The Mist Analysis & Recap: Noir 36

Can you imagine having a crush on someone all throughout high school and you think there's a chance that the feeling could be mutual? You make eyes at them. They make eyes at you. You flirt a little bit. But the elephant in the room is that you both know that they're waiting on you to make the first move and you don't for some reason. Maybe you're scared that they don't actually like you back. Maybe you're scared that. Things won't work out and the friendship will be ruined or your relationship won't be the same.

So you're just left with this big ass what if. But then fate smiles upon you because like five years later, you're given another opportunity. The two of you find yourselves all alone in a back room with the lights low and you start feeling a little bit tingly. And this time that person takes the ball out of your hands and they make a move. They kiss you. Wow. Incredible. You have been fantasizing about feeling their lips on yours for damn near a decade. And now it's finally happened. You're thinking about your future together, what your lives could look like.

But there's one tiny little problem. Scientists at your local military base have been secretly experimenting with interdimensional doorways and have let otherworldly creatures into your town and you are under siege and your lover gets stung in the neck by some fucked up wasp and dies. Holy shit, that sucks. I'm Brandon O. This is Terrorific and we're chopping up 2007's The Mist. Welcome back to the place where it's perpetually spooky season. This episode is brought to you by DFW Landscaping Services, your local experts for complete outdoor solutions in the Dallas -Fort Worth Metroplex.

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And if this is your first time listening, this season is all about breaking down the horror film adaptations of the works of Stephen King. Be sure you're following at Terrorific Podcast on IG because every Thursday leading up to a new episode, I post a clue to what movie that episode will cover, and if you guess correctly, I will shout you out in that episode. This week's clue was a photo of the open chamber of a revolver with a few bullets left, a reference to The Mist's infamous ending. It was also designed to misdirect and apparently it worked pretty well because literally everyone who guessed, guessed Silver Bullet.

So for the first time this season, we don't have anyone who guessed correctly. So I guess we'll just dive right into the movie. The Mist was adapted from Stephen King's 1980 novella of the same name. His inspiration to write the story came from a trip that he took with his son to their local supermarket the day after a big thunderstorm. And while looking for hot dog buns, Stephen King, the OG glizzy gladiator, he imagined a big prehistoric flying reptile flapping around in the store and giant insects converging on the building.

The film was produced, written, and directed by Frank Darabunt. He also wrote 1987's A Nightmare on Elm Street 3, Dream Warriors, 1988's The Blob, and 1989's The Fly 2, as well as developing and producing the first season of The Walking Dead. His relationship with Stephen King began at the age of 20 in the early 80s when the first film he wrote and directed was a short adapted from King's story, The Woman in the Room. This film was one of the first dollar babies. which was an arrangement where Stephen King would grant permission to students and aspiring filmmakers to adapt one of his short stories for only one dollar.

The short made the semifinalist list for Oscars consideration in 1983 and this resulted in King granting Darabont the handshake deal rights to another one of his novellas, Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption. Darabont would go on to write and direct the Shawshank Redemption the 1994 feature -length adaptation which landed seven Academy Award nominations. But unfortunately, it lost every single category it was nominated for because there was a certain movie that year whose main character was a dude in love with a woman who doesn't love him back until she gets AIDS that dominated the awards circuit.

Darabont also wrote, directed, and produced the 1999 film adaptation of The Green Mile, which nabbed four Oscar nods. And he held the rights to two other Stephen King stories that eventually were produced by other people, The Long Walk and The Monkey. Personally, I love The Monkey. That was my most enjoyable, fun film of 2025. And on the flip side of things, I could not stand The Long Walk. So maybe if Derrick Bunt had been at the helm of that, I would have liked it more. But The Long Walk, I just felt like it was a Trojan horse, bro.

I haven't read the story. I hadn't seen any trailers. So I went in there with no expectations other than knowing that Stephen King, you know, was based on his work. So I thought there was going to be more horror elements and don't get me wrong, a totalitarian dystopian state that's forcing kids to walk 300 miles or whatever the fuck. And if they stop, they get shot. Yeah, that's some scary shit. But that aspect almost seemed secondary to me. From my perspective, the primary storyline was like the two main dudes just making eyes at each other, flirting and falling in love.

That's cool, but I think that order should have been switched. Like, give me more of the dystopian shit and y 'all can flirt in the background. But I digress. The Mist was filmed in Shreveport, Louisiana on a budget of about $18 million and grossed about $57 million worldwide. An unnamed studio initially offered a $40 million budget in exchange for changing the film's overwhelmingly bleak ending. Holy shit, that ending. But Darabont refused and stayed true to his creative vision. And I can only imagine what kind of film we would have gotten with that full budget, because my biggest knock on this film is the poor CGI quality.

