Book-To-Movie: Stephen King's 'The Mist'

 

Credit: Pixabay.com

Our Book-To-Movie review is usually on the fourth weekend of the month but, as I said in the last post, we had to postpone it to the fifth weekend. On top of that, an emergency came up over the weekend and so I had to postpone the review to today (Monday) which I apologise for. Yes, we are going into August with July’s Book-To-Movie but don’t worry. It will not substitute for August’s. There will be a Book-To-Movie for this month for sure because I have agreed to do one as a guest blogger which the other blogger wants it posted later than the fourth weekend of the month, so, again, it will be moved to a little after the fourth weekend. I’ll give you more details about it when we get closer to that time. 

In a Book-To-Movie, we review a work of prose fiction and its movie adaptation. And this post we have another Stephen King horror book and movie! H.P. Lovecraft was one of Stephen King’s greatest influences as he’s been with many other horror authors of today. King’s novella, "The Mist", definitely has the elements of Lovecraft, including unearthly monsters. These elements were not left out of the 2007 movie adaptation which was made really good. However, the novella is more convincing in its plot development and characters.

"The Mist": The Novella

"The Mist" was first published in 1980 in Kirby McCauley’s anthology, “Dark Forces”, then collected in 1985 in Stephen King's own book of fiction, "Skeleton Crew". It's a story about David Drayton and his five-year-old son Billy who are trapped in a grocery store with several other shoppers when a mist approaches it. The mist is believed to have dangerous forces lurking in it, and this belief is soon proven to be true. The plot to "The Mist" is structured really good. Although it starts off slow with relatively insignificant details, the subject matter indicated in the title is gradually led up to giving us time to know the main characters who are really well developed. As with many novels and short stories, the ending is open ended and so gives the reader room to speculate on what happens afterwards.

The monsters of this story are also gradually led up to, in that they are at first only heard and partly shown which creates the story’s terror and suspense. They’re Lovecraftian in several ways. They have an other- worldly, repulsive appearance. Many of them are tentacled but their appendages look forbidding beyond those of squids or octopi. The monsters are so forbidding in appearance that people go insane just seeing them, something that happens a lot in Lovecraft’s stories. 

Another Lovecraftian element connected with the creatures is a character’s suggestion that they’ve come into our world via a doorway to another dimension. However, it's not a doorway that’s opened by a satanic cult like in many of Lovecraft’s tales, as much as these creatures look like they come from hell. It's a doorway that is thought to be opened by the military through a secret project called Arrowhead. 

Like I said, the characters are well developed in this novella. David Drayton's relationship with his son, is likeable reflecting the protection and comfort that a father gives to his child. Although he's vengeful beyond justice with some guys he gets into a scuffle with, he at least shows some remorse for it later. However, his extreme actions are brought about by the insanity of the extraordinary circumstances of the situation (the threat of the mist). 

David is also portrayed as a prophetic figure who seems to predict the coming of the mist and the danger it holds. However, this is a prophecy he keeps mostly to himself and his wife. Even though his character is written well, there’s a flaw in its development when he has an affair with another woman in the store without any apparent cause. It’s not a believable action on his part either since the life-and-death circumstances would seem not to allow any time or motive for it. 

The other main character is Brent Norton, an attorney who is next door neighbours with the Draytons and goes with David and Billy to the grocery store they get trapped in to load up on supplies. Even though he talks as the voice of reason while he and the other shoppers discuss their defense against the dangers of the mist, he is also arrogant and, ironically, won't listen to reason when David asks him to look at evidence of what’s been killing people. So, Norton is kind of an antagonist. 

However, the more major (human) antagonist is Mrs. Carmody. She is a religious fanatic who speaks as a prophet of death while at the same time is a voice of warning to the other people who are trapped in the store, a warning that is unheeded by many and at a deadly cost. Unlike the prophetic quality in David, she is a prophet who speaks a little too loud too many times and takes her religion too far to the point where she may get everyone killed. 

'The Mist': The Movie

The movie adaptation of Stephen King's "The Mist" was released in 2007 and directed by Frank Darabont. The plot in this one is much more fast moving, probably because it's a movie and people aren't going to want to be bored by the details that a book gives. However, its opening scene is opposite of the one in the book in that it starts off a little too quickly. The ending is more definitive and closed than the one in the novella, although it's more tragic even though there's a sign of a societal hope. The movie opens with the storm already occurring which brings the mist shortly after. 

The monsters are gradually led up to as they are in the novella and so the movie does a good job keeping the book’s suspense and terror. The monsters are Lovecraftian in many of the same respects as the ones in the book. And the effects for them are convincing with only a few small shots that gave away the CGI. For the most part, the creatures look solid and you can easily imagine them crawling up your arm or making a grab at you with a tenacle lined with stingers or claws. 

The main characters, particularly the Draytons, are much more typical than they are in the novella. Their actions in the beginning comes across as being intended to provide an audience with shock pleasure, especially with the extreme cursing. It was extreme even considering the storm’s aftermath. The Draytons don’t come across as likeable, although the relationship between David and Billy becomes more developed and sympathetic as the movie progresses. This is especially the case when they are trapped in the grocery store where this kind of character interaction is probably called for most. 

Brent Norton somewhat comes across as the arrogant attorney as well as the voice of reason like in the novella. However, unlike in the novella where his race is not indicated, the movie seems to make him too much into a racial scapegoat: he's played by a black actor (   ), many of the town’s people in the movie are adverse to him as an out-of-towner and, as in the book, he disappears from the story halfway through. 

Along with the typicality of the Draytons' characters, the movie is too simplistic in much of the conflict. This particularly shows in Mrs. Carmody's character who is also a prophetic voice in the movie but is portrayed as the sole religious figure. This makes her fanaticism create too much of a theme of religion versus secularism or superstition verses reason. David’s prophetic role from the book is not kept in this movie and almost none of the other characters fall anywhere between the extremes of the conflict. This flaw almost makes the movie too much of an attack on religion which the novella did not seem to intend to do.

As good as 2007's "The Mist" is, the Stephen King book that it’s based on is more engaging because it unfolds more gradually and, so, realistically. The movie's great for instant scares and creep-outs, but the book is more believable in its characters, conflict and events. 

Tune in here Wednesday for another Insecure Writer’s Support Group blog hop! Have you read “The Mist” or seen the movie adaptation?

Until next time . . .