SYNOPSIS:
Based
on a story by suspense master Stephen King, 1408 is a gripping
"roller-coaster of a head trip" (Owen Gleiberman,
Entertainment Weekly) that will have you on the edge of your
seat. John Cusack delivers "a tour de force performance"
(Stephen Farber, Hollywood Reporter) as a skeptical writer investigating
paranormal events. When he insists on staying in the reportedly
haunted room 1408 at the Dolphin Hotel against the grave warning
of the hotel manager (Samuel L. Jackson), he discovers the room's
deadly secret - an evil so powerful, no one has ever survived
an hour within its walls.
MOVIE REVIEW:
It’s not often that local cinema goers roared
in cheers (that is clapping out loud). We are often too shy
to do that and for a film to be able to cause such rare eruption,
it probably done something very well. The Mist was one of
those rare films that I witness such incredible feat and Frank
Darabont had once again scored another high note with Stephen
King’s material.
The
scary thing about the Mist is actually not what’s in
the Mist. The job of 'the Mist' was to scare people into a
confined area and show how people behave in times of uncertain
danger. There are foolhardy ones, the cynical ones, the brave
ones, the manipulators and they all rolled into one high strung
drama in a supermarket.
Although
the concept of unseen horror lurking around seems a bit far
fetched (in the sci fi realm), the presentation of human behavior
reacting to the terror surrounding them felt eerily real.
It shows that during times of desperation (or facing possible
annihilation), the acceptable measurement of human decency
would easily give way to primitive actions. People start doing
things that they normally wouldn’t and the scariest
part would be how easily they could be manipulated or allow
to be manipulated.
The
manipulation bit is probably when it will not sit well with
my Christian friends. Even though I am not a Christian, the
way this movie portray a Christian fanatic (lunatic would
be a better word) becoming a despot through the usage of the
'words of God' felt like an utter bashing of Christianity.
But if one can look at the presentation with an open mind
and get that hurtful sting out of the way, it’s had
an accurate depiction of religion in general and how it could
be abused.
Religion
(whether it’s Christianity or other religion) is often
a refuge for the weak and those who are hurt / desperate.
Especially when things in life get out of hand, religion often
steps in to comfort with the notion that an almighty is in
control of the chaos and eventually, there will be a promised
reward (aka the concept of heaven) even if the current situation
ends badly (terminally bad). In The Mist, things get progressively
doomed and it’s a brilliant depiction on how people
started grasping faith from someone they had previously denounced
as mad. All this because people are generally self serving
ones who look out for themselves and if there’s a promise
to get out of the current horrible situation, they will do
whatever they are told and hope that last minute desperation
acts will grant them entry to 'heaven'.
With
folks that are so desperate or blindly faithful, it’s
easy to manipulate and exploit these people. As far back as
the crusades, the televise evangelist money scams and even
to the recent 'reign of terror' war that happening, religion
had been abused easily and people done terrible and foolish
things in the name of their religion. This movie subtly shows
why and how people could be influenced to do things outside
their normal way of life. We see people becoming lackey to
a mentally disturbed personal who is out to get revenge for
how she had been treated and that’s truly disturbing.
In a way, Frank Darabont took a mirror and shows us the reflection
of how we might behave in horrifying times. Some might not
like such portrayal (understandably that they are mentally
protecting their religion at all times) but for those who
are able watch the Mist with an open mind and heart, you will
be able to see that the Mist was actually trying to depict
the behavior of mankind in times of horror and that Christianity
was an unfortunate vehicle to deliver that message.
Last
but not the least, the finale actually surprised me in two
folds.
First
of all, I remember watching the Mist in the cinema and at
the finale, I kept thinking that a film from the Hollywood
industry wouldn’t have the balls to carry out the final
notion of the film and The Mist blew me away. Think about
it (spoiler starts) when was the last
time you saw a kid who is one of the central characters in
the movie, get blown away at the end of a Hollywood Movie?
(spoiler ends)
And
the other part was how the film balances things up with what
it had been preaching in this movie. (Spoiler Starts ) The
film had set up the crazy preacher as the villain of the show
and the protagonist as a levelheaded hero, the ending made
the statement that even those with the best of intentions
could easily make the wrong choices in life. (Spoiler
ends)
Without
a doubt, The Mist will be one of the top ten movies in 2008
for me.
SPECIAL FEATURES :
The Mist Trailer
Select
Sound Bites
Similar
to the Halloween Extra segments, these are vignettes of interviews
with the director and various personals involved with The
Mist that’s being clumsy slapped together without much
editing. This time round, there isn’t even a title scene
to point out what the person will be speaking about and the
editing cuts felt very crude, cutting off at moments when
the speakers haven’t even finish their line.
This
badly edited segment is worth sitting through for the interview
bits between Frank Darabont and Stephen King, which viewers
get to find out that the movie maker actually managed to spook
the horror writer with his own works.
B-Rolls
As
again, we are 'treated' to some behind the scenes when no
one is paying attention to the camera man and it’s presented
in a badly edited manner. I suspect these are shots that are
made so that it could be used to pad out moments of an actual
making of segment.
AUDIO/VISUAL:
Nothing
misty about this DVD presentation of The Mist. Everything’s
sharp and clean as one should expect from a recent movie.
Comes in 4:3 letterbox with English subtitles.
This
reviewer is also please to announce that he wasn’t able
to find any intermittent flashing of Scorpio East logo during
the movie to make fun of.
MOVIE RATING:
DVD
RATING :
Review
by Richard Lim Jr
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