And dog, like $22 million difference. That's huge. Like you could have had some crazy effects, maybe afforded more practical effects. Even with the poor effects I still think this is a very good movie but had that quality been better this could have been like a legendary joint. A new adaptation of The Mist is in the works for Warner Brothers with Mike Flanagan at the helm. Flanagan confirmed his take will be a completely different direction rather than a remake of the 2007 version. The film holds an average rating of 3 .4 on Letterboxd and I rated it a 3 .5 myself.

As I said, the CGI was ass. It aged like fucking milk, which detracted from the overall quality of the film and was somewhat distracting at parts. But this is a good ass movie. So let's discuss The Mist. The film is set in Bridgeton, Maine. It opens with a man painting in his studio during a thunderstorm outside. Hanging on the Wall is a finished painting of the Thing movie poster, and he's currently working on his next project. It's a cowboy looking fella with the tower in the background. And as Stephen King fans know, his magnum opus is the Dark Tower series.

So this is a little Easter egg or nod to Roland, the protagonist from that story. The storm worsens, so this man, his wife, and their son head down into the basement for shelter, which is a really good decision because a tree comes crashing through the window in the studio, which unfortunately destroys that painting of Roland. But this is the Drayton family, consisting of dad, David, mom, Stephanie, and son, Billy. The next morning they assess the damage. Trees are all fucked up. There's no power.

Stephanie comments that the food is going to go bad so David plans to hit the grocery store to stock up. Stephanie then notices a strange mist rolling in from the mountains across the lake but they don't think much of it at the time. Their neighbor, Norton, had a large dead tree on his property that David had been trying to get him to cut down for years. Before it blew over and damaged his property, well, it finally did blow over during this storm and destroy the Drayton's boathouse. So David heads over to have a chat with him to get his insurance information.

But they've apparently had some contentious property disputes in the past. Lawsuits were involved, so things are a little bit awkward when they communicate with one another. And whoops, I just realized I didn't mention the cast, which includes Thomas Jane as David, Marsha Gay Harden as Mrs. Carmody, Lori Holden as Amanda, Andre Brower as Norton, and Toby Jones as Ollie. So as David and Norton are having their conversation, we see that a tree has fallen on Norton's car, so he reluctantly asks David if he can join him when he heads into town for supplies.

So they roll out along with Billy. On the way, they pass a military convoy from the local base and Norton mentions something called the Arrowhead Project. Rumors swirl around what the project actually is, with some conspiracy theories saying there's some alien shit going on, but David and Norton laugh it off as nonsense. As they arrive at the store, David notices he has no cell signal and the payphones aren't working either, which seems hella ominous. A few military dudes walk in and they are about to go on leave.

So they're just here to get a few things before their bus to wherever leaves. But a military policeman comes in shortly afterwards saying that all leave is canceled and they need to report back to base immediately. And then the emergency sirens begin to blare as a dude with a bloody nose and shirt, Dan, comes running in from the parking lot shouting that something in the mist snatched up another dude and that he could hear him screaming. So let me pause there for a second so I can ask you, what would you do in this situation?

Are you a panicky person? How much credence are you putting into a random person coming in screaming about something in the mist, snatching his friend up and he could hear him screaming? Me personally, I think I'm putting a lot of credence into that. You know, when people start running, I'm not asking questions. I'm just running too. We can ask questions while we run. So if this dude is running into the store, that tells me I have no business running out of it. Okay. But not everyone shares that same mindset because Dan warns everyone to stay inside.

But one brave soul, or you could probably substitute brave with another word, is like, fuck that and makes a break for his car. The mist comes rolling in right as he reaches his door handle and he's enveloped. Then he also begins to scream. So everyone else is like, oh, shit. All right. I guess Dan wasn't capping. So they shut the doors to the grocery store as the mist surrounds the building before an earthquake seemingly hits and rattles everything and everyone. Mrs. Carmody, who is the local religious zealot, starts prattling on about how the mist is death and marks the end of days.

one woman is like hey guys like i can't stay here because i need to get home to my kids everyone else is like um no that's a dumb ass idea you can't go out there like didn't you just hear that dude screaming like shit's crazy she's like no really you guys don't understand i left my eight -year -old daughter in charge of her little brother and sometimes she forgets she's supposed to be watching him bruh If you already know this, if your child has already exhibited a penchant for forgetting that she's supposed to be watching her younger brother, why would you then leave them?

It makes absolutely no sense. David brought Billy to the store. Why could you not bring your kids to the store? But whatever. She then has the audacity to ask someone to help her get home. What? Nah, nah, son. Nah, son. Like, love thy neighbor and all that shit is great. But when your neighbor is out here doing dumb shit and ask you to help them fix their dumb shit. Nah, son, you got yourself into this situation. You can get yourself out, my boy. I'm sorry, it is not my job to help you rectify your questionable parenting decisions.

