The Mist

Smoke machines and B-movie clichés go into overdrive in a Stephen King adaptation that's actually more interested in metaphors than monsters. Thomas Jane plays a small-town Maine resident who becomes trapped in a grocery store with a ragtag group of locals when a mysterious mist rolls over the Eastern Seaboard. As monstrous tentacles and mutant insects emerge from the fog, the captive townsfolk split into factions, with a batty old maid (Marcia Gay Harden) preaching fire and brimstone while Jane's resourceful hero prefers a more hands-on approach to their dilemma. Frank Darabont previously wrote and directed two less fantastical King adaptations (The Green Mile and The Shawshank Redemption); in contrast,The Mist is more like a 1950s monster movie with McCarthyite panic replaced by warnings about the dangers of religious fanaticism. The claustrophobic setting and committed ensemble cast give it a certain frisson, although it's difficult to reconcile Darabont's verbosely serious screenplay with the slightly ludicrous giant bugs.