The Mist By Stephen King (1980)

“The morning after a severe thunderstorm left the area without electrical power, an unnaturally thick and straight-edged cloud of mist spreads toward the small town of Bridgton, Maine,  at first looking to be part of the distant white clouds overhead. Local speculation suggests the mist may have originated at a secretive nearby military installation, long rumored to house something called "the Arrowhead Project." Commercial artist David Drayton, along with his young son Billy and neighbor Brent Norton go to the local supermarket for groceries, leaving David's wife Stephanie behind at their home. The mist-edge soon arrives at the supermarket, blotting out the sun, followed by an earthquake-like jolt. Terror mounts as deadly creatures reveal themselves outside, but that may be nothing compared to the threat within, where a zealot calls for a sacrifice.”

This novella, originally released in the Dark Forces (1980) short-story collection and then re-released in an edited form in King’s 1986 short story collection Skeleton Crew, is a creepy story that plays out like an episode of The Twilight Zone (or, as mentioned in the story, Alfred Hitchcock Presents). I read this tale –something I don’t remember doing back in 1986- because I re-watched the 2007 film version by Frank Darabont (it also sort of bookends October, having started the month with ‘Salem’s Lot).

For the most part, the film version and the novella follow very closely, with the exception of the ending. One of few criticisms of King is his in ability to come up with good endings. Darabont’s film ending is darker and more depressing and it works, where the written version sort of peters out without any real explanation of what happened. It’s the end of the world, but is it? I have to say, I do like Darabont’s ending better.

My one criticism of both the novella and the movie is battle caused by Mrs. Carmody, a religious fanatic who believes the mist to be the wrath of God. Marcia Gay Harden, who plays her in the film (and really given much more screen time than the story), shines, but its terrible reminder to me that if the end of world does come, folks like her will rise up to cause all sorts of hell. As King puts it: “When rationality begins to break down, the circuits of the human brain can overload. Axoms grow bright and feverish. Hallucinations turn real: the quicksilver puddle at the point where perspective makes parallel lines seem to intersect is really there; the dead walk and talk; and a rose begin to sing.” King has touched on religious fundamentalism before, so at times Carmody becomes a trope of the genre and her ending is horrible, but is justifiable?

I also have to agree that it was smart of Darabont to drop the affair aspect between David and Amanda. In the novella it comes out of nowhere and seemed pointless and, well seedy. King has evolved a bit since that tale was written and released forty-three years ago,