And then when no one volunteers, she has the further audacity to tell them she hopes they all rot in hell before stepping outside into the mist. But we don't hear her scream, so her fate is unknown. However, Billy is absolutely cracking up. This dude is crying and sucking his thumb for the first time since he was two years old and he looks like he's about eight now. But while he's crumbling, his daddy is exchanging flirty looks with Amanda, the hot new teacher in town. Like, what are you doing, bro?

Do you not understand what's going on right now? Your son is in shambles. You're trapped in a grocery store. Where's your wife, by the way? Can't contact her, but here you are making flirty eyes at this new blonde in town. Mance is out here surrounded by cans of creamed corn while creaming his pants. Absolutely unhinged behavior. And I understand he probably needs to keep a calm demeanor or present one outwardly in order to keep Billy from wiling out more than he already is. But there is a fine line between appearing to be calm and trying to have a meet cute.

But David wants Billy to get a little cozier. So he asks Ollie, who is the assistant store manager, are there any blankets? And he's like, no, but there are some furniture pads out at the loading dock that you can use. So David heads back there and notices that the generator is working too hard. It's being overloaded or it's not being able to vent properly. There's like smoke coming out of it. It's kind of rattling, you know, pretty loudly. So he shuts it down, which also shuts down the surrounding lights.

So now in the dark, the gate begins to groan and creak as something outside presses against it. David freaks out and runs back to the main area of the store to tell folks and they basically say he was just being a pusio afraid of the dark. David and like four other dudes go back to check things out. They turn the generator back on and not only does it start smoking again, but it also smells like ass. They deduce that something is clogging the exhaust from the outside. Now, for me personally, if I was trapped somewhere because there was some fucked up spooky ass shit going on around me outside, the last thing I would be concerned about is how manly I'm coming across because trying to prove my manhood is only going to result in me being killed.

However, these dudes do not share that same mindset because the young guy in the group, Norm, volunteers to go outside to fix the issue if they can raise the door enough for him to slip under and this kicks off a dick measuring contest when the other dudes start volunteering to do it and norm's like hey no it was my idea i want to do it bro what the fuck If that's me, by all means, if you want to volunteer and take this shit off of my plate, be my guest. If you want to go out into this mysterious mist where we've already heard one person screaming and we were told about a second person screaming, be my guest.

And David is like, um, are you guys being this dumb on purpose? This is no ordinary mist and no one should go out there because it can let whatever is out there. in here and the older guy jim pipes up with one i don't think you really heard spooky shit bro and two just because you're a big shot movie poster artist doesn't mean you're any better than us small town folks so shut the fuck up and let's raise this door And David's like, Jim, I don't think I'm better than you, but you're saying some real dumb shit right now.

And I really don't think you should try to go outside. And he keeps protesting, but Jim threatens to knock his teeth out with his insecure ass. So David tries to tell Norm one last time that he's making a mistake and to not go out. And Norm literally calls him a pussy. So they raise the gate a little and almost immediately. A tentacle wraps around Norm's leg and this is not an ordinary tentacle. It has like a mouth and spikes and some shit on it and other tentacles come through and they start tearing Norm's ass up, my boy.

David and Ollie try to grab onto him and try to pull him free, but Norm is just getting gashed and Jim is standing there doing absolutely nothing after talking all that cash shit. What happened to knocking people's teeth out, bro? I mean, these tentacles have teeth. Knock them shits out. But nah, he's just being a pusio. More tentacles come under the door, so they have no choice but to restart the generator and shut it. And they do as Norm is dragged under and off into the mist. Now shit is awkward as hell.

Jim is like, hey, David, I'm sorry about the kid. How was I supposed to know what you meant? All you said was you heard something. You should have described it better. What the fuck did you expect him to say? Like, hey, guys, I'm pretty sure there's some giant tentacled creature outside. That's what I heard pressing against the door. So we shouldn't open it. Yeah, let's be that specific next time. But David punches him a few times, which is well -deserved. And he also says that he thinks they shouldn't tell anyone else about what happened.

Not yet, at least because he wants to avoid a panic. Ollie thinks they should tell people so they don't go outside, but David doesn't think they have a way to even convince anyone that what happened really happened. David, Ollie, Jim, and the other guy in the group, Myron, decide to tell Norton first because as a high -powered city attorney and maybe even a future judge, they figure his word would hold more weight with the masses. But surprise surprise, he doesn't believe them. He thinks it's a prank orchestrated by David as revenge for the lawsuit Norton filed against him last year.

But this ain't that and the group actually does have tangible evidence of what transpired because before the tentacles could fully retreat underneath the gate, David grabbed a fire axe and chopped one of the tips off. chopping tips, alien circumcision. Anyway, Norton remains dismissive and he accuses Jim of not liking quote unquote out of towners. And the way he says this definitely sounded like a euphemism for black people. I only counted two black people in this entire movie. One was Norton and the second was the military police officer.

