319: The Mist (2007)

SPEAKER_01 0:04

I guess it's hard to like aim and shoot string out of your ass at something.

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Greetings and salutations, and welcome to Hacker Slash. If you're joining us again, welcome back. It appears we may have a problem of some magnitude here. If this is your first time listening, welcome to the party. We are a horror movie review podcast dedicated to telling you whether a movie is a hack.

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A total joke? A waste of time.

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Or a slash.

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Totally killer. Pun intended.

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We believe horror is for everyone, and as such, we're rating these movies with a perspective we've gained from our varying walks of life and the flavors of fear we fancy most. My name is Chris, I'm your friendly neighborhood slasher enthusiast. This week I'm joined by the super fly space guy Mac.

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I got lots of peas.

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The classic horror connoisseur Sean.

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Ain't much use unloaded, ma'am.

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The paranormal paramore, Binx. You take that up with the devil when you run into him. You just chat it over at your leisure. The Scream Queen Paris.

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This is an ordinary mist.

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In nuestra amiga de los muertos Vero. Wow, look at those stingers. The people have spoken and our patrons have decided we're covering another adaptation of a Stephen King novella. The genesis of the story traces back to one of King's visits to a main supermarket where he found himself music on the havoc that could be unleashed by giant insects crashing through the large plate glass window. This spark of imagination gave birth to a narrative that plunges a small town into chaos following a freak storm which unleashed an onslaught of bloodthirsty creatures. The townsfolk seek refuge within the confines of a supermarket, but they're caught in a harrowing fight for survival against both an unseen menace and the all-too human drama of those trapped alongside them. This week we're talking about The Mist.

SPEAKER_05 1:46

This movie was nominated by our patron Martin, who says it's one of the best adaptations of a Stephen King short story that got made.

SPEAKER_06 1:57

Oh, we'll see if it fares as well with the rest of us, Martin, but for now, who's seen this one before?

SPEAKER_01 2:02

I feel like I know I've seen this movie, but I probably watched this like way back in the day, and I know it is based off of Stephen King's novella of the same name, which I actually have never read, and I've read a lot of his work, but not this one. I just truly don't remember much about this movie, so I guess we're about to find out if that's a good thing or not.

SPEAKER_05 2:22

I'm quite the opposite. I've seen this movie a bunch of times, and actually most recently watched it April of last year.

SPEAKER_02 2:29

Wow.

SPEAKER_05 2:29

But this is my first time watching it in black and white, which apparently is the way that the director wanted or intended it to be.

SPEAKER_01 2:36

I didn't even know you can watch it in black and white.

SPEAKER_04 2:39

I need to definitely do that. I've seen this before. It had been a minute, so it was a pleasant surprise to watch it again. But yeah, black and white, I feel like that's might be the way to go.

SPEAKER_00 2:50

I have not seen it in black and white, but I have seen it before. It wasn't when it first came out. It was definitely probably in the 2010s, I think. Somewhere in there that I watched it, I don't know if it was on DVD, maybe at the time, is how I had access to it. But yeah, it was a while ago, but it's still recent enough to where I remembered a good bit about the movie.

SPEAKER_03 3:06

I also have seen this before. This is actually my fiancee Dwight's favorite movie or one of his favorite movies. So pretty early in our relationship, this was required watching. And isn't there also a remake? I feel like I've seen that too. So yeah, I'm pretty familiar with The Mest.

SPEAKER_06 3:23

I saw this back when it first came out, and I remember distinctly it leaving an impact on me. Not one where I was hungry to watch it again and again and again, but one of those movies where it was like, this feels traumatic. It feels tense and it feels traumatic. I'm so glad I watched it. Probably don't need to watch it again. And in fact, I was just messaging Nathan the other night, and I was sharing how I was not emotionally prepared to watch this movie again. And ooh, I was expecting this to hit even harder the second time around.

SPEAKER_05 3:56

This movie always hits you in the feels, especially towards the end for sure. But I didn't have necessarily a lot of expectations, just wanted to see how the black and white version of this was gonna impact me. And y'all, I cannot stress enough. It hits. I wanted to see if it would impact, especially like the fright factor, or just how it would build up the tension because it's in black and white, and this is the mist. So, what can you really see? What can't you see? So I was just interested to see how that was gonna play out, and man, it did. It was an experience.

SPEAKER_01 4:28

I bet. I feel like this movie would benefit from being black and white for sure. I definitely see where that can add some prose. Man, I guess I have to revisit it that way. I'm one that has not remembered much of this movie. It sounds like all of you are much more reminiscent of this film. And for me, I immediately go to something like The Fog, which I gotta imagine is probably not going to be the same at all. And so not remembering much about this movie makes me a little bit nervous going into it, but I am hopeful that it would build some sense of mystique, right? Some good suspense or terror. And I guess that's what I was hoping for, not remembering anything.

SPEAKER_04 5:09

It has all the makings of a great movie, right? We think of the connection to Stephen King, we think of this director, which I went to that before re-watching it this time, and I was like, oh shit, Dream Warrior, like my favorite Freddy movie, same director, the blob, same director. I'm like, okay, I didn't have that before, right? Like I didn't connect it before because I remember watching this with just a bunch of friends. So going into it with those, I was like, fuck yeah, this is gonna be a great movie. It gave me that excitement again because yeah, this isn't my go-to. This isn't one that I watch, you know, every fruit years. It's definitely been at least a decade since I've seen it.

SPEAKER_03 5:46

Even though I have seen this fairly recently, Vero, I do also confuse it with the fog, like Sean was saying. I feel like that's pretty fair. That's gotta be a common misunderstanding. The fog, the mist. I'm like, which is the one where they're at the store and then there's a lighthouse? Who's to say? I remembered really enjoying this movie. So I was expecting to have a really fun time. I remember being like, oh yeah, we had a good time when we watched this. Let's watch it again. I like volunteered to be on this episode and said, put me on for the mist.

SPEAKER_00 6:16

Since I had seen it before and had a good memory of it, I think really what I expected to see was the classic small town setting. Lots of not seeing the danger and worrying about what it could be, at least from the character's point of view, and of course, dated CGI. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_06 6:30

You know, the CGI was not something that I had in mind at all. And it's so weird because looking at stills from the movie, kind of going back over it in my mind, the CGI was absolutely absent from any of my recollection. Because what I remembered most about this movie was the feeling that I got from it. And I was actually really taken aback by when I watched it, it felt so much smaller than I remembered. I for some reason had it in my head, and I think maybe because the poster, even though it's not inaccurate, it feels bigger than what this movie actually gives. This is a small supermarket. This is a small group of people, and in my mind, I'm thinking like a Walmart Supercenter. It's like the different scale there. I was also taken aback by how many Stephen King Easter eggs are in this movie. And I'm like, damn, Chris, you idiot. What were you thinking in 2007? Because a lot of this, I realized I didn't even connect this as a Stephen King property in 2007 when I watched this. I was at this point where I was down and out on a lot of horror movies that were coming out of the time. So I think I was just so taken aback by what felt more like psychological horror than actual sci-fi horror. And watching it now, I'm like, why the fuck was I thinking that? This has Stephen King slammed all over it, and yet I saw completely past the sci-fi at all. And I think it's maybe because in my head, hell is other people.

SPEAKER_03 7:58

I definitely felt that sentiment, Chris, while watching this movie. I also felt sleepy, and to be quite honest, listeners, it took me three calendar days to finish this film.

SPEAKER_02 8:07

Wow.

SPEAKER_03 8:08

Because I fell asleep twice. I was determined though, so nevertheless, she persisted. I also felt as if Marcia Gay Harden was featured very heavily in this film in a way that I somehow forgot completely. So that was really surprising. I was like, oh, this is like a star vehicle for Marsha Gay Harden, and no one's talking about it.

SPEAKER_05 8:28

No one is, and they should be, because she delivered. I've shared in the past that my mom is a massive Stephen King fan, that's what got me into horror. So I saw this movie in theaters. My mom and my brother have read the novella. I already knew what the mist was going into it. Now, of course, I was much younger when this movie came out, so I wasn't as familiar with a lot of the Easter eggs when it first came out. But as the years have gone by, especially now, I'm always looking out for them, seeking them out, even in the smallest of details. And that's my favorite part about all these Stephen King adaptations, is that they're very cognizant of sprinkling in Easter eggs for Stephen King because that's what he does in all of his work. So that's always fun. Again, I'm going into this really with a fresh perspective because of just the color change. So throughout the film, I'm feeling the same amount of tension like I mentioned, definitely a little bit more scared. And I've never been afraid of this movie ever, but there were some moments there that I was like, damn, that would really fuck me up if I was in that situation. And funny enough, Mershik Gay Harden and her character definitely hits a little creepier when she's like in her little shawl and you just see like the silhouette of her face, just a little bit more than in color. It's creepy, okay? I really appreciated that the film in general is pretty quick-paced. And I'm curious, Paris, if maybe you just fell asleep because of a lot of other reasons, but if you've seen this movie multiple times, I can see how it would be just like a movie you throw on in the background and kind of like just feel out. But if you're like really intentional about it, it's pretty like quick with its beats. Like it just gets going right off the top. It wastes no time.

SPEAKER_04 9:57

The one thing I will say, and it's similar to what you're saying, I think in 2007, I didn't connect this to life in general. I was still pretty, you know, young at heart, I'll say. But the mist is actually happening in California right now. It looks like death outside. The world is crashing, like everything is different. So watching it now with that filter of could this actually happen? And the answer being like, who the fuck knows? Maybe I don't fucking know. I think it's a different vibe. And I the whole time I was like, yo, that shit would be whack. If that actually happened, these are the things I would do. So I went into it feeling different than I know I did back in the day. But yeah, no, the earth is falling, everything is dying, and it feels different now because this could actually fucking happen. And the army absolutely could fucking start the whole thing, goddammit.

SPEAKER_00 10:51

I was plagued by something while watching this. Not plagued. I seriously, the entire time, I'm like, this feels so much like The Walking Dead. And obviously, there's some casting choices that make that happen. But even aside from that, and I didn't realize that it was the same director, I had no idea. And so I feel bad for not knowing that. But now it all adds up. There's just like a vibe to it. It's not as desperate and as is like depressing for the entire thing, like The Walking Dead is. Maybe that's a writing issue, but even the story, the characters, the back and forth between the characters, it was giving Walking Dead. But to me, that was a good thing because I enjoyed watching all of The Walking Dead. So it was weird, but now it makes sense.

