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The 2007 Movie
- Alternative Character Interpretation: Perhaps the most bleak, depressing one possible is that Mrs. Carmody was actually right in her views and actions
, making her the Doomed Moral Victor of the piece. - Anvilicious: A few.
- Humans Are the Real Monsters.
- Life Isn't Fair.
- When faced with certain death, people will do anything when offered a solution.
- Some people are so just so corrupt and insane that it's only a matter of time before killing is the only option.
- Awesome Music: "The Host Of Seraphim" by Dead Can Dance, used in the last 8-10 minutes of the movie.
- Catharsis Factor: Mrs. Carmody wears out her welcome within seconds of opening her mouth. Over the course of the film, she repeatedly calls Amanda a whore, terrifies children with her ravings about demons, attempts to physically attack an elderly woman, causes the murder of Wayne Jessup, and tries to have a young boy sacrificed. When Ollie finally shoots her in the stomach and then blows her wicked, tiny brains out of her evil head, it is immensely satisfying.
- Many people like to assume Brent doesn't survive leaving the store, due to how big of a blowhard he is to everyone.
- Ensemble Dark Horse:
- Ollie and Irene are probably the most popular and memorable people to come out of the story. Both are decently developed characters, loyal and supportive to the main group and get some awesome moments against both Mrs. Carmody and the monsters.
- To a lesser degree the Badass Biker, Dan Miller and Sally are rated highly and well-remembered by many fans.
- Fanon Discontinuity: As iconic as the bleak ending is, a lot of fans prefer to think the movie stops before then. Some of them go a step further, as there's fan fiction with points of divergence around the rush for the cars (especially among fans unhappy at Ollie's death) or Sally's death, caused by the the stinger of a scorpion-fly.
- Harsher in Hindsight:
- In the novella, David mentally calls the people who don't believe that the mist is full of monsters the "Flat Earth Society" due to the overwhelming amount of evidence to the contrary. In 2017, Flat Earth societies gained mainstream attention thanks to the rise in social media exposure.
- In the novella, David apologizes that his account doesn't end as conclusively or happily as the National Guard showing up and saving them. The film adaptation, as noted elsewhere on these pages, took that comment into consideration...
- In the novella, David mentally calls the people who don't believe that the mist is full of monsters the "Flat Earth Society" due to the overwhelming amount of evidence to the contrary. In 2017, Flat Earth societies
- He Really Can Act:
- Thomas Jane as David, especially during the ending.
- Marcia Gay Harden as Mrs. Carmody. No wonder she won a Saturn Award!
- He's Just Hiding:
- Given David's unfamiliarity with the pistol, it's possible to hold out some hope that one or more of his companions might not have died when he shot them in an unnecessary Mercy Kill.
- Some fans wonder if Buddy/Bobby really dies of blood loss during the pharmacy mission or just passes out and is Left for Dead due to the panicked conditions not making it ideal for his companions to feel for a pulse. Of course, if he is just passed out, that leaves him alone near the gray widower nest...
- Hilarious in Hindsight:
- The novella inspired Half-Life, not just in general premise, but even certain monsters from it. By the time film adaptation was made, many of the visuals of the creatures from the mist were inspired more by the Half-Life ones, going full circle.
- The woman with the kids at home being Spared by the Adaptation, while Amanda and Dan both suffer Death by Adaptation becomes funny since the same thing happened to Melissa McBride, Laurie Holden and Jeffrey DeMunn's respective characters in The Walking Dead.
- Arnim Zola's claim that "he merely develop weapons, he cannot fire them" becomes this after seeing/remembering how badass Ollie is in this film.
- David refers to Mrs. Carmody as "our very own Jim Jones". Thomas Jane went on to play a Jim Jones Expy in 2016's The Veil.
- It Was His Sled: If there's one thing people remember most about this movie, it's the fact it contains one of the cruelest Sudden Downer Endings in recent memory.
- Love to Hate: Mrs. Carmody is a deranged, power-hungry religious nutjob, but it's a sight to behold when she stirs the crowd into a frenzy.
- Memetic Mutation:
- "There's something in the mist!" and other jokes referencing The Mist whenever there's fog.
- That David will become the Punisher after the end of the movie because now they share a similar backstory (the people they love are dead).
- Moral Event Horizon:
- Mrs. Carmody starts off unbalanced (though more conflicted and a little more likeable and sympathetic in the movie than the original story), then declares herself the chosen messiah of the people, then manages to convince others that she really is one starts ordering human sacrifices to the monsters outside. Okay. This is a horror movie. Then she orders David's son and the woman who had been keeping the kid calm this entire time to be thrown to the monsters...
- What really makes it stand out is the fact David's group simply wanted to leave and Mrs. Carmody had absolutely nothing to gain from stopping them. She could even sell their departure and potential death right off the store as "See! Told ya!", like she did previously. Instead, she decides to stop them from leaving, only to use Billy and Amanda as human sacrifice - so still having them die outside the store, only on her whim.