And I just looked up the demographics for Bridgeton, Maine, and I'm seeing 94 .2 % white, 0 .6 % black, 0 .8 % Native American, and 0 .4 % Asian. And as of July 2025, the population of Bridgeton, Maine was about 6 ,000 people. So multiply that by 0 .006 and you get 36 black people in this town so yeah i have trouble faulting him for not wanting to go back into this dark loading dock area with a group of people that he doesn't really know and one of whom he's already had a contentious relationship with and i'm not saying maine has a bunch of people running around in pointy hats but it doesn't hurt to be cautious that's all i'm saying Anyway, Mrs. Carmody is preying on the toilet, which is weird as fuck and disgusting.

Like, what? You're on the ground on your knees leaning onto a toilet in a public supermarket. Wow, that really grosses me out. But Amanda walks in because she has to use the toilet. and she tries to be nice to mrs carmody and say hey it's okay to be scared and you know you can talk to me if you need someone to talk to and carmody is basically like bitch why the fuck do i need you to talk to when i have god stop mocking me and mrs carmody cooks amanda with the most absolute bonkers insult she's like the day i need a friend like you i'll just have a little squat and shit one out oh my god this motherfucker is crazy but probably the overarching theme of the mist is what happens when people are scared what do they do how do they react how do they interact with one another how much Do they still respect laws and order and things of that nature?

And here is where we first begin to see that theme play out because the store splits into two factions. We have Team Norton, who allegedly stand on logic and reason, a .k .a. denial, and Team David, who are trying to tell everyone, hey. There's some monstrous shit out there, y 'all. Like, we need to deal with this. And Ollie had called for everyone in the store to gather around so David could tell them about the tentacle thing. But people are still unbelieving until a couple of them go to the back and they see that shit squirming on the ground.

One dude pokes it with the rod and it twitches a little bit before it starts to melt. And now they've converted a couple of more believers to their side. So they start piling up stuff at the front of the store to guard against the easily breakable glass. However, Carmody doesn't fall into Norton's camp nor David's camp. She's just preaching from somewhere in the middle. David's group begins doing weapons checks. They have some makeshift torches, some knives, and Amanda has a revolver in her purse.

They put Ollie in charge of that because he was the state shooting champ back in 94. One dude mentions that he has a shotgun in his truck, but it's not a good idea to risk making a run for it. Norton decides he's going to lead his band of deniers outside to find help. Speaking like an attorney about all of the evidence, even though he refused to go look at the evidence back in the loading dock, David is like, okay, fine. If you insist on doing dumb shit, at least tie this rope around your waist so we know how far you make it before you get snatched up out there.

And again, I don't think Maine is home to a bunch of people who run around wearing white bedsheets, but if you are part of a population that only comprises 0 .06%, 36 of you in total, And one of the members of the 94 .2 % delegation comes at you with a rope in their hand. I mean, I'm not saying he was right, but I understand. So instead, a badass biker dude volunteers for the rope instead. Best case scenario he figures he can grab the shotgun from the other dude's car and worst case scenario he'll give the other survivors an idea of the distance between them and whatever the fuck is in the mist using that rope.

So Norton's posse and the biker dude venture out into the mist and things seem to be going pretty smoothly. Until suddenly the rope starts getting pulled rapidly through David and his team's hands and it's like leading up into the sky. Eventually the rope goes slack and they drag it back and it's attached to the biker dude's lower torso. Fuck that bro. Obviously he didn't successfully retrieve the shotgun but he did provide some... good information to the team so now they know there are at least some sort of flying things out there that are capable of ripping a human being in half so yeah we should probably stay inside night falls and the survivors are trying to find different ways to relax so sally who's one of the cashiers as well as billy's babysitter She's back like in the locker room for the employees.

And one of the soldiers who was on leave comes in. His name is Wayne. And they have been kind of making eyes at each other. And apparently Wayne totally fumbled. Sally was like, hey, why did you never ask me out in high school? You know, we flirted all the time and you never did anything. And he said, well, it's probably because I'm stupid. And she's like, you know what? Fuck it. And she makes the move. She kisses him and they're making out. Things are getting hot and heavy, but she stops and is like, wait, I don't want it to happen here in this dirty ass locker room under these circumstances.

So Wayne's like, all right, I understand. Let me just tuck my boner up into my waistband and we can just have a conversation and try to ignore. all the scary shit going on outside well in hindsight they probably should have ditched all that romanticism and just smashed because a swarm of big ass bugs with big ass stingers come and land on the glass at the front of the store they're attracted to the flashlights and lanterns that the survivors have And those bugs then attract some larger pterodactyl looking ass shits that crack the glass when they run into it trying to grab the bugs to eat.

And this fucking guy Jim runs around turning on all the lights he possibly can while David and Ollie are trying to turn them off. The glass breaks and some bugs get in. Amanda smacks one out of the air with the rake and stomps the shit out of it. But however, Sally is not quite as smooth with it and she takes a sting to the neck. And as she lays on the ground, that shit swells up like a balloon and she dies. But one of the pterodactyl shits hops onto the back of a dude and pulls like a ton of flesh out of his neck.

