Based on a novella of the same name by Stephen King, The Mist is a good horror movie with a lot of tension & darkness along with psychological effects of when people are pushed to the brink of death. The film is written and directed by Frank Darabont, who had previously adapted Stephen King’s works The Green Mile & The Shawshank Redemption. All the actors in this ensemble cast have done a find job including Thomas Jane, Marcia Gay Harden, Laurie Holden, Samuel Witwer, Toby Jones, Nathan Gamble, Andre Braugher, and Frances Sternhagen. Although the movie has a different ending than the book, King was quite pleased with the movie’s ending.

After a violent storm in which a tree falls through and breaks a window to their house writer David Drayton, his wife Stephani & son Billy see an unusual mist across the lake from their house. The next day David & Billy go to the town for supplies giving their neighbour Brent a lift along the way. All across the community power has been lost, including at the huge supermarket where the three have gone to by supply. Suddenly a man comes running in with blood on his face, warning the people of something dangerous lurking in the oncoming mist. Everyone rushes into the store and the doors & windows are closed tight. However one man steps out to his car and soon his screams are heard.

After a set of tremors, Mrs. Carmody, a religious fanatic, starts to go on about the Armageddon and how God is punishing them for their sins. A crying woman says that she must get home to her two small children and seeing that no one is willing to help her, she ventures out on her own. Later while some of them are exploring the back of the store, a creature with huge tentacles attacks them through a partially opened shutter and drags off the bag boy. Scared the patrons & the staff start barricading the doors & windows with whatever they can find, including huge sacks of dog food. While trying to retrieve a shotgun from his car, another man is severed in half by an unseen creature.

By night a bunch of huge bugs, attracted by the store lights land on the store’s glass and pterodactyl-like animals pluck them off of the full-length windows, eventually breaking one and allowing the insects in. As a result two poeple die in the ensuing attack, and another  is badly burned. During the attack, an insect lands on Mrs. Carmody, but flies away instead of giving her a fatal sting. She makes a few other believe it to be a sign that God has designated her to lead the unfaithful to salvation – perhaps by a human sacrifice. David and a group of volunteers try to retrieve medical supplies for the severely burned Joe Eagleton from the pharmacy next door, but are attacked by spider-like creatures that spray acidic webbing that melts through clothing and flesh. The webbing kills Joe’s brother Bobby and Mike Hatlen. They discover a U.S. Army MP encased in webbing, along with other soldiers; he tries to warn them but his body suddenly bursts open and baby spider creatures flow out of his gutted body and begin feeding on the dead volunteers. Because of the failed expedition, Carmody’s following grows stronger, with a visibly shaken Jim becoming one of her most vocal advocates.

They find two soldiers who had committed suicide in the store and the 3rd soldier is beaten for an answer. Pleading for his life, the private reveals that the Arrowhead project – rumored to be an attempt to look into other dimensions – was the likely origin of the mist. At Carmody’s command, Jessup becomes a human sacrifice and is stabbed before he is thrown outside, where he is destroyed by an enormous, mantis-like creature. David and his group decide to make a break from the store in the morning, taking food and a weapon but are accosted by Mrs. Carmody and her followers who demand that Billy be made a sacrifice. The store’s assistant manager who is with David’s group shoots Carmody dead, stunning her followers and the group make a run for a car. On their way 3 are killed by the creatures and only David, his son, Amanda and 2 elderly people make it to the car. They drive away fending off some of the creatures but come to see only death & destruction.

David drives by his house and his wife dead and they head south, eventually running out of gas. David has the gun with just 4 bullets and the 4 adults decide that death by the gun is better than having to face the creatures. David volunteers to kill all 4 and saddened then opens the car door to face whatever creature may come by. A loud approaching noise turns out to be army vehicles with soldiers in suits and flame throwers. As the mist clears, several trucks, filled with soldiers and survivors, pass David. Among the survivors is the woman from the supermarket that no one would help, and her two young children. Realizing that they were that close to rescue and that he killed his own son, David falls to his knees, screaming, while two soldiers look on in confusion.

