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Mist, The
MGM


5.4

based on 28 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 129 votes
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FILM:

MPAA RATING: R for violence, terror and gore, and language

Starring Thomas Jane, Marcia Gay Harden, Andre Braugher, Laurie Holden, Toby Jones, William Sadler, Frances Sternhagen, and Jeffrey DeMunn

David Drayton and his young son Billy are among a large group of terrified townspeople trapped in a local grocery store by a strange, otherworldly mist. David is the first to realize that there are “things” lurking in the mist…deadly, horrifying things…creatures not of this world. Survival depends on everybody in the store pulling together…but is that possible, given human nature? As reason crumbles in the face of fear and panic, David begins to wonder what terrifies him more: the monsters in the mist—or the ones “inside” the store, the human kind, the people that until now had been his friends and neighbors? (The Weinstein Company)

GENRE(S):	Horror
WRITTEN BY:	Frank Darabont
DIRECTED BY:	Frank Darabont
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: March 25, 2008 Theatrical: November 21, 2007
RUNNING TIME:	127 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips

Good and creepy, The Mist comes from a Stephen King novella and is more the shape, size and quality of the recent “1408,” likewise taken from a King story, than anything in the persistently fashionable charnel house inhabited by the “Saw” and “Hostel” franchises.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

What a horror film SHOULD be - dark, tense, and punctuated by just enough gore to keep the viewer's flinch reflex intact.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Tasha Robinson

What is surprising is how he (Darabont) rebounds from his weak, awkwardly compressed opening to produce one of the scariest King films since Stanley Kubrick's "The Shining."

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

There's a grim modern parable to be read into the dangerous effects of the gospel-preaching local crazy lady Mrs. Carmody (brilliantly played by a hellfire Marcia Gay Harden) on a congregation of the fearful.

Portland Oregonian M. E. Russell

In the parlance of the kids today, the movie totally goes there.

Film Threat Pete Vonder Haar

I think this one of the first King movies to legitimately give me the creeps.

San Francisco Chronicle Peter Hartlaub

While it's riveting throughout, The Mist is a bit bloated.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

It's a B-movie with A-list aspirations, and it's at its best when it's not trying to be something it isn't.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

At its best, The Mist just wants to make you jump.

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

Darabont doesn't match the sly cultural commentary of "The Host," a recent Korean import that also revamped the giant-monster genre, but his grocery-store survival drama, dominated by Marcia Gay Harden as a shrill fundamentalist, serves as a crude but effective allegory for post-9/11 America.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Andy Spletzer

The scenes that really work are the ones that take place outside the supermarket, in the beginning and at the end of the film. In fact, the "Twilight Zone"-inspired ending nearly makes up for all that comes before.

Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten

Unlike King, Darabont ends this story with a drop kick to the cerebellum, a change from the original that shocks the viewer and leave little doubt that Darabont thinks we're all headed to hell in a hand basket.

USA Today Claudia Puig

More thought-provoking than frightening. Its stubbornly cynical attitude makes it worth watching, more than the monsters or the impenetrable mist (which looks spewed from a fog machine) engulfing a small town in Maine.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

The movie has a monster problem -- the more you see of them, the less scary they are -- most of the characters are standard-issue types, and Harden seriously overdoes the pious psycho bit.

Premiere Eric Alt

This one aims for bleak and hits it.

Washington Post Stephen Hunter

More political allegory than horror movie.

The New Yorker Anthony Lane

The Mist is itself a supermarket of B-movie essentials, handsomely stocked with bad science, stupid behavior, chewable lines of dialogue, religious fruitcakes, and a fine display of monsters.

Variety Justin Chang

Much nastier and less genteel than his best-known Stephen King adaptations ("The Shawshank Redemption," "The Green Mile"), Frank Darabont's screw-loose doomsday thriller works better as a gross-out B-movie than as a psychological portrait of mankind under siege, marred by one-note characterizations and a tone that veers wildly between snarky and hysterical.

The Hollywood Reporter Michael Rechtshaffen

Less horrific than it is horribly didactic.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

If you have seen ads or trailers suggesting that horrible things pounce on people, and they make you think you want to see this movie, you will be correct. It is a competently made Horrible Things Pouncing on People Movie. If you think Frank Darabont has equaled the "Shawshank" and "Green Mile" track record, you will be sadly mistaken.

The New York Times Manohla Dargis

Until the director Frank Darabont decides that he’s saying something important instead of making a nifty horror movie, The Mist isn’t half bad.

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

The brutally ironic ending, I might add, won't make anybody very happy about having chosen The Mist for their evening's entertainment.

New York Post Kyle Smith

A pretentious left-wing monster movie with about 15 minutes of alarming creatures and a whole lot of bickering, is a pre-9/11 story which Stephen King wrote eons ago. It operates in the post-9/11 era about as well as a Studebaker at the Daytona 500.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

The Mist contains nary a dollop of wit and irony. As adapted and directed by Frank Darabont, there's no ambiguity either.

Boston Globe Ty Burr

The Mist doesn't provoke further thought; it provokes active annoyance at being punished in the service of a pulp morality tale with pretensions.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen

I wouldn't say this is laugh-out-loud risible, but there are definitely moments. Still, you might want to consider sitting through the uneven thing just to get to the ending, because that's quite something. You may love it, you may hate it, but forget it you won't.

New York Magazine David Edelstein

A derivative horror picture that somehow rises to the level of a primal scream. The premise is simple, by which I mean both easy to understand and feeble-minded.

Village Voice Chuck Wilson

A lumbering and depressing movie.

The average user rating for this movie is 5.4 (out of 10) based on 129 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Joel R. gave it a7:
Truly creepy, horrible in many instances. The characters were believable, and some you actually cared about. The feeling of hopelessness, sheer devastation, loss is felt throughout. The ending leaves you wrought over.

Matt G. gave it a3:
This was a horrible cliche-riddled crap film. the ending did not fit.

Jeremy B. gave it an8:
I was very impressed with this movie. Very scary and upsetting, especially as a married man with 2 young boys. The relationship between Thomas Jane and his son was very believable. Marcia Gay Harden was awesome. One of the best screen villains in a long time. Creature effects were very creepy, trying very hard to not show everything (ala: Jaws, War of the Worlds, Blairwitch). The movie knows that what is not seen is better. Ending was a major shock...and pitch perfect. Darabont is a great director. Super intense!!

Uwe B. gave it a3:
Rubbish... the ending was dreadful - why anyone couldn't see that coming a mile off I don't know. Generally poor effects, tediously over-acted, cardboard characters and shallow to boot. Just goes to show that quality horror is still hard to find.

Peter B. gave it an8:
Stumbles here and there, but otherwise creepy and intense. Although, it must be said, the movie is eventually betrayed by its Twilight ZOne ending.

vs. dobbs gave it a0:
Goodness, this was horrible. I was laughing thru the entire thing. The dialogue was atrocious--among the worst I've ever heard. Hard to believe a pro screenwriter did this.

Tommy F. gave it a1:
Big disappointment with a fat snooze.

Mist, The MGM

Mist, The
MGM