SPEAKER_02 11:28

Yeah, that's a good call with The Walking Dead. This is for sure depressing. Well, not the whole movie though.

SPEAKER_06 11:34

The whole movie feels depressing. Really?

SPEAKER_02 11:36

It's not joyous. Well, yeah, it's definitely not a fun time.

SPEAKER_06 11:39

Yeah, I feel like if you look at towards maybe the third act in the movie, it gets way more depressing. But there's nothing in this that ever has a moment of just levity. I think there's a moment where it's supposed to feel like that. It's supposed to be like, oh, that's so nice. But no, most of this feels like this is a shitty time all around.

SPEAKER_01 11:57

Yeah. Casting-wise, I can see you gravitating towards Walking Dead, and we can probably unpack that further on in the episode when we can really dive into comparing it to other things. But I think to what you were saying, Vera, with kind of feeling what's happening in real life, right? You have weather that's going on in real life, but even just the beginning of this movie is triggering in a whole different way watching this movie now, I gotta imagine, because just the chaos of people trying to run through a grocery store and gather a bunch of supplies after a storm passes or a pandemic happens or whatever, right? It's very triggering when it comes to that kind of stuff. And I think that it's an interesting direction that the film goes in that makes you feel this heaviness about the film. And it's just, I don't know, something about the exploration of politics and power shifts that happen, right? With society, and when you're threatened and people get desperate, I think that it really shows just how fragile our species really is, and we're really just delicate little creatures when it comes down to it. And I think that this film really dives into that, and so that is also something to your point, Mac, that reminds you of The Walking Dead because this is what people do, but it also has been explored in many other films.

SPEAKER_04 13:13

For sure. There was no toilet paper in that grocery store. Somebody fucking bought it all.

SPEAKER_01 13:18

It was gone, no toilet paper. Damn it.

SPEAKER_04 13:20

They're like, Bah, pandemic. I I think that I didn't connect that until you just said it, but the reality is it hits different now that you know that you really can't trust everybody, right? People change in moments of panic and people that you could have known from being a local or being somebody that you've grew up with or whatever. Something as crazy as religion or different ideas or whatever could change somebody so quickly. And I think this movie, if you really look at it in that perspective, it fucks you up. It fucks you up because you get into that moment of who can you really stand by and who is your literal ride or die? And this movie shows it, right? Till the end, till the very end. Fucking crazy.

SPEAKER_00 14:07

But it's interesting because obviously it reminded me of The Walking Dead for multiple reasons. But one of the reasons was this cast. There's several people from it that are in The Walking Dead, but this the entire cast here was such a pleasant surprise. I remember Thomas Jane. Honestly, I forgot everyone else who was in it until I started watching it. And I was just like, holy cow, they loaded this with great actors for a lot of the roles, even some of the small roles in here. We have Darth Maul in this movie. This is a this is amazing. Just they made some awesome choices.

SPEAKER_01 14:35

I was gonna say that's so true. I was surprised by the cast as well. And the acting, the acting was just really good. I guess that goes hand in hand with the cast, hopefully. But yes, the acting was good for a creature feature.

SPEAKER_05 14:46

Sam Whitwer. Oh, what a bae from being human. That's where I know him from. But absolutely. Also, it's sad but fitting that we're doing this movie now because just about a month or month and a half ago, we lost Andrew Bra, who was hilarious but incredible in this movie. So it's a shame that he's gone. And then yeah, Thomas Jane, I know him as the OG Punisher. Right. And he's in so many other Stephen King adaptations as well as Jeffrey Damon. I feel like if there's a Stephen King adaptation, you're probably gonna have some repeat cast if this is a Rob Zombie thing. So yeah, the cast is always stacked with some people that you recognize and others that you're gonna be surprised by.

SPEAKER_06 15:27

The cast was a for sure surprise. Let me tell you what else was a surprise. Private Jessup's eyebrows. That was a bad decision.

SPEAKER_01 15:34

But that's his thing, not the eyebrows.

SPEAKER_05 15:36

That's his brand, especially in the early 2000s. Look it up. That's how his eyebrows were. I get it.

SPEAKER_06 15:42

It's still a bad decision.

SPEAKER_05 15:44

I know, it's terrible, but that's how his eyebrows were styled back then. And then as the years have gone by, they allowed him, thank God, to thicken the leg of it.

SPEAKER_06 15:54

But that's his look. It wasn't working. And listen, while the eyebrows were certainly a choice, I think the most frustrating thing about this movie was how the CGI didn't age well for me. And it's so weird because it's so hit or miss. I think this movie is so full of brilliant tension. I think there's tension between the people, there's tension in the mystery of what exists or doesn't exist within the mist. Sometimes you get these things that you can see and make out and they look pretty good, but then sometimes you would just get too much of it. And I think you'll know it when you see it if you haven't seen this movie yet. But some of it is just ugh, yeah. It just takes you right out of it. And I do wonder now, because I've been sitting here thinking about this, Binks, when you talk about the black and white of it all, maybe it's like from all the years I've had of video editing, I'm just like, I can't imagine black and white doing shit for me. But does it mask some of the bad CGI? Because if it does, then maybe.

SPEAKER_01 16:54

Yeah, that's what I was saying is the CGI is so bad in this movie in so many ways with these creatures and whatnot that black and white may actually make this look better. It has to make it look better. It's gotta at least take you back to like a 1950s sci-fi horror film and give you that kind of vibe, if nothing else. The vibes are there, but that's gotta really take you there and take you away from the poor CGI effects that you saw in full color.

SPEAKER_06 17:20

It makes it better in the same way that you don't want to take a picture of yourself with too high quality of a camera. There's a reason why everyone looked great on a Motorola Razor.

SPEAKER_03 17:30

That part.

SPEAKER_06 17:31

Did they?

SPEAKER_05 17:31

I don't think so.

SPEAKER_04 17:32

It depends what your expectation is, though. Because if you're coming in here thinking that you're gonna see a like 2024 fucking CGI film, then you know, maybe. But if you're coming in thinking of seeing something not as great, a very 2007 kind of goofy CGI, and you're okay with it, there's the the mixture of the the bad CGI, but I think the acting squashes it. No pun intended.

SPEAKER_01 17:59

I like that. And I'm with you, but I think that instead of bad CGI, I think maybe just have the goofy, campy practical effects that would just make this way better. Don't put the money in CGI that we know is just gonna look like trash.

SPEAKER_05 18:14

But watch it in black and white.

SPEAKER_01 18:16

I will.

SPEAKER_05 18:17

Yes, it is way better in black and white. The CGI is way better delivered when it is black and white because the monsters are shrouded in dark contrasts, so you can't even really see a lot of the details that you wouldn't that I remember in color where you're like, oh, this thing is definitely a hundred percent CGI because it's so dark when it's nighttime, and there's a particular scene that unfolds, it's nighttime, and you're seeing a lot of like commotion going about with some of these creatures. It's delivered really well because everything's dark, and so you can't really tell. It's not like a Game of Thrones episode where you can't see shit either. It's way more palpable, I promise.

SPEAKER_06 18:56

Okay, but here's the other element of this: it's not just the quality of the CGI. We had a movie recently where, again, the quality of the CGI was tanking. But for me, it's also moments of the performances and how they act and how the CGI blends with it. Because it's never been more obvious that it's not really there. It's like something is not quite clicking with their performance and the way they're acting around this invisible thing that doesn't exist. And the CGI is not done well enough to make that convincing. So there are so many moments where this could have been really frightening for me, but I was pulled out of it because it just feels it gives fake. And obviously, the whole fucking thing's fake. It's a movie, I get it, yeah. We I understand, but it's not convincing.

SPEAKER_04 19:43

I think it's what you want from the movie. If you want to get spooked, then yeah, this shit isn't gonna spook you. But I personally like watching movies for the giggles and the shits. So for me, seeing something that isn't necessarily like perfect, I rather laugh at it and be like, oh shit, that's funny looking. And it gives me that little bit of if that were to happen, would I be like, I want to take five seconds to get out of the way if something were attacking me, like in the movie. For me, it was like, oh, that's fucking funny.

SPEAKER_06 20:15

I love that you choose joy. I think I just couldn't even think to find it funny because it obviously wasn't trying to be funny, it was very much trying to be like, oh shit, look at this shit flying around.

SPEAKER_01 20:26

I want to have a good time with movies like that. I I'm with you. I get that feeling, that vibe when you go to set out and watch a movie and you just want to be able to have fun with it and laugh at it, and it's a little bit goofy, it's a little bit silly. But I didn't get that from this movie. Maybe I just didn't go into it the right mindset to your point. I don't know, but I also don't think that the most frightening part of this movie is gonna be, you know, these creatures or whatever. It's gotta be the humans. We we touched on it earlier. It's us, right? It's just the way people react to being threatened or faced with desperate situations. That's the frightening part of this film. We always somehow find a way to turn on each other instead of banding together to find a real tangible solution to the problem at hand. It's just the politics, it's the Lord of the Flies of it all.

SPEAKER_04 21:13

That's it. I think that's the scary part for me. Would I shit my pants if I were one of these characters in this movie? Probably. But I think that I would get over it. The people on people action is the true scare, I think. The people being just shitty, or maybe not all of it, the sentiment of the people throughout this movie, the oh shit moments from the people aspect. I think that's the fucked up scary part. That's what leaves you lingering. You're like, man, is it bad luck or are people just shitty?

SPEAKER_00 21:45

People are crap, and I think we we all know that people are crap. I don't think it's delivered in a way here that really makes them like true menaces. It just makes us look at them and go, uh, those people are crappy. Obviously, I'm not scared, it's not really a scary movie to me, but it reminds me more of other thrillers. It's like Dante's Peak. In my book, in my mind. It's it's I know it's a horror thriller, but I don't really see it as one that's trying to spook you or get a jump out of you or anything like that.

SPEAKER_05 22:07

No. However, it is fitting that we reviewed Silent Hill not too long ago, and both Silent Hill and The Mist have something in common along with a particular actress. But the siren, there's a siren that goes off that when I heard it in this film, I was like, oh shit, Silent Hill all over again. And that will incite some adrenaline rush.

