Fear UnChanges Everything!

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I had a great weekend... one of those you wake up Monday morning, cut off the alarm, think 30 more minutes and wake up late, dashing for the shower, considering what you can skip, do I have to, still missing the warm bed weekends. Full and pressed down packed with fun and lovin,' it was a weekend to grin about. I ate all my favorite things, did nothing I should have and laughed all the way. I saw my little nephew CM (short for Christopher Micheal) do his Karate training for his next belt level, played Wii with Pickle and Tiny, ate Demos steaks and more! I even skipped my Saturday mega-max workout. Whew! In addition to all that, we went and saw The Mist by Stephen King. I was superised when Tiny brought it up since she doesnt do horror, demons, ghosts, posession or supernatural (all the fun stuff). So we went! I really enjoyed the movie. In fact I amstill thinking about some of its messages.

The Mist
Starring: Thomas Jane, Laurie Holden, Frances Sternhagen, Nathan Gamble, Jeffrey DeMunn,
Marcia Gay Harden, William Sadler, Andre Braugher

With this, his third theatrical adaptation of a Stephen King story, Frank Darabont has proven two things: First, that magic happens whenever he and King get together and the two of them should consider moving into a duplex. Second, that Frank Darabont is a sadist. He gets his jollies by hurting his audience. Not physically, but emotionally. Where other filmmakers get a reaction by ratcheting up the tension or raising the stakes to deliver thrills, Darabont does it by stabbing his audience with an emotional knife, and then twisting and turning it until we’re utterly drained of feeling. He takes special pleasure in sticking his switchblade into men, and previous Darabont directorial efforts like The Green Mile and The Shawshank Redemption seem specifically geared to hit that soft, gooey spot that the hardened, manly man ego keeps hidden away deep inside. Frank Darabont earns a living making grown men cry, and there’s no one better at it.

With The Mist, he’s done it again. By the time the film’s credits rolled I was wrecked, a mass of roiling emotion and depression. The movie sticks with you long after the lights come on; it lingers in your soul like a recurring nightmare or the shadowy vision of an inevitable and terrible future. It starts with a storm and a geeky, blink and you’ll miss it, nod to fans of Stephen King’s “Dark Tower” novels. David Drayton (Thomas Jane) and his family retreat to their basement to ride out the bad weather. When they emerge in the morning a tree has crashed through their front window, and the power is out. David and his young son go into town for supplies, leaving his wife behind. It’s at the grocery store where David first realizes something is horribly wrong. A man, bloodied and panicked, races into the store screaming “there’s something in the mist!” Just as David and the other customers look out the window to see an unnatural mist rolling towards the store, the city’s air raid sirens sound.

More terrifying than the horrifying creatures lurking outside the store are the two-legged beings lurking within it. The Mist is more than just some monster movie, instead it’s a careful examination of human nature. Darabont’s adapted script develops each character carefully, and the film’s real thrills come from following his group of terrified survivors as they fight, fear, and quite simply fall apart in different ways as hope drains away. Some turn to God and fatalism, others turn to logic, still others choose denial and pay for their refusal to face facts. David Drayton however, simply refuses to give up. ....more....

What scares us about what we cannot see? Why does the the removal of the things we take for granted really uncover who we are as humans; animals without fur, defiant to the end, survival at all costs. King really gives us a terrifying glimpse of the animal below the flesh of humans as things begin to unravel. No good horror movie is complete without some nutjob religious fanatic and Marcia Gay Harden delivers! King takes his time peeling away the venir of humanity as the just bits of the horror outside are revealed. His skill at his craft feeds you random sounds and heart-stopping jerks of surprise that make you lose track of time and just start breathing to keep from passing out. Unlike most of the King for TV movies, this one doesn't fall apart at the end...it keeps going. In fact, perhaps this is not a horror movie about the unthinkable; but about the unseen that sees us every morning in the comfort of our mirrors just waiting for its freedoms.

Nobody hides who they are when they're terrified! Meanwhile, catch the second edition of The Mist; Revaporized! for deeper darker insights into the fog of humanity.