Chaos has now broken loose. The group was soaking mops in gasoline for their makeshift torches, so one goofy ass dude grabs one, lights it up, and then clumsily kicks the bucket over. And then to add to this comedy of errors, he then slips on the spilled gas and lights himself on fire in the process. So now he's running around in flames and people are like, yo, what the fuck is happening? As these big ass bugs and big ass pterodactyl bird fucking things are flying around the store and flames are raging everywhere.

David lights a pterodactyl on fire. So now this motherfucker starts flying around like a flaming pinata and David is swinging at it with his mop stick trying to finish it off. Oh my, it's pure comedy, bro. Pure comedy. A bug then lands on Carmody's chest and she prays and it flies off without stinging her so she takes that as a sign that she's earned God's favor. Ollie has been trying to shoot one of the pterodactyls and he hits it once before Billy puts himself in harm's way trying to get to his dad.

So we have Ollie on one side, the pterodactyl in the middle. Billy on the end the pterodactyl wants a piece of Billy but David runs up at the last second pulls him out of the way and grabs him and then Ollie delivers the kill shot. Things calm down after they kill all the creatures but a new faction coalesces around Carmody. She had been preaching that something would come for them at night and a blood sacrifice would be made. So now that those things have come to fruition, people are starting to believe that she is some sort of prophet.

So this theme of what do people do when they're afraid? What do people do when they're afraid within a life or death situation? Well, some of them turn to something or someone else to help alleviate the burden of how to solve the problem. And oftentimes, God or religion is what they turn to to help alleviate that burden, because what is more capable of carrying such a burden than the most all powerful, all knowing force that, you know, many people believe exists out there? The issue with that is that there's not really a tangible way to make contact with that being.

And so people. can sometimes view these self -proclaimed emissaries or prophets as truly being powerful people, ignoring the fact that just calling yourself something doesn't make it so, and following a person like that. can lead to some really fucked up shit. You might end up drinking a cup full of poison Kool -Aid or you might end up wilding out in a fictional main supermarket, which we will come to see here pretty soon. But being trapped in this fictional main supermarket for like 12 hours is apparently all it takes for David and Billy to forget all about Stephanie, their respective wife and mother.

Because Amanda is out here lying down cuddling with Billy. She is his like pseudo mom now, which is really strange behavior to me. Like what happened to stranger danger? And David, isn't that your job to comfort your own son? Why are you farming out these responsibilities already? Plus the look on his face while he watched Amanda cuddle with Billy. Dude was like, yeah, I'm into this. I get used to this, bro. It's been 12 hours, dog. Come on. You don't know your wife could still be out there just fighting for her life and shit.

And you're out here just thinking about your next family. Crazy work. And you know what else is also crazy work? The mob, dude. joe survived being lit on fire and this dude is super fucked up he looks like fucking two -faced bro like absolutely charred and they're in the middle of a supermarket not exactly like a burn trauma center so he's just lying here in absolute agony and wants to end it but david says hang in there a little bit longer bro what the fuck do you think you're capable of doing for him you can't even take care of your own son right now but he comes up with the plan that he and his group can head over to the pharmacy next door to grab antibiotics and painkillers that is some selfish ass hero complex shit And seeing this dude look like Anakin Skywalker on the fucking lava planet is really bringing group morale down.

Amanda asked another woman named Hattie to watch Billy while she goes to the bathroom. Side note, Amanda is like the only one that ever needs to go to the bathroom in this movie. That's pretty interesting. I wonder why that is. Anyway, Hattie, unfortunately, is lying there dead with an empty pill bottle next to her. People are losing hope and they don't want to be torn apart by the monsters in the mist. Hello, foreshadowing. And side note, as always, if you or anyone you know is struggling with thoughts of self -harm or suicide, please call or text 988 ASAP.

You are not alone. You do not have to suffer in silence. Please speak with someone. But while David and his group wait for an opportunity to make the pharmacy run, he comes up with another plan. Where they can all hop into his car, which holds eight people, and drive as far south as they can get before Carmody gains too many followers and decides to sacrifice one of them to the creatures. But Amanda, she wants to believe the best in humanity. She wants to believe that people are inherently good and civilized and human sacrifice won't happen.

And boy, oh boy, is she naive as f - Fuck, civilization goes out the window when infrastructure crumbles and fear takes over. This is the argument that Ali makes. And he says that people are fundamentally insane. Put more than two of us in a room and we pick sides and start thinking of ways to kill each other. Why do you think we invented politics and religion? Damn, mic drop. That is cynical as fuck, but I mean. He's not wrong though. Eventually the moment comes for the team to make their run to the pharmacy and Billy tearfully tells David he doesn't want him to leave because the monsters will eat him up and David basically says I gotta do what I gotta do hero complex and he leaves him in the care of Amanda.