SPEAKER_01 22:28

That's true.

SPEAKER_06 22:29

For as much as I said the CGI is not scary, let me at least say that there are moments where I could absolutely put myself in these characters' shoes. One we don't see anything, and there's moments where I'm like, oh, I feel the anxiety of wondering what the fuck is going on outside in the mist. And I can't wait to get to get into it when we talk about our favorite scenes, but there's some level here of how they executed making you feel like this problem is so much bigger than they could possibly imagine that I was actually really impressed by.

SPEAKER_03 23:01

I'm with you, Chris. I initially was afraid of the mist, specifically the unknown elements of it. It did take a bit of a turn once we learned what was in the mist for me. My fear sort of went down. And then I was on the hell as other people train at that point.

SPEAKER_06 23:16

You gotta give this movie credit though for finding a way to not just differentiate itself from the fog, but also to adapt a Stephen King story and have the balls to change the ending so drastically. For this man to commit so hard to the ending that he nurtured in his mind for 20 years, to walk away from millions of dollars and forfeiting his own director's salary just to hold true to his intent to the integrity of how he changed the ending. So I think for that alone it gets it originality points.

SPEAKER_01 23:51

Which I think is crazy because from what I've gathered, obviously haven't read the novella myself, but from what I've gathered, this is actually one of the more faithful adaptations. So even though they may have changed this ending, for the majority of this, it's supposed to be very well adapted.

SPEAKER_06 24:09

It gives Stephen King, why didn't I think of that energy?

SPEAKER_01 24:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 24:13

Yeah, I do like that it's pretty faithful to it. I also haven't read the novella, but I am on the cue at my library to finally read it. You know, I'm I'm a library girly.

SPEAKER_03 24:23

Support your local library.

SPEAKER_05 24:24

There you go.

SPEAKER_03 24:25

Sometimes the cues are long.

SPEAKER_05 24:27

I do appreciate that it's pretty faithful, and that's nice to see. And I think the one change that they made 100% is one of the most memorable and solid changes that could have been made for this. So there's that part, but it's also got so many, again, Easter eggs and nods to so many other films, too. So you can still be faithful to the original work while also showing a little bit of your admirations and love for other horror films that are aspiring the changes that you do make.

SPEAKER_01 24:56

Yeah, which was what I was gonna say. Like it also just has so much influence to it. I feel like it's pulling from so many other things, like you said, Binks. I think that it gives off this 1950s sci-fi creature feature type vibe to it. And I'm gonna say it, I don't know, probably 10 more times throughout this episode. Now I have to see it in black and white just to kind of get that vibe. But I think of like films like The Creature from the Black Lagoon, Plan 9 from Outer Space, right? Attack of the Crab Monsters, or Attack of the 50-foot woman, which we now know is being remade by our beloved Tim Burton. But I get a lot of that influence when I watch this movie, and I think it definitely stands on its own legs. It does separate itself from the fog, that's for sure. We do confuse it, mist and fog, but I think that it does change some things from the adaptation of the novella. I think it pulls so much influence that you can see a lot of other movies in it. So original, it's murky, but I think it does some good things there.

SPEAKER_03 25:54

I appreciate the word murky there, Sean, because I feel like this movie is very unoriginal. Surprised to hear some of these takes. It feels like a zombie movie, it feels like an apocalypse movie. It blurs together for me in my brain with that genre, which is I think is why it has some rewatch value because it's easy to forget the specifics, and then you're like, oh shit, oh my god, yeah, and then this happens. So yeah, I think the ending though, as we touched on, is the thing I do remember the most, and I do remember that for being so original. And I don't want to say anything else without spoiling anything.

SPEAKER_04 26:25

You know what though, if we're talking about original, the this is similar to how Return of the Living Dead started. You know what I mean? There was a little tsss, a little tank spill, a little whatever that brought the dead. But I think in a Stephen King kind of way, this has the same kind of feels to it. I did just Google how many pages are in the novella because I can't fucking read that shit, dude. My ADHD brains like page 100. I'm like, good night. It's only 176, so I might read it. You might be able to do it.

SPEAKER_00 26:56

Let me tell you what I feel when I watch this movie because it seems like other Stephen King movies, obviously. It's got the formula. He's really good at writing novels that turn into movies that are all based around small main towns where something comes into town and the town itself has to defend itself. It's giving Storm of the Century a little bit to me. It's giving Langaliers for some reason with the whole small group thing against something supernatural. But here's what I just realized. There's a certain one-word title 1954 science fiction movie that I don't want to say because it would give stuff away. But I feel like this is basically the director, the writer, maybe Stephen King himself. Somebody watched that movie and then was like, I want to make my own story because that movie got in my brain. And I'll tell you in the spoiler section what that movie is that I'm talking about. It's gonna make sense to Sean. When we're talking about originality, it gets originality points, I think, for what it does throughout the movie and what it delivers to us in the ending. But in terms of nods, I think there's one massive nod that we're not giving quite yet. And I don't want to spoil it again, so I'll wait for the spoilers section there.

SPEAKER_06 27:58

Speaking about that ending though, man, damn, what an impression.

SPEAKER_00 28:02

Oh my gosh, it's so effective. I remember being caught off guard the first time that I watched this movie, and I'm like very typically, let's say three-fifths of the time not caught off guard. And everyone who I mentioned this movie to recently is like, oh my god, the ending of the movie.

SPEAKER_05 28:16

Yep, a hundred percent. I mean, yeah. I need to make this a formal statement. If you've never seen this movie, I need you to know right now, listen to me very carefully. This ending is going to be the thing that will help you identify what this movie is. You just said it right now, Mac. I've asked a couple of my friends. I told a few of my friends that I'm watching this, and their response is all the same. They recite the ending. It is one of the most memorable endings of a horror film that I've probably ever seen, and I will stand on that hill proudly, hands down. And whether you think it's good, whether you think it's problematic, whether you think whatever, you remember what happens. You may not remember the rest, because I do agree with Paris. Sometimes the intricacies of the film kind of gets lost in a lot of these other apocalyptic type stuff. But that ending, it's got some fucking nerve. It's audacious and it's savage.

SPEAKER_06 29:04

It really is. And I think this movie is why subconsciously I focus so much on the way I make decisions and understanding what is urgent, what is time sensitive, when am I forced to make a decision, and just understanding the timing of that, right? Because you never want to jump too soon into something or hold off too long. And this movie, I think, will fuck with your subconscious if you take the filter of it and apply it to your everyday decision making.

SPEAKER_01 29:33

Oh, yeah. This ending is completely fucked. And I'm not saying fucked in like a bad way, I don't think. I think the result or the outcome is obviously gonna be terrible. It's heart-wrenching, it's heavy, but it's also for me a bit confusing as well. I don't think it ruined it for me, but I think there's some interesting takes when you start really diving into how the movie ended and just the direction that it went in. But I think it's very impactful. It's a very impactful way to end the film. It definitely made a statement. You won't feel warm and fuzzy at the end of this, but it will have you feel in some kind of way. Of that, you can definitely be certain.

SPEAKER_04 30:10

If you have trust issues, fuck. You're gonna trust less. You're gonna fucking trust no one, which is a Miami hardcore band. I feel like that's how I grew up, but yeah. If you have trust issues, you're gonna feel like that's right. I was right this whole time. Trust no one. That's the fucking slogan of this movie. Reaffirmed. Yes, reaffirm. Fuck the kids.

SPEAKER_03 30:34

No, we're leaving that in 2023.

SPEAKER_01 30:36

We have to move on.

SPEAKER_03 30:37

As far as the ending goes, y'all are right. It is absolutely a gag. But Sean, you're kind of onto something, I think, because after the gag wears off, you have some questions where you're like, well, but listeners, if you haven't really caught on by now, this is not one of those movies where you're like, eh, I'll probably not watch it, and then just listen to the spoiler half of the episode anyway. This is one of those movies where you actually stop during our sponsor read and then you actually go watch the movie for yourself because you don't want it spoiled for you. It's gaggy.

SPEAKER_05 31:05

Yeah, I would say that the ending is worth a million things. I know that some there's gonna be some movies that you're like, eh, I don't really feel like watching it. No, this time for real for real, you're gonna regret it. You're gonna wish that you watched this movie so that you can feel the weight and the soul-crushing pressure that is this ending. And I know maybe I'm not convincing. I'm not in sales, so fuck if I know. But just trust me. I don't know. Don't trust anybody, because I do agree with Veto, but in this particular instance, trust us when we say that, right?

SPEAKER_06 31:33

We're culty. Big feelings on the ending aside. There is so much more to say about this movie in the second half when we can actually discuss things at will. But let's go ahead and start making our way towards our ratings before we actually score this film. Sean, how would you describe the gore score?

SPEAKER_01 31:48

Well, this one's interesting, right? Because you get enough opportunity to really be a gory film. But what we get is this movie with pretty lackluster CGI, and but the blood doesn't look half bad. But for the injuries that we do see, I was hoping for a lot more out of them, I think. And it's not that they were terrible, but they weren't really anything to write home about. And so I think while this film had this great opportunity to be a pretty gory film, it kind of landed itself in this medium territory. I almost wanted to give it a low gore score, to be honest. But reflecting back, there were a lot of interesting shots that I feel like can justify a medium gore score. So we'll give him the medium. That's fine.

SPEAKER_06 32:30

And what about the animal report? Well, if you can believe it, animals were safe from the mist. Let's go ahead and get into our ratings then. The mist from 2007, as nominated by Martin and chosen by our patrons. Was it a hacker or slash?

SPEAKER_00 32:43

Alright, so it's been what, like a decade since I watched it, something like that. I just forgot how much of a solid horror thriller this is. This is the kind of Stephen King stuff I really enjoy. It's kind of like the Langoliers for me. You take a small group of people, you mix in the supernatural, you see how good people wrestle with the crappy ones while they're all trying not to crap themselves out of fear. It's not like melt into your seat frightening or anything like that, but it keeps your attention, it makes your root for someone, and all the while it makes you want to see whatever monstrous thing is going to show up next or not show up. For all that, I think the mist is an absolute slash.

