This poster for writer/director Frank Darabont's "The Mist" describes the essential plot of the story in strictly visual terms. Store front windows are formatted as twin columns with a door radiating light positioned between. A portal has been opened between two worlds. The top of the windows curve like the vault of the heavens. What looks like shadowy mountains are actually overturned cars, hard to read in this little image. This is a movie worth seeing despite its mixed reviews. It's one of those love it or hate it films, but I predict it will develop a cult following, it's impeccably crafted and its connotations are dark and difficult. Regardless of opinion, I doubt that this is a film that any but the most jaded of individuals could watch without experiencing a strong emotional reaction. Disliking "The Mist" does not seem to be a matter of apathy.
There have been film adaptations of many, many works by Stephen King, some great, some not so great, and many in between. Previous King works by Darabont include "The Green Mile" and "The Shawshank Redemption". I promise not to spoil the movie, but I wanted to highlight some aspects of this film. On its surface this is a story about the end of the world, the transforming effects of fear, mob mentality and man's inhumanity to man. As stated it is about the opening of a doorway between two worlds, a device referring to Age Shift and the mutable quality of time. In this case it is not a story of a person or persons being transported to another world or dimension but the reverse. This time Oz goes to Kansas.
Or rather the Dreamlands go to Maine (however, in the novella the road leading from the Drayton house to Bridgton is Kansas Road). As a Stephen King tale it is no surprise that the action of "The Mist" takes place in small town Maine. One of the changes made by Darabont in his adaptation was the decision to transfer the location of "The Mist" from the real world locale of Bridgton, ME to King's fictional Castle Rock, ME. This choice may simply have been made to keep from attaching this horror to a real location, but whatever the motivation, it generates some points of interest. King has created a trio of fictional Maine towns where many of his stories are set, Castle Rock, Jerusalem's Lot ('Salem's Lot), and Derry. This is comparable, and inspired by, H.P. Lovecraft's trinity of Arkham, Dunwich, and Innsmouth. King derived the name "Castle Rock" from the natural stone fortress occupied by Jack Merridew and his followers in William Golding's "Lord of the Flies", a work that clearly informs "The Mist". King works set in Castle Rock include "The Dead Zone", "Cujo", "The Body" (adapted by Rob Reiner into "Stand By Me", leading to the development of Castle Rock Entertainment, though for some reason the Castle Rock of the film was transferred from Maine to Oregon), "The Dark Half" and "Needful Things".
Much of the fiction of Stephen King can be read as an allegory of art as magic, a point that can be seen through his frequent use of a writer as protagonist. In some of his stories this role is filled by a visual artist as is the case with "The Mist". Everyman David Drayton is a successful commercial artist. In the novella David Drayton is described as coming from a family of artists including his father, grandfather and brothers. Set in Maine, this is a clear reference to the Wyeths, and if this was not obvious enough Drayton describes his father, Andrew Drayton's most famous work as being titled "Christine Standing Alone", a nod to Andrew Wyeth's "Christina's World".
Andrew Wyeth, "Christina's World", 1948
Darabont then made use of the artist protagonist to pay tribute to commercial artist Drew Struzan. While you may not know his name you definitely know his work (see www.drewstuzan.com and The Drew Movie Poster Page). Here's the Struzan version of the poster for "The Mist".
"The Mist" begins with David Drayton working in his studio, a virtual recreation of the work space of Struzan. Hanging on the walls are paintings by Struzan including his "montage" composition for "The Shawshank Redemption", the poster from John Carpenter's "The Thing", and an image for Guillermo del Toro's "Pan's Labyrinth".
"The Thing" shares thematic and visual elements with "The Mist". Carpenter also directed "The Fog" (starting in 1980 Carpenter released "The Fog", "Escape From New York", "The Thing", "Christine" and "Starman", one per year). Darabont was so impressed by the visual effects of "Pan's Labyrinth" he hired the digital effects artists from that film for "The Mist". In ways this is the essential recipe of Darabont's "The Mist" with one more key ingredient.
This poster for a fictional in-movie "The Dark Tower" film is a treat for the die hard King fans and it adds some interesting allusions and symbolic implications . First, it completes the recipe denoted in this scene, as Book Five of the seven part series was illustrated by horror comic master Bernie Wrightson. Wrightson has a long standing working relationship with King, having also illustrated "The Cycle of the Werewolf" and "The Stand". He provided the creature designs used for "The Mist", which are available for viewing at the Wrightson Art Forum.
Those familiar with "The Dark Tower" will recognize this as the literal axle to which all of King's stories attach and rotate around. Of course a Tower, quite clearly in this case, is symbolic of the Axis Mundi, the "collapse" of which marks the end of time/Age Shift. This connotation is repeated by a story concerning the apocalypse at the locale of Castle Rock/Bridgton. Another prevalent symbol for the Axis Mundi is the Tree. As David Drayton paints a highlight on the Rose his lights flicker and go out. A violent storm hits the area, including a waterspout spinning over the lake. David and his wife and son take shelter in the basement. The high wind causes a tree in their yard (his Grandfather's Tree) to fall, smashing through the picture window of the studio. The canvas for the nearly completed "Dark Tower" poster is destroyed beyond repair. This story begins with the wreckage of the Tower and what follows is the consequence, the end of days.
