> (iTunes<\/a>) is one of the rare moments where a Stephen King story translated to the screen actually surpasses the source material. The first time I saw the movie, I watched the studio release in 2007. I was rather impressed, but always felt as though something was a little off about the movie. I could never quite place it. Then, Justin<\/a> over at Happy Underground Films<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0(of Dead-Wait<\/a> fame) suggested I watch Darabont’s original vision for the movie (in black & white) from the retail DVD release. So I did.<\/p>\n

Oh. My. God.<\/em> It’s absolutely fantastic.<\/p>\n

You may recognize Frank Darabont as the writer\/director of two other Stephen King films, The Shawshank Redemption<\/a> (iTunes<\/a>) and The Green Mile<\/a> (iTunes<\/a>), as well as hit series The Walking Dead<\/a>. His handling of this story is nothing short of brilliant, as you’d expect.<\/p>\n

Let’s start with the fact that the movie opens on the protagonist, David Drayton (played by Thomas Jane<\/a>), painting the cover art for Stephen King’s Dark Tower Book VII<\/a>. This is just one of those nice little touches that I always love from talented directors. In the black & white version, it is just the start of a stunning opening scene in which the Drayton family approaches the window to see a massive storm approaching. The stark contrast in the cinematography is just incredible.\u00c2\u00a0Darabont shot the movie on color film, but lit the entire set in such a way to allow him to post-process it in black & white, really making every shot pop. It’s all very reminiscent of horror movies of the ’50s and ’60s, but with a greatly improved acting and directing style that adds a staggering realism to the film.<\/p>\n

But the real beauty in the film is in the way Darabont’s film parallels and makes reference to both McCarthyism and the post-911 terror era. One of the most poignant lines in the film feels like a direct reference to the way a number of Republican politicians began using fear and blame as a motivator after the towers fell:<\/p>\n

“You scare people badly enough, you can get ’em to do anything. They’ll turn to whoever promises a solution.”<\/em><\/p>\n

I don’t want to spoil this movie for you, because its finale is just gut-wrenchingly amazing. You simply must<\/em>\u00c2\u00a0see it for yourself. Please do yourself a favor and buy or borrow the black & white release. You won’t be disappointed. Sit through the credits for another amazing subtlety as the score ends well before the credits do. The film has a lovely soundtrack, by the way, with very few moments actually scored, making those that are really stand out in your memory.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Mist (iTunes) is one of the rare moments where a Stephen King story translated to the screen actually surpasses the source material. The first time I saw the movie, I watched the studio release in 2007. I was rather impressed, but always felt as though something was a little off about the movie. I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[194,195],"tags":[49,184,213,185,211,212],"class_list":["post-2185","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-movies","category-scary-movie-month","tag-halloween","tag-horror","tag-monsters","tag-scary","tag-stephen-king","tag-tragedy","post-preview"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2297,"url":"https:\/\/zepfhyr.com\/blog\/2011\/10\/scary-movie-month-day-28-pet-sematary\/","url_meta":{"origin":2185,"position":0},"title":"Scary Movie Month – Day 28 – Pet Sematary","author":"Jared Cash","date":"October 28, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Stephen King is a master of the macabre, but his stories don't always translate well to the screen, usually because great scenes are either ruined or left out entirely. In the case of Pet Sematary (iTunes), the film is fantastic. The effects hold up very well by today's standards, and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Movies"","block_context":{"text":"Movies","link":"https:\/\/zepfhyr.com\/blog\/category\/movies\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2266,"url":"https:\/\/zepfhyr.com\/blog\/2011\/10\/scary-movie-month-day-24-halloween\/","url_meta":{"origin":2185,"position":1},"title":"Scary Movie Month – Day 24 – Halloween","author":"Jared Cash","date":"October 24, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"The king of all slasher movies, Halloween is responsible for nearly the entirety of the genre as we know it today. While Psycho may have been the first, John Carpenter's seminal masterpiece is responsible for taking Hitchcock's formula and refining it to blade's edge, creating such iconic moments as seeing\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Movies"","block_context":{"text":"Movies","link":"https:\/\/zepfhyr.com\/blog\/category\/movies\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2001,"url":"https:\/\/zepfhyr.com\/blog\/2011\/10\/scary-movie-month-day-2-killer-klowns-from-outer-space\/","url_meta":{"origin":2185,"position":2},"title":"Scary Movie Month – Day 2 – Killer Klowns From Outer Space","author":"Jared Cash","date":"October 2, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Killer Klowns From Outer Space (iTunes) is a \"scary movie\" in much the same way as Gremlins or Army of Darkness. There may be some creepy moments or visuals, but it's really more of a gruesome comedy. If you already have a fear of clowns, then this movie may not\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Movies"","block_context":{"text":"Movies","link":"https:\/\/zepfhyr.com\/blog\/category\/movies\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2214,"url":"https:\/\/zepfhyr.com\/blog\/2011\/10\/scary-movie-month-day-12-psycho\/","url_meta":{"origin":2185,"position":3},"title":"Scary Movie Month – Day 12 – Psycho","author":"Jared Cash","date":"October 12, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Psycho (iTunes) is an iconic film and is my second Hitchcock film for Scary Movie Month. Psycho\u00c2\u00a0is often considered to be where \"slasher\" films began, due to a number of filming techniques and the way the plot is structured. Most slasher films, which became very popular in the late 70s\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Movies"","block_context":{"text":"Movies","link":"https:\/\/zepfhyr.com\/blog\/category\/movies\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2280,"url":"https:\/\/zepfhyr.com\/blog\/2011\/10\/scary-movie-month-day-25-friday-the-13th\/","url_meta":{"origin":2185,"position":4},"title":"Scary Movie Month – Day 25 – Friday the 13th","author":"Jared Cash","date":"October 25, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"I always knew that Jason wasn't the killer in the first Friday the 13th (iTunes), but I never quite understood how he becomes the killer for the rest of the movies. I get it now. I also didn't realize that this movie was so terrible. I mean, just awful. I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Movies"","block_context":{"text":"Movies","link":"https:\/\/zepfhyr.com\/blog\/category\/movies\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2220,"url":"https:\/\/zepfhyr.com\/blog\/2011\/10\/scary-movie-month-day-13-rosemarys-baby\/","url_meta":{"origin":2185,"position":5},"title":"Scary Movie Month – Day 13 – Rosemary’s Baby","author":"Jared Cash","date":"October 13, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"If I hadn't already known what Rosemary's Baby (iTunes) was all about, I would have been quite disturbed by the events. Many movies deal with pregnancy and the fears that a woman faces while pregnant, but this film goes above and beyond. I love conspiracy movies, especially those with supernatural\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Movies"","block_context":{"text":"Movies","link":"https:\/\/zepfhyr.com\/blog\/category\/movies\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zepfhyr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2185","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zepfhyr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zepfhyr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zepfhyr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zepfhyr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2185"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/zepfhyr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2185\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4311,"href":"https:\/\/zepfhyr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2185\/revisions\/4311"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zepfhyr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zepfhyr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2185"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zepfhyr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}