SPEAKER_05 33:14

I've always thought this movie was pretty good, and through the years it was actually a pretty stagnant feeling of entertainment, but something about re-watching it in black and white really changed the ambiance for me and my perspective and my opinion of this film. I felt the dreariness a lot more. I felt the mist and its tension a thousand times more. And as a result, I was more invested with these characters than I ever have. It's a weird one to say I would re-watch again, and I have re-watched a bunch of times because of its ending and how gut-wrenching it is. I gotta say, I really can't get enough of this movie now. And now that I've seen it in black and white, I'm insufferable about it. It's so good, and the plot moves quick, the characters you just really feel for. Despite its large ensemble, I feel like I was able to keep track of the majority of these characters and who they were. So you get invested, and that's the beauty of this film, is that when you do, then the ending hits like a brick. So I couldn't recommend it enough, especially if you have the opportunity to watch it in black and white, definitely do. And because of that, it is for sure solidified its place as an absolute slash for me.

SPEAKER_03 34:18

I mentioned earlier that when I saw we were reviewing The Mist, I was like, yes, I had so much fun watching this movie with Dwight, let's do it. And as I was watching it again for the pod, I was really struggling to remember what was so fun about it until it clicked for me. Watching this movie with my fiance Dwight is a very fun and an entertaining experience because of his commentary during it. The movie on its own is actually to me quite blah. I'm probably gonna be on an island here tonight and that's fine. But anytime there's like the zombie apocalypse vibe or like an end of days vibe, and you have a group of people from different walks of life arguing about what to do for the bulk of the film, I just don't care. Y'all figure it out and let's move on. I kinda like the bugs, kinda like the sci-fi mist of it all, and I really wanted Marsha Gay Harden to do enough to carry the rest of the dead weight that there was in this movie for me, and she simply did not. I actually know exactly why no one's talking about her performance, and it's because it was a really strong performance, but it was also kind of mid and forgettable, like the rest of the acting in this movie. Who are these people? Thank God I don't watch The Walking Dead. Not for me, I guess, this ensemble. I liked the blonde one. I liked when she did a couple things. I really had to latch onto her to really relate to anybody here. But ultimately, I will say it's kind of classically good in a Jumanji way. You know what I mean when I say that, listeners. I think you do. But ultimately for me, this is not my cup of tea, and therefore it's a hawk.

SPEAKER_01 35:52

I see where you're coming from. I want to start there because I did go back and forth on this movie a little bit. I think it has some really good qualities. I actually think the cast and the acting was pretty good, especially for this type of horror movie. I think the cinematography is interesting because it's great in some areas and then kind of whatever in others, making it inconsistent, in my opinion. And then we have the CGI, which we've already touched on. It's pretty trash and it took me out of the film at times, but I also think that this movie it explores, to your point, Mac, and to your point, Paris, that it's something you see in almost every post-apocalyptic movie, every zombie movie, or any film like that for that matter, and it's what people do in these situations and how that is almost worse than what is actually going on around you. So I think it's teetering on this line of trying to show us something we haven't seen before, or at least keep us engaged, but it's using this trope that we've seen time and time again. So, how can you really stand out from that? But I think my love of those 1950 sci-fi creature flicks allowed me to appreciate this movie because it did remind me of some of those films and the way this film ended. It was just a sucker punch to the gut, and it was shocking in a lot of ways. And I think that maybe that's one of the decisions it made to really stand out, and maybe even a little unexpected coming from some of these characters, and we'll dive into that later in the spoiler zone. But when you break it all down, I think that the good qualities kind of outweighed the bad in some cases. I think the characters and the acting and some of the development we w get with the characters mixed with some of the cinematography and how it was able to build some suspenseful moments, even though some of the visuals once we get there is garbage and and we've seen some of this stuff played out. I just think here it is. It's not a great film by any means, but I do think that it is a good film. So I think it deserves a slash.

SPEAKER_04 37:51

You got me in an emotional roller coaster there, Sean.

SPEAKER_01 37:54

I'm telling you, I went back and forth. I went back and forth for a while.

SPEAKER_04 37:58

Okay, so for me, this movie is definitely what makes the unexpected expected by the end of it, right? I think it keeps you wondering. It continues to let you know what the heck is gonna actually happen in this movie. It starts so innocent, right? It starts like, oh, there's just a little storm coming, and then it fucks up your life, which is really what happens in the real real. I think the A plus cast definitely made those like wacky moments of those, like you mentioned, the 1950s like creatures. I fucking love them, but I also love zombies and would make them my friends. So you can't really listen to me when it comes to that. But I fucking love zombies. I love the apocalypse, I'm ready for it. These moments of battling, I get into that strategy moment where I'm like, this is the what I would fucking do. Everybody else is dumb. But I think the moments where I was surprised when I rewatched this allowed the true horror fan in me to be connected. And it reminded me, I mean, the thing is the beginning poster. It was an instant moment of that's right, why haven't I seen this in so long? Is it a great movie? No. Do I like great movies? Probably not. For me, this is hands down a slash.

SPEAKER_06 39:11

Listen, much like Sean, I do think this movie is imperfect, but I think in a much more simple way in my heart, this movie is a good movie, but it's not one that I want to revisit because of how emotionally taxing it is. Even aside from the poor CGI, even aside from the weird acting that I mentioned earlier, the real crime of this movie is that it feels like exhaustion. And not in a bad way, not in a way that is to the point of you should never watch this movie. It's just one that I can respect and see it move along on its own way. In my mind, when we went into this movie, I remember it far more fondly than it hit for me the second time. I worry that if I were to ever re-watch this movie, it would just continue to degrade because I am really intrigued by the idea of watching it in black and white. But I think I need to set up and give it a fair shake by surrounding it with some other good sci-fi horror movies, maybe create a little black and white vibe. Because the things that I dislike, I worry will feel worse. Aside from those grievances, though, this movie is still atmospheric. This movie still has a ton of tension. And while the acting with the CGI components isn't always great, the rest of the acting and the dynamic between these characters is phenomenal. For me, even with those imperfections, it's a very easy slash, no bones about it. And with that, The Mist from 2007 has earned five slashes and one hack. Now you can find this movie available online. Check the link in our show notes to see where you can find it right now. Then join us in the second half so we can finally talk about that ending together. We'll see you in a bit.

SPEAKER_00 41:16

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SPEAKER_06 42:28

Welcome back, folks. You're now entering the spoiler zone for the mist, which has earned five slashes and one hack. Now we have a lot to unpack here, but before we get into the specifics of our ratings, let's go through the kills.

SPEAKER_01 42:40

Yeah, and there's a lot of them, because this is a pretty high kill count with 36 total casualties. And that's just human casualties because we're not counting the amount of creature deaths that occur throughout the film. And I gotta be honest, I think we have some pretty good kills in this one. We get to see people getting their flesh ripped apart, people getting torn in half, gnarly visuals of the effects of poison and swelling and what that does to your body, all the way to just it just extremely impactful deaths by just a single gunshot. So I think there's a lot to discuss here. What were your favorite kills?

SPEAKER_00 43:12

I want to jump in and steal the MP because exploding into thousands of baby spiders is horrendous, and such a visual should not exist. But for some reason, it works very well in this movie. It is disgusting and amazing at the same time. That was gnarly.

SPEAKER_04 43:26

That wasn't my favorite. So I'm glad that you went first. Mine is norm because he's a dum-dum. But I think just having you said it so nicely, having your flesh ripped off, it's giving that worst wax job ever. You know, if you're a female, you know. But that's literally what it feels like to get a Brazilian wax. That definitely was my favorite. Not only because it was beautiful to watch, but the fact that the desperation of, oh, they're gonna help me. Oh, wait, they can't help me. Oh, they got me. No, they don't. And then actually just letting him get. Taken into the mist was so beautiful.

SPEAKER_05 44:02

I loved it. Every part of it. I want to add, now that you've made that correlation to a Brazilian wax, the fact that he says pussy right before this whole thing happens. Oh my god.

SPEAKER_01 44:12

Foreshadowing.

SPEAKER_05 44:13

Foreshadowing.

SPEAKER_01 44:15

Well, you know, comparing Brazilian waxes to getting tagged by some weird misty creature tentacle type thing. That's a whole nother level I did not think of when we were talking about this kill. But I do think Norm's kill to your point, Vero, is hil- I think it's hilarious. I think the whole thing is hilarious, so I'm glad that you pointed that one out because just the way he gets snatched by that tentacle, and then Ollie trying to cut the tentacle with the axe but misses and almost takes Norm's head off, and then he gets his head hit on the bottom of the door on his way out. There's just nothing good about what happened to this kid, but it was campy and it was hilarious.

SPEAKER_06 44:53

Okay. My struggle with that death is that this is the first moment where the CGI did not feel like it always connected with the physical acting because we have Norm, who I think was doing just fine. The level of pain, etc., being dragged under. At some point, it just happens and goes on so long that you're like, okay, we can stop this. It didn't quite hit the camp territory for me. But the fact that we have these two guys trying to save him who at no point really even feel like they're actually acknowledging physically that the tentacles are right next to them or at their feet. Oh, I'm afraid of this invisible thing at the door. But it doesn't feel like they actually interact with the tentacles because it's absolutely unreasonable that they wouldn't get hit by them at all. It felt like a weird disconnect.

SPEAKER_04 45:36

What do you mean? Ollie did a Ali oop and jumped, did a nice little jump over the tentacle at one point.

SPEAKER_06 45:42

Yes, that's it though. But when the three of them are there together and those tentacles are just slipping around, and there's no ducking, there's no real acknowledgement. And again, how much of this can you really achieve? I don't blame this on the actors. I put this on those who did the actual CGI and the actual effects for it because I feel like it could have looked a little bit more convincing to work more with their body language. It's a really weird thing to articulate, but that was a moment where I just wasn't buying it. My favorite kill though, it's gonna be our biker dude who gets absolutely cut in half after making it at least 200 feet to his car. And the fact that you have the rope getting pulled, it then just shoots all the way out. They start pulling it back and it's bloody. Before it's actually bloody, you see the rope just tilt. And at one point they're just so focused on trying to get it out there. Is it even occurring to them that that shit's in the air now? So what that does for the imagination, absolutely incredible.