He gives her his car keys as well and says if anything happens to him take care of Billy. The best she can for as long as she can. Just hop in the car and drive. Okay, there's a lot to unpack here. Number one, you're making this pharmacy run against the wishes of the person you're trying to get the meds for. Because even if he was to survive, what kind of quality of life would he have afterwards? Number two, you have an eight -year -old son that you are leaving behind. to risk your life to make this run for someone who doesn't want it to begin with.

And number three, you're placing the burden of caring for your child onto a stranger that you've known for literally half a day in case anything goes wrong and you die doing something that you shouldn't be doing in the first place. Wow. and again i ask what about your wife bro like didn't even mention hey like before you head out can you pull by my house though just to make sure my wife's okay and pick her up if she is still alive he's just like nah just drive with billy and stephanie will figure that shit out on her own absolutely savage And Mrs. Carmody has been on some batshit crazy stuff this entire film, just preaching about Old Testament and fire and brimstone.

But she does have a point when she says that the pharmacy run will either result in David's group's deaths or bring back the creatures to the supermarket if they try to run. That is a very logical stance to have. yeah just another reason why this shit shouldn't take place but she then undercuts her own argument by preaching about hubris and all this other biblical shit and people just like roll their eyes and mrs repler who was another teacher in david's group throws a can of peas right at her dome son just pop square in the forehead and then mrs repler is like stoning people is okay because they do it in the bible don't they got him and repler spots jim and says she taught him and his sibling in school where they were both underachievers so now is the time to make up for it by coming with their group to the pharmacy and apparently even during And Apocalypse, you still have to respect your elders because this motherfucker says yes.

Like, why on earth would you ever agree to that? You do not owe this lady anything just because she taught you arithmetic in the first grade. Kick rocks, you off brand Betty White. David and crew weapon up and they head on over to the pharmacy and they make it. But when they get there, they notice that the doors are propped all the way open, meaning that anything could be lurking inside. As a few folks grab the meds, others hear what the closed caption described as soft scurrying noises. Yikes. And they notice there are spider webs on the ceilings with people's arms and hands hanging out of them.

Hell nah, bro. Are you kidding me right now? But wait, it gets worse because the MP from before they find him wept up, but he is still alive asking for help. And this dude looks totally fucked up. He looks totally incubated. He has like all these boils all over his skin and shit. And I don't know, let's see a little bit racist here. You space spiders. All right. We got 36 black people in the town and somehow you pick one to lay your eggs in. And keep him alive as a human incubator. That's a little fucked up there.

I guess alien spiders also have a distaste for out of towners. So the spiderlings burst out of this dude's body. As he says this is all our fault. And he was webbed upright. But he comes loose because the gang was trying to free him. And as he hits the ground, his body like pops open and spiders come flooding out of his back. What the actual fuck? And this visual is crazy. It's a mix of CGI, but also with some solid practical effects. I mean, this dude popped open like a water balloon. Absolutely insane.

But it gets worse because the fully grown spiders then pop up. And these motherfuckers shoot acid web, bro. Acid web. One dude, the burned dude Joe's brother, ends up taking a strand of that acid web to the thigh and his skin slides down like a pair of pants before he dies. Another dude takes a web straight to the face. Ouch. And Mrs. Reppler has a spider come sliding down its web in front of her face, but she takes a can of bug spray and a lighter and torches that bitch. Everyone else makes it back to the supermarket, but they did all that for nothing because Joe ended up succumbing to his burns and died anyway.

And if that's not a metaphor for our political system, I don't know what is. We have David here who is basically like an elected representative who has taken it upon himself to go against the wishes of what one of his constituents wanted and ended up making things catastrophically worse. Instead of just letting one person die who wanted to go anyway and was on the way out anyway. They sacrificed that dude's brother and another person as well. Plus, they got to see a dude burst open like a spider -filled piñata.

Man, that's tough. Once David's group makes it back to the relative safety of the supermarket, Mrs. Repler tells him that if he's still trying to leave, she's in, but Mann's has lost his nerve. He feels responsible for the deaths of the two dudes at the pharmacy, plus the long, drawn -out death of the burned dude, Joe, and he doesn't want any more deaths on his conscience. Ollie says maybe he should reconsider that because Carmody's numbers have grown significantly, including Jim crossing the lines, because his mind has snapped since returning from the pharmacy.

And honestly, I understand if I saw someone fall on the ground and a bunch of alien baby spiders came rushing out of their carcass. Yeah, I would probably want to change some tactics myself. I don't know if I would lean all the way into religious fanatic, but, you know, to each their own. David ends up relenting though and his squad agrees that it's better to die out in the mist trying to escape rather than waiting to die in the supermarket. But David wants to talk to the soldiers first to get a better idea of what they're up against.

