A religious nutcase played by Marcia Gay Hardin is a character you will love to hate just as much as the vile creatures attacking a group of Shoppers in a grocery store after a mysterious mr. In their town. The way she rants and raves represents the worst of Christianity as those who beg her to shut up indicate that they believe in God, but not the fire, hell and brimstone version that she claims God is. The desire to see her tossed out into the midst becomes the first feeling the moment she starts her ranting, and when you see the creatures, they're not someone that you want to be out in the open with. She proclaims them to be God's wrath on earth, and her list of grievances against humanity turns her into one of the most wretched villains in modern film history. Her ranting literally turns the townspeople into mad little groups, fighting each other and turning to violence as the fulfill her agenda of evil hidden as a belief in God. The sad thing as this happens is that there are children present witnessing everything going on, and the nightmare just gets worse.

There are alien like creatures, giant blood sucking bugs and cocoons that have the barely living victims inside them. In short, it is a slow and excruciating Lee painful way to die. The great Frances sternhagen is a major scene stealer in this film, playing a retired school teacher who at one point tosses a can of peas at one of the women who joins Hardin's side and starts her own preaching. Her bravery and outspokenness and plea for calm among the chaos and desire to help people get through the night makes her the most memorable character in the film. This one is truly scary, with many jolting moments that had me jumping out of my seat. I also had to rewind to witness the religious zealots getting slapped or being hit by something tossed at them. The mixture of humor and horror works very well, making this one of the best frightening films of the millennium.

If, two years ago, you told me that within a couple of years two excellent Stephen King film adaptations would be released, I would probably have laughed it off. Films like The Shining, Shawshank Redemption, Stand by Me, The Stand and 1408 are usually pretty far between (Note that I consider The Green Mile and Carrie to be the most over-rated King adaptations, so they do not appear here). I like most of the films that have been made from Stephen King novels, novellas, and short stories mainly because I like Stephen King, but I do not recommend many of them as truly good films.

Frank Darabont's (writing and directing) The Mist adapts a horror novella of the same name. King's horror work has been the most difficult material to adapt, but this film is comparable to other genre stand-outs such as The Shining and 1408.

A brief, dramatic thunderstorm is followed by a freak mist that descends on a small New England town. As the mist permeates the town, people congregate in the local supermarket and hardware store to stock up and gather supplies. David Drayton (Thomas Jane),his son (Nathan Gamble),and his neighbor (Andre Braugher) are among them. Tension builds as a steady stream of military vehicles pass through the mist headed south from a nearby base. But serious concern doesn't start until one of the locals runs to the supermarket with blood spatters on his clothing and talking of monsters in the mist.

Indeed, there are horrors outside in the fog, but there are also horrors inside the market - as paranoia, irrationality and religion come into conflict with practical issues of survival.

Unlike many horror films, The Mist examines fear and its effects realistically, looks at the horror created by forces beyond human control and the even more terrifying horror that fear creates through forces that are completely within our grasp - our own fears, our beliefs and our treatment of each other. It does so using a classic formula which is comparable to films like Night of the Living Dead and, more recently, Feast.

The cinematography, editing and directing are all excellent. The acting is quite good - Marcia Gay Harden and William Sadler stood out for me - and the script is exactly where it needed to be for this adaptation.

Highly recommended for King fans and horror fans. Recommended for Sci-Fi fans. Weakly recommended for average cinema-goers who are not generally interested in horror.

Stephen King's work has been growing on me, I wasn't crazy about it before but after seeing and reading more of his books and the film/TV series adapted from them I do respect his style, he has a unique and I think unparallelled way of describing fear, and find his ideas intriguing. In all honesty, The Mist is not one of the best film adaptations. The book was very good, if not great, but the film was just decent. It looks great with great photography and effects, the story is intriguing and starts off very well, the acting especially from Marcia Gay Holden is good as is the direction, there is a strong atmosphere and the soundtrack and sound further adds to it. I was almost though willing to forgive the sometimes pedestrian pacing and clunky dialogue, until the ending let the film down completely. The ending is a slap in the face not only for fans of the book or King but also for those like me saw a film with so much promise, and its tone feels like a completely different movie. In conclusion, was pretty good, if only it weren't for that ending. 7/10 Bethany Cox