SPEAKER_05 46:38

That's such a good point. And also imagining how painful their hands must have been when they were like holding the rope initially without the towels. Ouch, a thousand percent.

SPEAKER_06 46:47

Yeah, you can't tell me those hands aren't bloody.

SPEAKER_01 46:49

Oh, rope burn. The rope burn.

SPEAKER_05 46:51

Rope burn, painful, absolutely painful.

SPEAKER_01 46:54

Oh, that was cringy to watch. I just felt the rope burn in my hands.

SPEAKER_05 46:59

That kill really was the inspiration to my opening quote. Because I do appreciate that she has that little quip for him talk it over with the devil when you get there, and the next thing you know, good thing his upper half is somewhere because the lower half did not make it. That's for sure. Did not. Man, there's so many good kills. My favorite is gonna have to be private Jessup. Not because I love the actor, but because it is extremely sad and extremely fucked up. Because imagine you have no choice as to where you're stationed. You have no choice as to, or maybe you do to some extent, but I highly doubt you have any say in the things that are going on, especially like in the military and wherever you're at and what you have to witness and whatnot. There's very little control that he had over what he knew. And they just put all of the blame on him, and it was just so sad to see him begging after everything that he had just done at the pharmacy to help get the supplies and everything. And then that was like the most human kill, I guess. Does that make sense? Like it was the most brutal because it's so probable.

SPEAKER_01 48:05

These were those moments, yeah. Those are those moments where I feel like that's the frightening aspect of the film is how people can be their own worst enemy in a situation where fucking mystical creatures and insects are coming after you and killing you, but we actually are more frightened by this fucking group of people that we're trying to survive with fucking outing you and killing you.

SPEAKER_05 48:27

Yeah. And imagine in the things that Carmedy is saying, she's not mentioning a lot about any of these insects or demons or whatever she calls it. You know what I mean? Like she's not mentioning any of the extraterrestrial that's outside. She's talking about like the military, and she starts saying lots of things about what's corrupt about this day and age. That's what's even scarier is that there are people out there right now in 2024 that say those same exact things that would be capable of doing something like that to someone. And it's been over 20 years, like almost over 20 years since this movie. That's fucking frightening. But the acting as well, when he's being carried up and his hands are all tense, not to be weird about it, but like when I pass out or when anyone passes out, you have low blood pressure, your muscles are gonna spasm and you're gonna not be able to really control your fingers or your hands. I noticed that this time around where to think of the physical acting that went into that, to imagine, okay, if I've been stabbed, I'm my body pressure's lowering, I'm gonna start freaking out, my body's gonna tense up. I was like, oh shit, he really did it all in this moment. He's like, I'm dying, but I'm going out with a bang.

SPEAKER_01 49:35

It was the eyebrows.

SPEAKER_05 49:36

And then the eyebrows, yes.

SPEAKER_03 49:38

Speaking of going out with a bang, my favorite kill, and I kind of thought this one was gonna come up sooner, was famed ally, Marsha Gay Harden. That was a kill that I think we could all get behind, we can all agree with. She got three too many religious fanatic monologues, and it's like great work from a technical standpoint, like slay. But from a narrative standpoint, I was like, Mama, we need to move on. And then her following started to grow. I was like, this entire part of the story could really save us a good 30 minutes of runtime if we just got rid of it at the start. So I'm glad that it happened eventually. Surprised Ollie was the one to do it. I mean, the man has some common sense to him. The sharpshooter.

SPEAKER_05 50:18

Ollie, the sharpshooter.

SPEAKER_03 50:20

I love that they double-tapped her as well, just to be sure she doesn't come back as a zombie for one more scripture.

SPEAKER_01 50:27

That was one of those moments where I felt like the kill was just it was impactful. We all wanted her to go. I mean, at least I did. I wanted her to go. It allowed us to move on. It did, but I also wasn't expecting it at the same time. I thought that she was really just like at her peak and she's got her little posse behind her now, and it's growing, and what are they gonna do next? And then all of a sudden, bam, Ollie comes in clutch.

SPEAKER_06 50:53

It's giving bam, bitch, went down.

SPEAKER_01 50:55

She did.

SPEAKER_03 50:56

Finally.

SPEAKER_05 50:57

It almost makes you wonder like, I would have clocked her a lot sooner.

SPEAKER_03 51:01

Right?

SPEAKER_05 51:01

Decked her right in the face a lot fucking sooner. And then, of course, my favorite, oh my god, Ollie. What a king. It's so sad that he passes immediately after. But for him to be like, wouldn't have killed her if there had been any other way, and then David's like, that's why I said thank you. He literally looks at him like, that's why I said thank you. What the fuck?

SPEAKER_02 51:19

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_05 51:19

No shit. Of course you had to kill her.

SPEAKER_04 51:21

A little too late, but if we started a Colt, I would have killed her first, just so everybody's aware. That would have been the first kill.

SPEAKER_01 51:28

There you go. Amazing.

SPEAKER_05 51:30

I believe that wholeheartedly.

SPEAKER_01 51:32

I do think there's some other notable kills for sure. Like Sally's kill, I think was interesting because of the progression that we got to see that kill, and that was actually pretty intense. It was the subtlety of this thing just flying around, and then all of a sudden, just a swift little sting right in the neck, and then just that quick progression of her swelling up, her face swelling up, and just oh, that just has to be painful. None of that looked great.

SPEAKER_04 51:57

No epi pens.

SPEAKER_01 51:58

I don't think a fucking epi pen is gonna save you from a fucking missed weird insect, whatever the fuck that was.

SPEAKER_05 52:05

An epi pen buffone.

SPEAKER_04 52:08

She was allergic, y'all. She died of an allergic reaction to uh bug sting.

SPEAKER_01 52:14

Everybody's allergic to that bug, dude. That thing is gnarly.

SPEAKER_06 52:17

You're reaching, fiddle. My allergies include penicillin, shellfish, a certain species of grass, and interdimensional bugs.

SPEAKER_01 52:25

Yeah. But listen, we cannot, and we will not move on from talking about kills until we talk about David offing everyone, including his own fucking son, at the end of this movie. Only to find out that literally the military was sweeping through, destroying everything, taking survivors to safety, and he's just like, well, if only I waited a couple more minutes.

SPEAKER_06 52:48

Just like two more minutes. This is why you have to understand the urgency and that required time of your decision making.

SPEAKER_03 52:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 52:57

If your goal is to not die at the hands of the creature or the monster, I think you could have held off until you could actually see the monster. Or at least feel a little bit more of the rumbling right next. Maybe it's over top. There were other options. That's the real kicker for me. But also, I completely forgot that Billy wakes up and knows what's coming. That little part, completely out of my mind.

SPEAKER_01 53:21

But so that's the thing with this ending, right? And I think it's very impactful. I think it's heart-wrenching to think about everything that happens and what David goes through, and just the thought of even having to off your own son, but then getting hit in the stomach with this whole thing like it didn't need to happen that way. But here's the thing that I think is a little bit confusing. And I think you touched on it, Chris, a little bit, but why the fuck did they just automatically resort to offing each other in that moment? Is it really that they just were like, well, this is it. We ran out of gas and there's no going anywhere. These motherfuckers were fighting for survival, like nobody's business the whole film, and then all of a sudden they're just like, Well, fuck it, here we go. Boom, boom, boom, boom. Come on.

SPEAKER_03 54:02

Yeah, they suddenly lost hope, all hope immediately, very quickly.

SPEAKER_06 54:06

Where there's a will, there's a way, but they suddenly lost the will because now there's no shelter above them. They're in a car surrounded by mist, and all they can hear is a creature growing closer. But even then, I say, take it easy, take it easy.

SPEAKER_03 54:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 54:22

Just sleep on it.

SPEAKER_05 54:24

Let's actually be realistic here though. If you're escaping from extraterrestrial aliens or whatever the hell they are, and you've got a child and two elderly people in the car with you, it's a surprise that they even made it to the car to begin with. Okay? Considering that all the other much more able-bodied and fast and more likely to survive all got destroyed on the way to that car. I think to some extent, yeah, they are very much shit out of luck with a car that has no gas in the middle of nowhere. Now, I do agree that they certainly could have waited. I thought y'all were gonna say, how are you not hearing? You can hear the monsters from a distance, but you can't hear a whole parade of fucking tanks and children. No one's making noise.

SPEAKER_03 55:06

Flamethrowers.

SPEAKER_05 55:08

You can't hear it over the dramatic score. Which is phenomenal. Don't even start.

SPEAKER_03 55:12

They just really jumped the gun. That's what it does.

SPEAKER_06 55:14

Literally and figuratively.

SPEAKER_04 55:16

Beat me up. You know what I mean? If I'm that scared, whatever. If we're gonna die, it can't be that bad. Fuck it. I would wait till the monsters get me. At least you die a cool way.

SPEAKER_01 55:27

This dude also had this massive truck with a hundred thousand lights on it. Like he's prepped for some kind of off-roading, gonna be gone in the wilderness for like a week kind of scenario. You're telling me this motherfucker doesn't have a couple of gas tanks on that fucking car?

SPEAKER_05 55:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 55:43

Like, this is come on.

SPEAKER_05 55:45

That was his car, right? Yeah. Why is a painter equipped with some serious ass He's night painting.

SPEAKER_01 55:51

He's just gotta blast the front of the house so it sees it's like daylight or what? What I don't know what you're doing with all those lights. I don't get it.

SPEAKER_06 55:57

He's also got a boathouse though. So he's got some dimension to him. However, I'd like to point out that they could have had enough gas had he not stopped back at his house. I think you could probably consider the fact that your wife's probably dead.

SPEAKER_03 56:11

Yeah. That was a lengthy detour.

SPEAKER_06 56:14

It was a Yeah, you also just went all across the fucking town.

SPEAKER_03 56:18

Also, did you not remember the window was like that? You could have figured this out and put two and two together at the Piggly Wiggly.

SPEAKER_02 56:25

Yeah, we all knew she was a gone.

SPEAKER_05 56:28

Cause I was gonna say, it's not necessarily fair to say that when Melissa McBride's character somehow made it to wherever the hell these kids were completely fine with zero help. And man, did she serve a look in that truck. The way that she looked at that man, she was like, oh well.

SPEAKER_03 56:45

No one wanted to help her. It was cute, but also very much bad mom. Bad mom comes out on top.