They remember the MP in the pharmacy saying that he was sorry and that everything was all their, meaning the military's, fault. David finds Wayne sulking somewhere by himself and asks where his other two military boys are and he says I don't know haven't seen them. They check the store and can't find them so that only leaves the loading dock as the place that they could be. So they head back there and they see them hanging from the rafters and Wayne's like oh shit. You know, they said they were going to do it, but I didn't really believe them.

But hey, I guess they really did it. So now David's like, all right, bro, stop playing games. Tell us what the fuck is going on here. What is the Arrowhead project? But before they can get an answer out of him, Jim, who has been sneaking around and kind of listening into this conversation, grabs Wayne and drags him before Carmody and the rest of her mob. And they basically put him on trial. Here he explains that the Arrowhead project was an experiment by the military to create a window to peek into parallel dimensions.

However, the freak electrical storm from last night caused the gateway to like rip open or not close properly, allowing those creatures to enter our world. And what's another thing that tends to happen when people get frightened in life or death situations? the mob mentality kicks in someone says some wild other people latch on to it and all of a sudden that wild becomes normal because it's not just you who feels that way a lot of people do so carmody points the finger at wayne and they're like hey this dude gotta go so someone in the crowd grabs a big ass chef's knife and stabs him in his stomach a few times and they pick him up and toss him outside into the mist and lock the door behind him and bro is like pounding on the glass with his bloody hands and leaves a bloody handprint on the window before he's snatched up by some big ass starship troopers looking monster r .i .p wayne bro wayne had it tough like let's recap here so first of all he was excited about his vacation that ended up getting cancelled Then after like nine years of a will they won't they he finally is able to kiss Sally and maybe he'll be able to get it in.

But before that happens she's attacked by an alien wasp that stings her in the neck and she dies. And while he's mourning her his other friends hang themselves and then he's dragged out and put on like a witch trial basically. Stabbed in his gut and tossed out into the mist where he's devoured by some giant thing. Yikes. In my opinion, there were only two people in this entire film that had it worse than Wayne. One would be the MP who had alien acid spiders lay their eggs or their babies inside of him and have them hatch out of him while he's still alive.

And then also David, for reasons we will get into shortly. But after Wayne's death, Carmody tells her congregation that the beast will be satiated for the night and that they should all be fine. But we'll see what happens tomorrow. Before they go to sleep for the night, Billy asks David to promise that he'll never let the monsters get him, no matter what. And he agrees. Morning then arrives and the gang prepares to make their exit. Ali has prepared five bags of groceries for them to take. However, Carmody found the stash and is waiting for them.

And she won't allow them to leave because she says it's against God's will. Has she not proven enough that she is God's messenger? They need to fall in line or get fucked up. She starts to preach again and says the gang's refusal to believe her is a refusal to bend to the will of God. So everything is their fault. She says the group must provide the next sacrifice. And she nominates little Billy before progressing to kill the whore, who is Amanda, apparently. And then eventually she's like, you know, I just kill them all.

And then weapons are drawn. Ollie says, you know what? I've had enough. Fuck all that noise. And he shoots Carmody in her gut. And then as she falls to her knees, he shoots her once more in the dome. And that instantly snaps her crazy ass followers out of their trance. And they all drop their weapons. And I think this serves as a very interesting commentary on human nature as it relates to faith and belief. Because if your faith is extinguished immediately, As soon as the person who is telling you to believe in that thing is no longer there, then clearly you were not a true believer to begin with.

So that makes me wonder, in today's society, with religion basically being instilled in us from such an early age by our parents, grandparents, whomever, if those people were no longer there, if that reinforcement wasn't happening throughout, continued lives and existences how powerful would religion truly be if people were able to just make the determination on their own without having it force -fed to them since like birth and i guess that's somewhat of a rhetorical question because i don't think it'd be very powerful at all and this doesn't apply solely to religion i think you can take any number of like concepts and man -made constructs like sexism racism misogyny xenophobia islamophobia whatever phobia or negative way of thinking you want to substitute for religion a lot of these things if not all of them are taught to us by people who we trust and value in our lives parents grandparents elders etc and all they're doing is just regurgitating what the elders in their lives taught to them so it's this vicious cycle that perpetuates itself because people are afraid to think for themselves and that's how we end up with pieces of shit in the most powerful leadership positions in the world

but i digress the gang ends up making a break for it Ollie reaches David's car first and he gets snatched up by a big crab looking thing which rips him in half but conveniently the pistol he was holding falls perfectly onto the hood of David's car. Myron somehow breaks his ankle running on flat ground and has an acid spider jump on his face so he's cooked. The store manager loses his nerve and runs back to the store and surprisingly, they let him in. Another dude gets lost in the mist and ends up being ambushed by a gang of acid spiders, which leaves just David, Billy, Amanda, Dan, and Mrs. Repler as the ones who successfully make it into the vehicle.

