The Mist (15)

Jul 8 2008 By Roz Laws

* * *

FRANK Darabont and Stephen King last teamed up to create the prison classics The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile, so we have high hopes for their latest collaboration.

The Mist doesn’t live up to those high standards, but it’s still worth a look.

It starts in creepy style, in the aftermath of a huge storm. A strange fog rolls down from the mountain, and a man comes running into the supermarket screaming: “There’s something in the mist!”

David Drayton (Thomas Jane) is trapped in the shop with a couple of dozen of his neighbours, including manager Ollie (British actor Toby Jones, in an unlikely hero role) and evangelist Mrs Carmody (Marcia Gay Harden).

“It’s death out there, it’s the end of days,” she proclaims. And, as people disappear into the mist and don’t come back, her words of doom have an effect on the terrified townsfolk.

So far, so scary. Then come the giant alien-like insects, smashing against the glass storefront. Here the rather dodgy special effects detract from the tension, though the action scenes are generally good.

In an above-average script, the increasingly paranoid survivors discuss what to do and where the mist has come from – is it divine intervention from a vengeful god?

There are a few laughs, a few jumps, some “eww” moments and one where you may break into spontaneous applause when a character gets their just deserts.

The explanation for the crisis is straight out of the ITV1 drama Primeval, but then you’ll know that if you’ve seen the trailer which gives too much of the story away.

Right up until the last few minutes, I might have given it four stars, but I’m afraid the frustrating ending really blew it for me.