The bulk of the story takes place within the confines of a Castle Rock supermarket as David Drayton, his young son Billy and his neighbor/antagonist Brent Norton go to pick up post-storm supplies, only to find themselves trapped at the store when the title Mist falls over the area. In the novella the store is called the Federal Foods Supermarket. Darabont chose to rename it "Food House". This appropriately suggests a storage place for necessities (also a key location of "Pan's Labyrinth") as might be needed in an emergency. I discussed the esoteric symbolism for "the House" a bit in my article on "Howl's Moving Castle", Birdhouse In Your Soul. In that case I focused on the essential House-iness of the Castle symbol, and here we have a Food House located in Castle Rock. The House symbolizes Tradition, so it is easy to read the Food House as the Nourishing Tradition.
Darabont shot "The Mist" is Shreveport, Louisiana, using a local grocery store for the exterior shots of the Food House. He was so taken by the store that he had it largely recreated for the interior scenes. Recalling the Oz symbolism mentioned earlier, it is interesting that the Food House features bands of color along three of its four walls, Green, Yellow and Orange/Red. The fourth wall is the store's glass front, its windows showing the Blue of the sky under normal circumstances or the bluish tint of the Mist in the story. If that's not a convincing enough Blue for you, then I direct our attention to the Blue Rocket children's ride in front of the Food House, the cone of which is visible in the sixth picture that follows.
If we position the "Blue" side, the entrance, to the East we find these colors laid out in the exact same combination and position as the map of Oz. Munchkinland is of course the country where Dorothy Gale entered Oz.
While what exactly causes the Mist to fall on Castle Rock is never explained it is suggested that it might be the result of top secret energy research at a nearby military facility called "The Arrowhead Project". This very well might be a reference to the star Sirius.
Other works mentioned by Darabont in the commentary track that inform or are referenced by "The Mist" include "The Twilight Zone" episode "The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street", "The Outer Limits" episode "The Zanti Misfits", the Shirley Jackson classic "The Lottery", the Frankenheimer adaptation of "The Manchurian Candidate", and George A. Romero's original "Night of the Living Dead". I want to give as little of the story away as possible here, but in the scene with the most blatant initiation symbolism, the trip to the neighboring pharmacy, David Drayton grabs a comic book off a rack to comfort his son, which happens to be an issue of "Hellboy". The pharmacy is renamed "King's Pharmacy" for the film. In the movie adaptation of "Thinner" King plays a pharmacist.
David Drayton is played by Thomas Jane, who was also one of the stars of the (terrible) film adaptation of King's "Dreamcatcher" (which also featured "Shawshank's" Morgan Freeman), and is probably best known for playing "The Punisher" in the more recent movie based on the Templar resonating character. Those familiar with the origin of the Punisher who have also seen "The Mist" might notice the irony of these roles being played by the same actor. Note that the Punisher's real name is Frank Castle. In the still above Jane is pictured with Toby Jones as unlikely hero Ollie Weeks. Jones provided the voice for Dobby the House Elf in "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets", and has a role in this Fall's "City of Ember". His father Freddie Jones played in a slew of interesting films.
The other principle cast member is Academy award winner Marcia Gay Harden in the key role of Mother Carmody. Harden is riveting in the difficult part of the fire and brimstone preaching, would-be cult leader Carmody. Fans of King's (particularly "The Stand") will recognize her true affiliation by her intoning the line "My life for You" during a pivotal moment for her character. While Carmody believes herself to be a servant of God and the hero of this story, we can be certain that if she were in "The Stand" rather then "The Mist" she would have ended up in Las Vegas rather then Colorado. In the novella, Carmody runs an antique shop, a job also held by the vampire Kurt Barlow in "Salem's Lot" and Mr. Gaunt in "Needful Things" (the latter also operating in Castle Rock).
Also exceptional is Andre Braugher playing the disbelieving Brent Norton. Last year Braugher also played the part of General Hager in "Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer" (which like "the Mist" is a story about the End of the World/Age Shift, though in a much different context). Braugher is the man leading the group pictured in the still below.
Another Fantastic Four alumni appearing in "The Mist" is Laurie Holden, as school teacher Amanda Dumfries. She was in the first FF film playing Debbie McIlvane, the girlfriend of Ben Grimm who can't deal with his mutation into the Thing. Holden also appears in the TV series "The Shield" which stars Michael Chiklis, the actor who plays the Thing. Darabont is a self described fan of "The Shield" and directed an episode. He then hired much of the crew from "The Shield" to film "The Mist" because of their talent for shooting at a rapid pace and working in a documentary-type style.
Other major players include Darabont/King regulars Jeffrey DeMunn, Frances Sternhagen and William Sadler (below on Harden's right, you may not recognize him but he was also the Grim Reaper in "Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey" for which he won a Saturn award).
Stephen King, who frequently cameos in movies based on his books, does not appear in this film, but he was offered the role of the man tied to the other end of this rope. I recognized Samuel Witwer, playing the made for the film Private Jessup from the Arrowhead Project, from a couple of episodes from the first season of "Dexter". Norm the bag boy is Chris Owen from the "American Pie" series.
Having mentioned the connections here to "The Dark Tower" and "The Stand", we can look to the fourth "Dark Tower" novel "Wizard and Glass" for our clearest description of what the Mist that falls over Bridgton/Castle Rock really is. It is apparently a "Thinny", a thin spot in the barrier between realities. In "Wizard and Glass" Roland the Gunslinger and his ka-tet traverse a Thinny connecting to a version of Topeka, Kansas depopulated by the superflu from "The Stand". "Wizard and Glass" ends with the companions setting out from the Emerald City of Oz.
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