The Mist

A strange mist rolls into a northeastern town, and people start getting eaten. This straightforward Stephen King horror is directed by Frank Darabont, the man responsible for The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile, two fine King adaptations. While Darabont proves capable with some of the horror stuff, the human interplay gets way out of hand and silly to the point of distraction and eventual movie ruination. I could forgive the sometime sloppy effects. What I couldn’t take was Marcia Gay Harden as Mrs. Carmody, a fire and brimstone preaching townie who believes that the monsters are harbingers for the end of days. She thrusts her Bible into the air and beckons the townspeople to choose sides, and she is as annoying a movie character as I’ve witnessed all year. Thomas Jane is decent as a man trying to protect his son from evil mist and crazy humans, but the film is done in by Harden’s overacting.