- And by convincing her cult to sacrifice Wayne Jessop, she probably attracted even more monsters to the store by putting the smell of blood and an easy meal into the air.
- Any sympathy viewers may have had for the cult members is instantly wiped out when they obey Mrs. Carmody's order to throw a helpless Wayne Jessup to the monsters outside, resulting in his death. Honorable mention to the Butcher and Jim, the first stabbing the poor soldier repeatedly (an action that horrifies Carmody herself) while the latter smirks as Jessup screams for his life before being killed.
- Mrs. Carmody starts off unbalanced (though more conflicted and a little more likeable and sympathetic in the movie than the original story), then declares herself the chosen messiah of the people, then manages to convince others that she really is one starts ordering human sacrifices to the monsters outside. Okay. This is a horror movie. Then she orders David's son and the woman who had been keeping the kid calm this entire time to be thrown to the monsters...
- Narm:
- The ending is a massive and rather cruel Tear Jerker, but David's weird, Tarzan-esque screams after he shoots everyone is a bit of a mood-killer in an otherwise powerful scene. Here's one interpretation of what he's screaming about.
- Watch the soldiers standing behind him, wondering what the heck he's screaming about.
- There's a webbed-up corpse in the bus that looks more like a store mannequin. Because it is a store mannequin.
- The ending is a massive and rather cruel Tear Jerker, but David's weird, Tarzan-esque screams after he shoots everyone is a bit of a mood-killer in an otherwise powerful scene. Here's one interpretation of what he's screaming about.
- Narm Charm: Despite David's weird screams after killing everyone in the car, the ending still manages to be powerful thanks to Thomas Jane's anguished performance and the music.
- Not His Sled: Does this retroactively to the book; the ending of the Mist has become perhaps its most famous element, but it's completely original to the film, so the average reader might be rather surprised when it doesn't end the same way. There's even a moment when David notes he only has three bullets left for four people as if it's setting up the film's ending, but it ultimately goes nowhere.
- One-Scene Wonder:
- Melissa McBride plays a woman who begs for help right after the mist hits, as she has to get home to her two children, but it is clearly dangerous to go outside. When no one will agree to help, she enters the mist alone, chewing everyone present before doing so. Her scene is brief, but sets the tone for the rest of the movie. Frank Darabont loved her performance so much that he wrote her into the final scene of the movie. Like the novella, she originally was going to have her fate ambiguous.
- The titanic Kaiju creature only appears for about a minute near the end of the movie, but its unique design and nonviolent nature made it a favourite with many fans.
- Retroactive Recognition:
- Ollie is the Dream Lord, as well as Arnim Zola and Claudius Templesmith.
- Jessup is Starkiller, Darth Maul and Deacon St. John.
- Four from The Walking Dead (makes sense, considering both works were done by Frank Darabont):
- Davis Bloome is one of the soldiers.
- Juliana Crain was a market cashier.
- Hey, look! It's Captain Holt!
- The Scrappy: Unlike Mrs. Carmody, who seems to have a Love to Hate reputation, Jim is disliked for being a downright wimpy Jerkass and for constantly burdening people who are trying to keep a low profile from the monsters. It certainly doesn't help his case when he joins Mrs. Carmody's cult.
- He fully cements his status as an unsympathetic bastard when he overhears Jessup talking about Project Arrowhead while spying on David's group and outs Jessup to the cult, resulting in his death.
- Signature Scene: Aside from the ending, probably the most well-known scene from the film is when the characters encounter a gargantuan kaiju-sized beast in the mist, due to both its dissonant beauty (as the only creature that doesn't threaten them, although possibly because it's simply so large it doesn't even notice them) and driving home to both the characters and audience the utter hopelessness of the situation.
- Special Effect Failure: The tentacles look... quite unconvincing. This is more evident in the color prints - the film was originally intended to be released in black and white. And in such form the effects work far better than in the color print.
- Spiritual Antithesis: Word of God from Darabont says that the film is the perfect antithesis to his first film The Shawshank Redemption, as Shawshank is a film about hope, whereas The Mist is about the oblique nature of hopelessness.
- They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: Some viewers do not take the changed ending of the film adaptation very well.
- Too Bleak, Stopped Caring: The entire movie is a bleak series of events that really amount to people finding new ways to get killed, alongside a religious nutcase that won't shut up, capped off by the five-way suicide rendered completely pointless if they had decided to wait just a few minutes.
- Too Cool to Live: Ollie, the store clerk with Amanda's handgun.
