The Mist in Black & White

(Since this a review of an alternate version of a film that’s been out for a while, it probably contains spoilers. If you haven’t seen The Mist, read at your own discretion.)

When Stephen King wrote his classic novella The Mist, first printed in the great collection Dark Forces in 1980, he envisioned it as a throwback to the black & white creature features of the 50s, particularly referencing the films of Bert I. Gordon. Although it may well be the most cinematic of King’s works, it wasn’t until 2007 that Frank Darabont was able to bring it to the screen, and although Darabont shared King’s vision, by this time a black & white film was seen as a commercial impossibility. Technology, however, offered new options. Additional features have long been a staple on DVD releases, and with the advent of digital filming, it is no longer necessary to cut a negative to get a print of the movie, so removing the color is relatively simple. Therefore, on the 2-disc version of The Mist, the most interesting feature is a presentation of the movie in black & white. As someone who loves old movies, and who liked the color version of the movie, I was eager to see if this works.

Black & white is, of course, a “retro” look for movies, and it does give the movie a timeless look, putting it more squarely in the locale of 50s/60s movies like THEM! Or Night of the Living Dead, although the violence is obviously more graphic than anything seen in 1954. The major advantage of black & white photography is the starkness of the contrast in the images, which brought out small features unnoticed originally. For example, the spider-creatures have some very unusual looking teeth. There is also an inherent spookiness in the shadows of b & w photography, which has given the old film noirs their distinctive look.

The major downside of this version is the movie was not shot in black & white. This is a decision, along with film stock, whether or not to go digital, etc., that informs many of the artistic choices in shooting the film. Lighting, costuming, set design, and makeup decisions are made with an eye toward how the film will look in theaters. (The makeup used on performers in the Gold Age of Hollywood, in fact, was a light green, which made skin tone show up well in b& w.). For this reason, The Mist in Black & White doesn’t look quite like a b & w movie, but a color movie with the color turned off. It doesn’t look quite natural.

As for as the movie itself, the elements which worked well in the theatrical version still work here. There is a claustrophobic sense of suspense, and you feel the growing desperation of the characters as their hopes begin to fail. If you liked it in color, no reason you shouldn’t like it in black & white.

I’d like to recap a few differences between the movie and the original story, and my opinion of the changes. There were three major changes that I caught, not counting the new characters and sub-plots added to stretch out the story. (Here’s where the spoilers start.)

First of all, the suicide of the two soldiers is moved. In the story, as soon as the soldiers realize something’s happened, they hang themselves, and in the film it is moved toward the end of the action. I think the story version is much creepier. There’s something about the idea of these two young men, who know more than the rest what’s going on, seeing the mist and the first thing to come out of it, and saying, that’s it, we’re fucked beyond hope, and deciding it would be better to die than try to survive. Moving this mutes the horror of it, in my opinion.

Secondly, the fate of David Drayton’s wife. In the story, the survivors try to reach his wife, but can’t get to the lake house because of fallen trees, while in the movie, they reach it to find her killed by the spider-things. While the movie’s treatment is more visually arresting, the true horror is in the story. Not knowing the fate of a loved one, but imagining the worst, is more horrifying than anything you could know. I would have preferred the ambiguity of the story.

The final change, and the one I do like, is the controversial ending. In the story, it ends with the survivors journeying on through an endless mist, hoping to find some limit to it. In the movie, David Drayton is driven to the end of his hope and makes a tragic and fateful choice. This has been one of the more polarizing things to have happened in movies in a long time. Some people love it for its gut-wrenching impact, while others passionately hate it because of Drayton’s mistake. I’m with the former, but there is no right or wrong answer, you’ll have to judge for yourself. And you should.