SPEAKER_05 56:52

And then the other mom well dead. So yeah, although I feel like it's fair to assume that she was alive, it's the asterisk to the fact that the window was open. So that makes it a lot, well, not a lot harder because this woman was out there in the literal streets of the mist.

SPEAKER_06 57:08

But I also want to point out that this could have been avoided had he not reached back out for the gun.

SPEAKER_05 57:12

The gun was there on the hood. If they had survived, how would he have defended the monsters? We're all running circles here. The point is that it was gonna happen that way. One way or another, to some capacity, it was going to happen that way.

SPEAKER_06 57:23

Yes, but it's still fascinating to look back at every single little moment that put them on that course. He could have very easily not grabbed the gun in time before that monster came back.

SPEAKER_03 57:34

Inaction is always easier than action.

SPEAKER_06 57:37

What are we recommending here?

SPEAKER_03 57:39

Just chill. Sit for five, see what happens. Sit around and eat some cereal.

SPEAKER_04 57:45

Sleep on it. Yeah, dude. There's zappos. Food mart has zappos. Just fucking enjoy your life, dude. Just sit down. I rather get stung by a fucking killer bee than get shot in the head. I'd rather be Sally.

SPEAKER_05 57:59

But the problem is that they wouldn't have been stung by the things, they would have been killed by Carmody.

SPEAKER_01 58:04

There's a plethora of things that you could die from, apparently. You can get wrapped up into the cocoons and whatever the hell happens.

SPEAKER_04 58:12

That's fine. It's an acid cocoon. You won't feel it.

SPEAKER_06 58:16

You could also just get final destination while you're trying to fight off these fucking things, light a torch, and then fall into fucking fuel.

SPEAKER_03 58:24

So many bad choices.

SPEAKER_04 58:26

I mean, you also could survive getting shot from the head. You know what I mean? You can survive those. Imagine Billy fucking sits up like ouchy, Dad. No fare.

SPEAKER_03 58:37

Oh my god. He's the one that lives on. Because let's be clear, the guy's gonna kill himself after after the credits roll, he's gonna kill himself within a day. For sure.

SPEAKER_04 58:49

There is too much suicide for my liking in this movie to begin with.

SPEAKER_03 58:52

It's very suicide heavy.

SPEAKER_04 58:54

I'm not into it. This is why I don't like these serious ass fucking movies. Give me all the giant flies, give me the fucking pterodactyl, whatever the fuck that thing was. Give me spiders. I'd rather literally like scary story style pop pimple spiders out of my face than get shot in the head. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_03 59:14

I do not. I would much rather be shot in the head than have spiders burst out of my anything.

SPEAKER_01 59:20

Well, yeah, because it's way quicker to just get shot in the head than it is to get slowly killed by poison. Yeah. Or you have your flesh melted off with some random acidic spider web shit that's flying around. And that whole shit is crazy too. What are they matrixing, dodging all this flying spider web action? I thought that is was incredible, and I'm surprised more people didn't die in that moment.

SPEAKER_04 59:45

Are you saying that's your favorite production element? The flying spiderwebs?

SPEAKER_01 59:50

No, because my least favorite production element is everything visually with anything that has to do with any of the creatures, because there wasn't a single creature that looked great. The spider webs did not look real. I think the mist looked pretty good, so that's good. When you title the movie The Mist, you know, that's good. You want it, you want the mist to look good, so I think they got a win there. But the problem, I think, from a production standpoint is that nothing was super consistent for me. I don't think anything really stands out that's incredible. I do think some of the cinematography, as I said earlier, was really well done. The problem is that it wasn't consistent to the entirety of the film, so I can't justify that as being the best production element. But I think there's tidbits throughout the movie, whether it is some scenes and the work they do with the cinematography, or maybe, I don't know, maybe just the vibes that the mist gives because it reminds me of some days in Jefferson, Maine at my grandparents' house when you're in the middle of fucking nowhere and how creepy it is to walk in the woods when the fog is super dense. Because, you know, this is in the mind of Stephen King. You know, he gets all of his ideas from living in a fucking creepy ass state like Maine.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:58

So this brings me to something I mentioned earlier, which is the movie I was referencing from 1954, Them, exclamation point.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:05

Them, okay, the ants, right? Is that what you're talking about? The killer ants?

SPEAKER_00 1:01:09

Yes, absolutely. The killer ants. This movie was like Stephen King watched them and was like, hmm, I'm gonna go write a novella right now. And and then they made the movie and they were like, you know what, we're gonna watch that movie and then copy that shit too. So it's funny that you mentioned how bad and kind of cheesy some of the CGI really was. I found on this rewatch I did not actually mind it so much. I just expected it, you know, because I knew what to expect it. It just didn't hit me in the same way. What I didn't think about though, like the combination of the set and the wardrobe really was effective for me, giving us a small town feel. Sometimes they want to make it feel small town and it just feels silly. It feels like a caricature, and I think they did a good job here of just making these people look at least pretty realistic for living out in Subaru land, or in this case, Jeep Land.

SPEAKER_06 1:01:57

I'd have to agree with you though though. The the set design in this movie is absolutely fantastic, and it's wild to me that they filmed this shit in Louisiana mostly and made it look like Maine. Like that's honestly just fucking impressive.

SPEAKER_05 1:02:09

It's really fitting that they're doing it in Louisiana because he cited that a lot of inspiration for the film too was Hurricane Katrina, so in that sense, probably a nice move and a little not so nice to do it there. But yeah, my favorite production element, um, is this gonna be the last time I say it, is the fact that it's in black and white. Specifically, how do I say this? Like how black and white it is, because it's not like how do I explain this? Like, I I feel like it could be like the classics that we've been seeing, and you really can't see shit in some moments, and you're like, uh, this is a little too dark. Even in black and white, there are still different tones.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:52

Yeah, there's rich tonality, maybe.

SPEAKER_05 1:02:55

But this is like a light tone when it needs to be, when you can see it in the daytime, and then it gets just the right amount of darkness in the moments that matter. Because when I've seen the movie in color, I'll use the scene where they're in the loading dock as an example. They're in a loading dock and they're holding flashlights, but I can see everything in that motherfucker. Like, why do you even have flashlights? You can see relatively okay. It's not that dark. The same with the pharmacy. It's not that dark. But when it's in black and white, yeah, you need that fucking flashlight. I can't see anything else for the most part around. So then I feel the pressure of what the fuck's about to happen in this loading dock, or really what the fuck's about to happen in that pharmacy for sure. I like the tonality that they use for the black and white. But if we're always gonna say my experience in color, the favorite part of that would just be, I guess, the score in general. The particular song that they use at the end, Stellar.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:46

As far as my favorite visual or production element, it's actually gonna start right at the beginning of the film. I think the title card where it zooms out from the storm and you're back in the house through the window and you see the two of them on either side. I think the framing of that was gorgeous. And I think Sean's something you said earlier really resonated with me where like the cinematography felt inconsistent. There are some really gorgeous, incredible shots like that one I was mentioning. But then there's also times where it feels very haphazard. The interns were in charge that day on set. But I really think that it starts off so stunning with that title card.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:19

And then we immediately jump into watching him paint the gunslinger. That was fun. I really liked that moment. Oh, was that an Easter egg? Indeed, it was. Yeah, there was Stephen King stuff going on inside that studio.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:29

Yeah, that studio had all of it. It had the thing right behind it. It had um a little red balloon to the other side, the little kid with the red balloon. There's some nice little Easter eggs.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:41

I think I missed every Easter egg. I did not know that was a Stephen King thing to do Easter eggs. I will be on the lookout from now on.

SPEAKER_05 1:04:48

The newspaper says Castle Rock, which is like where a main place at a town that he uses a lot. It's everywhere, fam. They didn't hold back.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:55

I love Easter eggs.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:56

I obviously like movies a little bit differently than all of y'all, but I enjoyed being in the supermarket for most of this movie. I think it allowed the desperation of being stuck somewhere to really zone in. And, you know, you're there when it's nice, then you're there when the power is out and it builds it up, which I really liked. Blood, things start falling off the shelves, like the disaster of what is happening in that supermarket grows. But I also really liked the play by play. I think it went at the right pace, everything was the way that it was supposed to be. I enjoyed the like when the insects started coming in so fucking cheesy. So I personally enjoyed that piece because you're like, oh, this is looks really nice. And then you're like, oh, this is never gonna happen. So I liked that kind of roller coaster of emotions. But yeah, if I'm thinking of my favorite scene and the thing that really got me to enjoy this movie, I love the pharmacy scene. I think that that was probably one of my favorite things. I started reading all the pill bottles. I'm like, you're gonna fucking need that, right? You're gonna need that. And then like Like after a few seconds, you start seeing more spider webs in the background, and you're like, Can somebody fucking look at the spider webs? Turn the fuck around. You only lost power like 20 minutes ago. Obviously, this isn't fucking happening. I also enjoyed how hairy and gross those acid spiders were. And I liked how bad they were at missing all of those spider webs. I truly enjoyed it. They were terrible. Like one of them, it was like five seconds, and they're like, Oh, everything was slow-mo. It was so stupid. But again, I liked it.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:31

I guess it's hard to like aim and shoot string out of your ass at something. Yeah, that's a hard thing to do. I guess we'll give them the benefit of the doubt, you know?

SPEAKER_04 1:06:40

It's also made of acid. Imagine how bad that hurts.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:43

That's terrible. That's burning coming out for sure.

SPEAKER_05 1:06:46

Empathizing with these creatures, incredible.

SPEAKER_06 1:06:49

Okay, that scene stressed me out because right now I'm playing a playthrough of Baldur's Gate 3, and I'm trying to do honor mode, and I'm encountering some fucking gigantic ass spiders that shoot acid. I'm like, fuck.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:02

Oh no.

SPEAKER_06 1:07:03

It's so stressful. That's what that scene reminded me of.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:07

It's my favorite part of Harry Potter, dude, killing those fucking spiders. I'm gonna fire them up. Also, Granny knew fire, dude. Just fucking fire them up. Granny knew she was on it.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:19

She was very helpful.