- Unintentionally Unsympathetic: The mother that flees the store to get home to her children is clearly meant to be sympathetic due to her motives and the others in the store are clearly ashamed at not helping her, but leaving two children, the eldest being eight, to care for themselves so soon after a massive storm is incredibly irresponsible and her attempt to essentially guilt trip people, including a man looking after his own scared child, into joining her despite warnings against leaving can put her squarely here. Her self righteousness at everyone else for not wanting to potentially throw away their lives for her highlights it. The fact she survives the film feels less like a hope spot and more like an extra knife twist in the already depressing ending.
- The Woobie: Pretty much everyone, but David takes the cake. By the end, in the span of a few days, he lost his wife, his son, his neighbour and everyone else he knew and came to knew. And he personally killed some of them, thinking he administrated a Mercy Kill. Unless the remaining survivors at the supermarket were rescued, he's now completely alone - and if they survived, then they are the last people he probably wants to ever see in his life.
The 2017 TV Show
- Complete Monster:
- Adrian Garff is a narcissistic psychopath who hides his true self behind a mask of friendliness. Having grown obsessed with Alex Copeland and jealous of her friendship with Jay, Adrian raped her and framed Jay so as to keep her all for himself. After returning to his home during the chaos, Adrian kills his own father after blaming him for all of his own actions, cuts himself to make it look like self-defense, then attacks and concusses Kevin when he learns the truth. Lying to everyone that his father killed Kevin, Adrian reunites with Eve and Alex in the mall, manipulating them into serving his delusional idea of a family and brutally beating up Jay to keep up his charade. When Alex and Jay continue interacting anyway, Adrian snaps completely, gathering chemicals in an attempt to burn down the mall and trying to light Kevin on fire to get away from him. Having been a monster all of his life, Adrian's attempts to play the victim only further showcase his endless need for attention.
- Gus Bradley, despite his claims of good intentions, is in truth a cowardly hypocrite willing to do anything to stay comfortable. After approving of the idea that rule-breakers should be thrown into the mist, Gus begins breaking all of his own rules when it suits him, most notably when he begins hoarding food from the rest of the group instead of rationing it out. This leads to chaos and paranoia within the mall, all while he pretends that nothing is wrong and encourages others to volunteer to find food in the mist. After Shelley confronts him with the knowledge of his stash, Gus kills her, frames Alex and Eve, then throws the Copelands into the mist just to save himself, even dismissing Kimi's murder at Kyle's hands by saying that she was the enemy. When Kevin then breaks the doors down, Gus locks himself in his office, content to pretend everything is alright while dozens of people die outside.
- Magnificent Bastard: Wes Foster is a member of the mall survivors who hides a secret from the rest. Claiming to merely be a Private who knows nothing of the situation, in truth he is a member of the Arrowhead Project, sent into Bridgeville to locate Jonah Dixon and bring him in. After catching him looting, Wes plays dumb to catch him off guard and knock him out, revealing his true purpose inside the mall to him when he wakes up. After letting Jonah have power over him and releasing him, Wes reveals that the doctor at the Project can restore his lost memory, intriguing him enough to convince Jonah to ditch his newfound friends. After revealing that he knows more about the mist than he is willing to admit, Wes departs the mall and escapes the massacre with Jonah in tow.
- Narm:
- In one of the very first scenes, Adrian's mother tells him "you know your father can't hear you" when he wears makeup to the breakfast table. It's meant to illustrate that Adrian's father chooses to ignore him when he wears makeup and that she goes along with it, but it's such an unnecessarily weird way to say it that it becomes funny instead.
- Nathalie's husband being approached out of absolutely nowhere by a man with a gun, who immediately points it at him, shoots him in the head, before screaming that he "didn't mean to" and turning the gun on himself and committing suicide. It was completely absurd.
- Especially odd as he could have been killed by any manner of mist-spawned monstrosity (further fuelling Nathalie's Social Darwinist and Gaia's Vengeance beliefs) but they decided to just use some random guy instead.
- It does provide some subtle foreshadowing that the Mist can manifest in the form of people to do it the way they did, though: presumably, the shooter had already run into some fake people and thought Nathalie's husband was another one.
- Adrian's tumble down the stairs when escaping the police station. The actor clearly just ducks down and rolls forward onto the ground, flopping down the stairs.
- The four horsemen of the apocalypse emerging from the Mist and killing Father Romanov is played for drama, but it is such a Big-Lipped Alligator Moment and is never explained beyond "the Mist manifests your worst fears".
- They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: The decision to add more overtly supernatural and mystical elements to the Mist (such as its sentience and ability to summon hallucinations and spirits) rather than keeping it a weather phenomenon filled by monstrous-yet-biologically-plausible animals has not been well received.
- They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: This could have easily been The Walking Dead with eldritch abominations.
- Too Bleak, Stopped Caring: Which is what some reviewers claimed to have killed the series, which increased in bleakness at the same rate it lost audience. All the characters are self-righteous, obnoxious jerks, lethally dumb, crazy or a mix of them. In a review on Indiewire, it was said that all characters were pretty awful and it leads for people to root for the mist rather than any of the main characters.