David takes a risk to grab the pistol off the hood of the car. Before he gets attacked by a spider and he narrowly manages to get back into the vehicle and shut the door. Before the spider just walks over the car and continues on its merry way. Probably going to lay some more eggs in somebody. So the gang hits the road and they drive to David's house. And unfortunately they find Stephanie all webbed up. Those acid spiders came through the broken window that the tree crashed through at the beginning of the film.

So like, what's the appropriate mourning period here before David and Billy officially welcome Amanda as the new wife slash mother in their family? I don't know. Amanda is married herself, too, by the way. She like casually mentioned so in passing, but. She never brings him up again after that. She's leaning totally into her supermarket love story. But after David sheds some tears for the loss of Stephanie, he puts the car back in drive and they hit the road again until eventually the vehicle runs out of fuel.

But unfortunately, they're still in the mist and hear monsters roaring in the distance around them. So David remembers his promise that he made to Billy earlier that he wouldn't let the monsters get him no matter what. And he pulls out the pistol, looks at Amanda, looks at Dan, looks at Mrs. Repler, and they all grimly nod. But there's only four bullets left in the gun, which is pretty awkward considering there are five people. So David takes it upon himself to carry that burden. One by one, he shoots everyone in the vehicle, including his son, Billy.

But there's no bullet left for him. So he steps outside, ready for the monsters to tear him apart. And as he yells into the air, like, come on, come on, trying to get them to come kill him. Something large emerges from the mist. But it's not a monster. It is a tank at the head of a military convoy. That's right. The military has gained control of the situation. They have flamethrowers. They're clearing out all these random alien spiders and bugs and shit. They have rescued other survivors. He sees the woman from the beginning who left her kids at home and ran out to get them.

She's on one of the vehicles with her kids, so she successfully completed her trek. Man, David sees all this and collapses to his knees and just screams as the film ends. Holy shit, what a bleak ending. One of the bleakest endings in cinematic history. Wow. That shit is a total gut punch. But shout out to Frank Darbunt for standing on business, not sacrificing his creative and artistic vision for the sake of $22 million. Eating that horrible CGI to give us this ending. It's definitely memorable.

And I can appreciate something that doesn't have a happy ending because so many things do. It's good to have a little bit of balance there, a little bit of realism that sometimes things don't go well just because we want them to. The quote unquote hero or protagonist doesn't have to end up saving the day or walking away relatively unscathed. Like as human beings, we all have damage. We all have trauma. We all have things that we wish turned out differently and turned out better. So when it comes to movies or other works of fiction or different artistic mediums that are utilized as vehicles for escapism, I think it is useful to occasionally sprinkle some in there that keep it real, that remind us that.

You know, everything can't be escaped. We shouldn't try to escape from everything. Sometimes in order to get over something, we just have to go through it instead of pretending that it doesn't exist. So yeah, that's my interpretation of The Mist and its overarching theme about what fear can cause people to do. And to expand upon that a little bit more, I think fear is capable of Removing the veil that has been placed upon society and reveal what people's true intentions are. That deep down, people can be the real monsters, even when you're surrounded by literal Lovecraftian monstrosities.

Fear can erase logic. It can erase compassion. It can erase empathy. It can turn people into religious fanatics and create this herd slash mob mentality where violence becomes a viable solution to perceived problems and threats. I mean, how many wars have been fought in the name of one God or another? And it begs the question, when it comes to religion, where do you draw the line between comfort and control? But the film's ending differs significantly from the source material because in the novella, David and his group, they continue driving.

They don't run out of gas and mercy kill themselves. They stop at an abandoned hotel and David is listening on the radio and hears through the interference that possibly someone says Hartford is safe. which gives him a little bit of hope that they can continue on and make it out of this alive. So because of that divergence, I think the film carries an additional theme, one related to parenthood, or specifically in this case, fatherhood. I thought about covering The Mist for episode 34 that came out a couple days after Father's Day because David...

had to make a choice like how far was he willing to go for his child and his well -being you know he doesn't want him to suffer by being incubated by acid spiders or torn in half by crab alien shits so he basically crushes his entire soul insanity by mercy killing him But I want to know your thoughts. What do you think about the ending? What do you think about David's decision? Did he, pun not intended, jump the gun too early considering the military showed up like two minutes later and there wasn't like any monsters currently pressing or surrounding their car?

You know, maybe they could have sat there for a little bit longer. But, you know, you can also make the argument that. Why drag it out? At that point, hope is lost. So how long is someone reasonably expected to remain optimistic? I'm not sure there's any right answer to that question. But that's all for me. I'm out of here. Don't forget to follow and subscribe to the show at Terrific Podcast on Instagram. That's the same handle on YouTube as well. If you're listening along on Spotify, Apple Pods or whatever platform, please be sure to leave a five star rating because that helps the show continue to grow.

And I'll see you in two weeks for the next Stephen King adaptation breakdown. But in the meantime, remember, always keep it spooky. Thank you.

The Mist Analysis & Recap: Noir 36

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