With that wicked, twisted ending the director has given a movie which rely more on the strengths of the actors rather than the CGI monsters (some of the effects are poor) and devoid of gore for the sake of gore, this is a movie that you can watch and enjoy. 8 outta 10.

At one time I was a huge Keifer Sutherland fan. I never was into 24 and hence kinda lost track of him in and didn’t watch many movies of his that he made since 2000 – with exception to Phone Booth & Taking Lives, two movies in which his physical appearance is minimum. So it was good to find a copy of Mirrors, a 2008 movie based on a 2003 Korean horror movie, and directed by Utsav Maheshwari & Alexandre Aja. Paula Patton as Amy Carson, Amy Smart as Angela Carson & Mary Beth Peil as Anna Esseke also star.

The movie starts off with a security guard running through a subway station. He then enters a room, looks at his reflection in a mirror & starts begging for his life. The reflection then cuts his throat with a knife, killing the security guard! Ben Carson, (Keifer) a suspended police officer, now working as a night security guard at the Mayflower, a luxury department store that has been gutted by fire and shuttered for close to a decade. The building still contains numerous mirrors from the store. He starts seeing things that look different in mirror reflections than they actually are – a closed door looks to be open in the mirror. Initially he shrugs it off as hallucinations. He finds the previous guard’s wallet in which ‘Esseker’ is written on a paper and after seeing he guard’s death photos begins to think that the mirrors are causing people to kill themselves.

While he investigates, his sister is killed while in the bath tub – her reflection taking a life of it’s own, rips open her jaw and the same thing happens to her in the tub. A distraught Ben destroys a couple of the mirrors at the Mayflower and sees ‘Esseker’ written behind one. He also finds a room in which a single chair is surrounded by mirrors on all sides. Using his contact at the police station, Ben is able to trace the name Anna Esseker, a patient of the psychiatric hospital. She was twelve years old at the time she died in a mass suicide. Around this time, Ben’s estranged wife Amy, finds their son Michael’s reflection behaving strangely and scared she calls Ben. Together they paint all the mirrors and reflective surfaces in the house.

Further investigation reveals that Anna is infact not dead but was treated as a child for acute schizophrenia. Sent to a hospital, she was treated by a doctor, who’s method was to confine Anna to a chair surrounded by mirrors, believing this would cure her schizophrenia by forcing her to confront her own reflection. Ben is told by her brother that when she returned, apparently cured, strange things started to happen with the mirrors in their home. As a result they sent her to a convent, Saint Augustine’s Monastery, where mirrors are forbidden. Upon visiting Anna at the convent, Ben is informed by Anna that she was in fact possessed by a demon which was pulled from her and became trapped in the mirrors. Ben threatens Anna at gunpoint and brings her back to the room with the mirrors.

At Ben’s home Paula finds the house filled with water and Michael’s reflection in the water attacking her and then later Michael is pulled into the water. At the mirrored room the lights begin to flicker and the building begins to shake as the demons in the mirrors are released. They repossess Anna and all the mirrors in the Mayflower explode. Simultaneously, Michael is released from the demon’s grip and Amy is able to pull him to safety. Ben is then attacked by the repossessed Anna. He manages to kill her igniting a nearby gas line, setting off a huge explosion. The old building collapses, killing the demon, and trapping Ben under the ceiling as he rushes toward the exit.

Ben pulls himself out of the rubble and sees police & firemen all around the Mayflower but no one seems to notice Ben. He sees a name tag shown in reverse like he is seeing it’s reflection in a mirror or if he was in a mirror. He comes upon a mirrored surface in the city and fails to see his own reflection as he reaches out to touch it. He realizes that he was crushed to death under the rubble and is now trapped in the mirror world, yet in our world we see a hand print appear on the glass surface. Ben cannot escape.

Scary in a few places the movie does however disappoint overall. I’d give it a 6 outta 10.