SPEAKER_06 1:07:20

A wise woman, some might say.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:22

I'm gonna go back to the scene that you mentioned with the locusts, those giant bugs appearing on the window. Because I actually enjoyed that scene and the hilarity that ensued with them running around like a 1920s comedy or something like that. It was utterly ridiculous once they broke in. But when they start like pinging against the window, we all know what's gonna happen, right? Like they're gonna they're gonna get in. Something's gonna get in. And the first time you see it, you don't know that something bigger is gonna show up because you haven't listened to Star Wars. There's always a bigger fish, right? But it's just great to watch them show up and everyone's just sitting there stupidly going, Oh, what's that? That's a big bug. Oh my goodness. And you're like, Oh, okay, where's your weapon? Why aren't you armed right now? They're about to give you a bad day right now. There's something like a joke about it, there's something that brings you back to 1950s movies. I just love all everything about it.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:12

Mac, that was my favorite scene too. And I love that you mentioned it all kind of went to shit after they actually got inside. But the buildup to that moment, I think was really effective at another time where I think the cinematography of this movie really shined. I personally, speaking of shining, really wish somebody had figured out the light connection much faster because let's be honest, it's an alien, but you're very much clear on the fact that it's a bug. So I think there's a little bit of common sense we can apply in a situation like this. Again, the decision quality of this movie I cannot commend or stand by in any way. I expected so much more, and honestly, if I was there, I might have gotten myself killed because I'd be like, You're all fucking morons, turn off the lights, dipshits, and they'd be like, Wow, this bitch is pissing us all off. Bang, bang. There goes Marsha Gay, my way. But ultimately, that scene on its own was very cool. I loved the way they panned across the glass and kind of showed each person up against it, just been awe and also horror. I think that was really cool.

SPEAKER_06 1:09:12

For sure. That's such a good scene. I don't think the hilarity of it really hits for me, except for the absurdity of the final destination of it when he ends up burning himself. But I think what really does it for me is how effective the supermarket setting is. I'm thinking about my actual favorite scene, and it's what I mentioned earlier of this group of men who leave the store, make it two to three hundred feet, and then all of a sudden they're gone. One of them gets bisected. And I'm realizing though, it's honestly every moment. I'm working now in a place that has gigantic windows for walls, and now all I'm gonna think about is this fucking movie.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:49

But that's Florida girl.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:51

When I talk about the cinematography and and stuff like that, I think that the scene where they are in the loading dock, and then we first get introduced to the monster in the mist, or one of the monsters or creatures in the mist with the tentacle and norm and all that. But I think the chaos that ensues in the back in that warehouse as they were fighting off that monster trying to save Norm, I think the cinematography and the editing in that sequence was, I think, really great. Obviously, the CGI was complete shit, but everything else I think was pretty good about that scene. And I think even right after that scene, there was a campy, hilarious moment when they all realize that the entire front of the store is all glass, and the thing can just bust through the shit super easy, and just the looks on their faces when they all make that connection and they're just like, Oh yeah, like that was a great moment. So I'll give it there, but also visually, not a scene in general, but just some of the things we get where we are just looking out into the mist and we see people disappear into the mist, or then you're looking for someone to come out of the mist, and you're trying to see, and all of a sudden somebody pops out of nowhere. I think what they did with that visually was really great. Not necessarily a scene for that, but I think it was a good touch to the film, and I think it could have been really good if they did a lot more of that and a lot less of actually seeing some of the monsters. This could have been something really great with maybe like a cloverfield vibe where you don't really get to see much, you just get to know that shit's happening. You can hear what's happening, you can see the aftermath of what's happening, maybe get a little bit of the creature, but not the whole thing.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:29

Yeah, we definitely saw way too much at times, and like we've been mentioning, the CGI wasn't really there to back that up. I think hindsight is 2020, of course, but whenever your CGI isn't up to snuff, you don't have to show us too much. Just give us enough, you know? We don't need to see every single thing, like cobweb, and then look how that ended.

SPEAKER_05 1:11:49

Beautifully.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:50

Honestly, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:11:51

I mentioned earlier the host of Seraphim, it's the score that plays at the end. That's my favorite scene, is when they get to the car and that song starts because that's when the core memory begins. That's when everyone remembers what this ending is. It's at the start of that song until the very end. And yeah, maybe you couldn't hear the army of tanks and military with the song. But really, it's because it wasn't there to begin with. But you get the joke. The point is that that song is so fascinating because throughout the whole film there is no real score, there is no real songs or music that's playing, it's just that one song. And man oh man, for some reason it sets the ambiance of maybe a little bit of hope, but then a lot of fucking dread.

SPEAKER_06 1:12:38

You know what else I was dreading in this movie? All the eye fucking between Amanda and David.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:43

Oh yeah. And so soon.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:45

It's true. And he didn't even know his wife was dead at that point, even though we all could assume that she was probably dead, but at that point, you don't know.

SPEAKER_06 1:12:52

Yeah, that was a lot of tension. So apparently it was originally gonna be written that they already knew each other and they were having an affair, but then they decided to just leave that out of the movie, but they absolutely fucking filmed it that way.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:04

They brought that right into the movie.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:06

Yeah. It didn't make sense without that detail. They probably were having an affair in real life, who knows?

SPEAKER_05 1:13:12

They definitely filmed it that way, but omitted it also because they want viewers to like David. They want him to be this dad that was loyal and you can get behind and really want him to lead everyone to safety. And no one's gonna really buy that too much if on the side he's sleeping around and being unfaithful. Because then honestly, then the ending really would have changed, especially with the fact that he would have never stopped by his house. So then maybe they would have saved some more gas, gone a little bit further, and there you go. You have your change of ending.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:44

He was ready to leave his wife as soon as he got to that grocery store. He said, Oh, okay, I didn't realize I was married anymore. I'm sorry, I forgot. It was so soon.

SPEAKER_06 1:13:54

No, 100%. And here's the other struggle for me. I think I buy even less of their relationship because I don't think this man can cry well. I think he can scream well. When he first starts this reaction to killing the rest of the survivors and then also finding out that it could have been different, there is a moment where it seems like he's crying, but the beginning of his screams are so fucking weird, and it does not hit for me at all. He gets into it. The longer he goes, the better it gets. But it's that moment, and then the crying in the car when he finds his wife dead, I'm like, those are fake tears. Those are the tears of a man who had his wife killed for the insurance money.

SPEAKER_03 1:14:33

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_04 1:14:34

Can I tell you though? He already, this is why A, I don't trust David, and B, I don't like David. And it came rather quickly. I think him going into the grocery store when all this shit is going down and his kids like crying. And he like, first off, that kid's like 13. Why the fuck are you picking him up like he's two? What the fuck? Nobody found that weird. He cradled that like a little baby, hated that. But then he's holding him and he's like, Don't cry. What the fuck? This kid's worried about his mom. He's having all of these emotions, and he's like, We don't cry. I'm like, okay, already didn't like him since that moment. I'm like, we are a horrible father, and you fucking ruined your painting.

SPEAKER_05 1:15:13

I don't know. But tell me that that isn't very reminiscent of something our parents would say because I feel like I got the don't cry all of the fucking time, and that's why I have a slew of issues. Yeah. But you know what didn't happen? We're alive.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:27

It's the I'll give you something to cry about. That's the line.

SPEAKER_05 1:15:31

That's the yeah. You want to cry and you're gonna cry in front of all these people and embarrass me. I'm gonna give you something to really cry about.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:15:37

But you weren't fucking crying with a misty alien attack in a fucking grocery store bank.

SPEAKER_05 1:15:44

I don't know.

SPEAKER_04 1:15:44

My mother would probably I don't think my dad would have been like, don't fucking cry if I'm like, oh no, what's going to happen to mom? My dad would probably be like, oh no, your mom, like equally. He wouldn't be like, shut the fuck up, you stupid little 14-year-old kid that I have to carry like this. I'm so disturbed. Why did he pick him up like that, dude? Grab him from the shirt or something. I hated it.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:06

There's something to be said about this kid too. You're on this tangent about this kid and why is he 13 or whatever, being held like he's a baby. As much as I hated to see Billy go, I really don't think Billy added much value at all to this film. This motherfucker was sleeping for three quarters of the fucking movie. Why is this kid always fucking sleeping? You can't just sleep your problems away.

SPEAKER_05 1:16:28

He was a prop.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:29

Yeah, he was set decoration.

SPEAKER_05 1:16:31

Plot twist. Sean is the one that's like, don't fucking cry.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:34

Yeah, well, that's just the years of abuse, you know?

SPEAKER_05 1:16:37

It'll do it. It'll do it to you.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:16:39

So bad. Can we also talk about Carmedy just for a second? Because yes, I gotta say, to some extent, the monologues were doing a lot. The script, I was back in mass. I was like, oh, here we go. It was getting a little too much. However, I would argue that the movie can incite some level of fandom towards her a little bit because she's just so loony, and people love a loony girl. Yeah, they love a psycho bitch. And to some extent, she was doing a good job at that too. No, she was doing great. It makes you question though. To some extent, she had a lot of things stacked up in her favor as evidence to gain followership, right? That insect thing was on top of her and it didn't do a thing to her.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:22

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:17:23

The locusts, and then it's the flies.

SPEAKER_04 1:17:26

They don't want that. They don't want that negative energy juju blood, bro.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:30

That's when she got really larger than life. She was like, Oh, you see, you see now.

SPEAKER_05 1:17:34

The moment that fly flew away, sh the ego was busted. There was no stopping her.

SPEAKER_03 1:17:39

Do we think that she was an absolute nut job before the events of the mist? Like she was kind of like the town kook, or was she like a perfectly respectable woman who goes to church regularly and then this happened and she lost it?

SPEAKER_01 1:17:53

No. She was like a doomsayer.

SPEAKER_03 1:17:55

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 1:17:56

They said, um, I think it was Ollie that was addressing the girl. She started saying to people that weren't from town that she is the local loony.

SPEAKER_01 1:18:05

The local that. But she did a great job with that character, and she played that loony character very well. And to be able to see, well, she did all this, but to be able to see how her character developed and slowly transformed as the film progressed, I think was really well done on her part because it she went from crazy to crazy biblical to okay, maybe she's on to something, to wow, she just took over this whole scenario. And it it was interesting to see that progression for sure. I think she did a good job.

