The novella, the hypertext adventure, the book on tape, and now the movie. Stephen King has become known world wide for being a horror author and for having most of his novels and short stories turned into films. For a while, The Mist was escaping this path, but not any longer. Some of his lesser known works such as Night Shift and Night Flyer have also been made into movies. And now, back in 2007 one of his best and earliest works has been made into a motion picture.

The premise of The Mist is about a group of citizens trapped inside of a supermarket surrounded by a mist. The mist holds something deadly. Every time someone tries to leave, they never return.

The idea for the story came from a storm that King went through with his wife and son while living in Maine. The next day King and his son went to a local supermarket. While at the store, Stephen King wondered what it would be like if there were dinosaur-like monsters flying through the store. From that idea and the experience with the storm came The Mist.

The movie adaptation does not stray far from the original story. There are some moments changed, but that’s only because some scenes work better in writing than they do on the screen.

Staying close to the original source they are able to maintain the intensity of the story and the feeling that you are actually there.

When I read the book, I felt like I was in the store battling the monsters. The shooting style the director chose was a documentary handheld approach, which we are oh-so familiar with. However, the camera work isn’t the completely ridiculous shaky-cam like what you’d expect from a show like The Shield or 24.

What I also liked about The Mist is that the unexpected person became the hero. The small, pudgy store clerk becomes an expert marksman and saves the day.

This is not over done to the extent that he does superhuman tasks; it stays within his character making it more life like. At the same time a person who has a lot of power in the normal life becomes food to the evil in the mist.

One part I did not like about the movie is the ending. I won’t say what happened, all I’ll say is that it strayed from the original ending in the story. The ending of the movie isn’t necessarily a bad ending, but it could have been better.

All in all it’s another great Stephen King adaptation. It’s no surprise that it did turn out well since Frank Darabont (who also directed Stephen King adaptations such as The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile) was the director for The Mist.

If you’re a fan of Stephen King I definitely suggest you read the story first then watch the movie, you’ll most likely love both.