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Mist, The

5/10

Stars: Thomas Jane, Marcia Gay Harden, Laurie Holden, Andre Braugher, Alex Davalos

Director: Frank Darabont

The benighted town of Castle Rock, almost as familiar to horror fans as Arkham, gets it in the neck again in this long-winded monster movie, as a mist rolls in from the nearby lake, bringing with it all kinds of deadly creatures great and small, thanks to scientists who, working on on 'the Mountain', have unwittingly opened the door to another world.

Hero Thomas Jane and his young son (Nathan Gamble) are among dozens trapped in the local supermarket, where not everyone is convinced of the danger until confronted by bloody evidence. 'It appears,' says the store manager with amazingly tactful understatement, 'we may have a problem of some magnitude here.'

Well, Bible-thumper Marcia Gay Harden soon has half the customers worked up into a fine old frenzy, two soldiers hang themselves because of their parts in the fatal experiments, buzzing creatures with lethal bites whiz through the store, and Jane leads an expedition ito the pharmacy next door to get medical supplies, which seems to serve no useful purpose other than to give the film's director a chance to insert a creepy action sequence that will temporarily stifle your yawns.

This all takes an unconscionable time to unfold and the rather nasty tragic ending is a bit unnecessary - and a real downer to boot. Veterans Frances Sternhagen, Toby Jones and William Sadler do sterling work in the service of the genre, but the monsters are the only things that really make this worthwhile.

David Quinlan

USA 2007. UK Distributor: Momentum. Technicolor.
127 minutes. Not widescreen. UK certificate: 15.

Guidance ratings (out of 3): Sex/nudity 0, Violence/Horror 2, Drugs 0, Swearing 1.

Review date: 30 Jun 2008