SPEAKER_04 1:18:35

Can I do a riddle-me this with the campiness that we all love, aka myself? But in my favorite movies, if you are a sexual being that is getting laid, you're gonna get killed. But in this movie, Sally did not put out, she didn't even want to fucking go do more than kiss, and then she fucking still died. So you die a virgin, you don't die a virgin, but you're still dead and horny, I guess.

SPEAKER_03 1:19:01

Yeah, you might as well fuck.

SPEAKER_04 1:19:03

You might as well, dude. At least a guy with a uniform, you know what I mean? With the with those eyebrows?

SPEAKER_06 1:19:08

Fuck that.

SPEAKER_00 1:19:09

Yeah, an ugly hot guy. I don't know. He was giving uh 18-year-old soldier going after a 16-year-old from his old high school.

SPEAKER_06 1:19:16

Yeah, it's giving boat goggles where all of a sudden the fucking three becomes an eight. No, absolutely not.

SPEAKER_03 1:19:22

Yeah, no, for sure. Contextually hot.

SPEAKER_04 1:19:25

There's no power, it's only candlelights. You do what you gotta do. You're not even seeing straight.

SPEAKER_00 1:19:30

Can I call it a character that I feel like you guys would identify me with? It's just because of the Andre Brouwer of it all, honestly. He was kind of a jerk, but I still was getting the captain from Brooklyn 99 vibes, which I also enjoyed. His just not believing anything. Yeah, I'm probably closer to being him in this type of that type of situation.

SPEAKER_03 1:19:50

Like so skeptical that it becomes irrational. Exactly.

SPEAKER_05 1:19:54

Hate to say it, but yes, you're getting misted.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:57

It would be hilarious though, if he was the one in the back of the truck driving by at the end. Just like, ha ha, see you later. That would have been great.

SPEAKER_05 1:20:06

That would have been so great, but also that it was that I already got that vibe from the girl. Yeah. But then if it was him, oh he serves him with papers because he was gonna sue him.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:17

He'd be like, You've been served. You got served, bitch.

SPEAKER_06 1:20:21

Yeah. Imagine this. You're David, you just killed your son and the rest of those survivors. Then all of a sudden, you get to a point where you have to get served papers because you're at fault for endangering him by bringing him to the supermarket.

SPEAKER_00 1:20:37

He's gonna make you pay for your own tree. That's what's gonna happen. I I do want to bring about, I think, what was one of the worst parts of this movie, though, related to these characters. And that is the fact that some of these characters are so stubborn throughout the film, but somehow they buy into this rapture stuff way too easily. It's been like two hours of hearing it, and they're like, Yeah, yeah, I I agree. It's the wrath of God. Sounds good.

SPEAKER_03 1:20:58

Indoctrinated very quickly.

SPEAKER_06 1:21:00

Well, I guess seeing is believing, right? And when you see a bunch of shit you don't believe in, you probably start easily believing in another shit you don't believe in.

SPEAKER_03 1:21:07

That actually makes sense. You're more malleable.

SPEAKER_04 1:21:10

Yeah, it's the losing the faith in everything else and having just nothing to look forward to that you're like, all right, I'm gonna now believe in something that actually doesn't make sense.

SPEAKER_00 1:21:19

Right. Let me just buy into this demagogue. Yeah, that's she's right, obviously. Yeah, I need this right now.

SPEAKER_01 1:21:26

Well, here's the thing. We could easily just keep slandering the visual effects or whatever, but I think the worst part of the movie is probably just, you know, it's one thing to have creatures, right? You're this is a creature flick, whatever, that's cool. Sci-fi. Why do we have so many different creatures? Like, why do we have spiders and random waspy hornet things and then a fucking pterodactyl out of nowhere and a fucking octopus tentacle that we never fucking get to like see again, and these fucking giant crab things. What the fuck is happening? The military created all these fucking things. What are these fucking things? They came from outer space. This is some fucking crazy shit. I don't know. Maybe just dial it back a little bit, give us one creature to deal with and not an army of six different creatures. It all goes back to like less is more or whatever, but if you're gonna do creatures, I just feel like there were so many that it was overwhelming. It's like, fuck, I gotta deal with these things in the air, and then I go in here, and then I gotta deal with fucking acid spider fucking webs shooting at me. What is happening right now?

SPEAKER_06 1:22:27

You know what it reminds me of? It reminds me of the last birthday episode we did where it was sci-fi, and then Mac had like millions of insect creatures surrounding us.

SPEAKER_00 1:22:36

Oh yeah. Classic choice.

SPEAKER_04 1:22:38

I was waiting for the attack of the killer tomatoes. That's what I wanted.

SPEAKER_00 1:22:44

There you go.

SPEAKER_06 1:22:45

Yeah, I've harped enough among the bad CGI. I think apart from that, the worst part of this movie is actually David. I think I'm just really not a fan of him.

SPEAKER_01 1:22:54

Hmm. He was good until he wasn't.

SPEAKER_06 1:22:57

He was fine until he wasn't.

SPEAKER_03 1:23:00

He was there until he wasn't.

SPEAKER_06 1:23:02

That is actually a better way of putting it, Paris. Can only go for so long. I feel like his performance was actually pretty good until the two times he's supposed to show emotion, and then I'm like, oh, this is why you weren't showing emotion the whole time. Let's go back to that.

SPEAKER_03 1:23:14

Because he didn't have the range.

SPEAKER_06 1:23:16

Yes, he lacked the range with which to express an emote.

SPEAKER_03 1:23:20

For me to pick a best part of this movie, having hacked it, is actually not that hard. I did mention in my hack that this movie is fun in a Jumanji kind of way, and I really do believe that. I think this is a family-friendly type of horror movie that I think there's something for everybody to enjoy. I don't know if children should see this, but I feel like it would be fine. And it also has sort of a nostalgic energy that's like reminiscent of movies that like have a certain quality, both aesthetically and narratively, that I think can be like comfortable and a movie you can revisit pretty regularly. I absolutely understand why people like this movie. None of the slashes are surprising to me. It's just not my personal thing. So this movie I think has some great qualities to it.

SPEAKER_00 1:24:03

Well, if you're ever in the mood for something like it, just go watch the 2001 masterpiece Evolution with David Ducovny. Wait, I've seen that. I actually like that movie more. It's great. It's just like the slightly sillier version of this, right?

SPEAKER_03 1:24:15

Yeah, with more head and shoulders. Exactly.

SPEAKER_04 1:24:18

For me, I think the worst part is again like the suicide vibes to it, the like fully lost hope, the realness. I don't like the realness. I don't want to feel fucking sad. I don't want to have people that have no other way of getting around. Give me the fucking bugs, give me the flies, give me all the gross stuff, but definitely not the suicide part. Give me flies, not feels. Yes. Oh my god, I need a shirt. Give me flies, not feels. That's me.

SPEAKER_05 1:24:48

I also will not be bringing up the CGI of it all as the worst part. Instead, I'm gonna say Sam Whitware's eyebrows because it's given him a bad rep and it's unfortunate, but it is the worst part because now no one will give him a shot because they're gonna just see this movie, see those eyebrows, and just not even see who he really is. He looks better now. I don't know. That's a load of I don't know what because he could be a terrible person for all I know. And he does look better now. This is true. But I don't want people to only know him from this film and then be like, those eyebrows? Fuck no.

SPEAKER_06 1:25:21

Yeah, it's really rough. You can just you can't make those kind of mistakes. That's a face ruiner. His face is fine.

SPEAKER_03 1:25:27

I don't know. There's some really intense chin, mouth, that area action that's happening. I think there's multiple things at play here that are, yeah, it's a lot going on. But you're right, there are definitely elements that's that are working for him. So it's tough. He's ugly hot to me.

SPEAKER_00 1:25:43

Aside from the depressing ending, I think that this is a creature feature with some solid rewatch points. I think many of us here have seen this multiple times and have enjoyed it each time. Even if it's lessened a little bit for you, Chris, I think we've still found enjoyment each time.

SPEAKER_01 1:25:57

Yeah, I think you're onto something. I think it definitely has rewatch value. I'm more curious to go back and read the novella first because I haven't read that, and then I want to revisit the film again just to see if the general consensus that this movie is one of the better Stephen King adaptations, if that actually that sentiment holds up. But I also think if I do revisit it, it's gonna have to be on the search for that black and white version because I just think that that is an interesting way to watch this film that might actually add value to it.

SPEAKER_06 1:26:29

Yeah, I've got one more watch of this movie left in me, and it's gonna be the black and white version, and it's gonna be in a lineup of classic sci-fi movies.

SPEAKER_03 1:26:37

Because the man I love most in this world loves this movie, I will probably be seeing this again. But I think he'll be excited to know about the black and white thing of it all, because he loves 1950s black and white content. So the next time we watch it, we'll probably also be in black and white. So thanks for the tip.

SPEAKER_04 1:26:51

I'm just gonna go watch the thing. There you go. Call it a day.

SPEAKER_06 1:26:55

Probably a better way to spend your time. Less sad. Somehow, still as hopeless and bleak, but also less sad. Isn't that wild?

SPEAKER_04 1:27:04

I know. I it's just yeah, or the blob. One of those two, but I think those over this. I love it. It's there. If it's on, I will never turn it off. But I don't think I'm gonna go looking for it again. Oh.

SPEAKER_05 1:27:17

And I'm the opposite. Now that I've watched it last year, I've watched it this year. This might be a yearly thing for me, and it will only be in black and white moving forward.

SPEAKER_06 1:27:25

Well, rewatchability aside, there you have it, folks. The mist from 2007, as selected by our patrons, has earned one hack and five slashes. Now we've certainly had a robust discussion here, but it doesn't end here by any means. We want to know what you think.

SPEAKER_05 1:27:38

Would you risk the mist or join the cult? Let us know. You can join in on the conversation by hanging out with us for free in our Discord. Click the link in our show notes to sign up.

SPEAKER_00 1:27:46

If you've enjoyed listening to this episode, consider becoming one of our patrons. Visit patreon.comslash hackerslash to enjoy more of the show with early access, extended episodes, bonus content, and live shows.

SPEAKER_06 1:27:56

We'll see you next time, folks. And remember, if you scare people badly, enough you can get them to do anything.

SPEAKER_01 1:28:02

I just need to use the bathroom.