The Mist
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) | Release Date: November 21, 2007 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
58
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 29 Critic Reviews
Positive:
16
Mixed:
12
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
88
Chicago TribuneMichael Phillips
Good and creepy, The Mist comes from a Stephen King novella and is more the shape, size and quality of the recent “1408,” likewise taken from a King story, than anything in the persistently fashionable charnel house inhabited by the “Saw” and “Hostel” franchises. Read full review
88
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
What a horror film SHOULD be - dark, tense, and punctuated by just enough gore to keep the viewer's flinch reflex intact. Read full review
83
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
There's a grim modern parable to be read into the dangerous effects of the gospel-preaching local crazy lady Mrs. Carmody (brilliantly played by a hellfire Marcia Gay Harden) on a congregation of the fearful. Read full review
83
The A.V. ClubTasha Robinson
What is surprising is how he (Darabont) rebounds from his weak, awkwardly compressed opening to produce one of the scariest King films since Stanley Kubrick's "The Shining." Read full review
83
Portland OregonianM. E. Russell
In the parlance of the kids today, the movie totally goes there. Read full review
80
Film ThreatPete Vonder Haar
I think this one of the first King movies to legitimately give me the creeps. Read full review
80
EmpireTom Ambrose
Criminally overlooked in the States, this is one of the best horror movies of the last few years. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChroniclePeter Hartlaub
While it's riveting throughout, The Mist is a bit bloated. Read full review
75
Miami HeraldRene Rodriguez
It's a B-movie with A-list aspirations, and it's at its best when it's not trying to be something it isn't. Read full review
75
Charlotte ObserverLawrence Toppman
At its best, The Mist just wants to make you jump. Read full review
70
Chicago ReaderJ.R. Jones
Darabont doesn't match the sly cultural commentary of "The Host," a recent Korean import that also revamped the giant-monster genre, but his grocery-store survival drama, dominated by Marcia Gay Harden as a shrill fundamentalist, serves as a crude but effective allegory for post-9/11 America. Read full review
67
Seattle Post-IntelligencerAndy Spletzer
The scenes that really work are the ones that take place outside the supermarket, in the beginning and at the end of the film. In fact, the "Twilight Zone"-inspired ending nearly makes up for all that comes before. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleMarjorie Baumgarten
Unlike King, Darabont ends this story with a drop kick to the cerebellum, a change from the original that shocks the viewer and leave little doubt that Darabont thinks we're all headed to hell in a hand basket. Read full review
63
USA TodayClaudia Puig
More thought-provoking than frightening. Its stubbornly cynical attitude makes it worth watching, more than the monsters or the impenetrable mist (which looks spewed from a fog machine) engulfing a small town in Maine. Read full review
63
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
The movie has a monster problem -- the more you see of them, the less scary they are -- most of the characters are standard-issue types, and Harden seriously overdoes the pious psycho bit. Read full review
63
PremiereEric Alt
This one aims for bleak and hits it. Read full review
60
The New YorkerAnthony Lane
The Mist is itself a supermarket of B-movie essentials, handsomely stocked with bad science, stupid behavior, chewable lines of dialogue, religious fruitcakes, and a fine display of monsters. Read full review
60
Washington PostStephen Hunter
More political allegory than horror movie. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterMichael Rechtshaffen
Less horrific than it is horribly didactic. Read full review
50
VarietyJustin Chang
Much nastier and less genteel than his best-known Stephen King adaptations ("The Shawshank Redemption," "The Green Mile"), Frank Darabont's screw-loose doomsday thriller works better as a gross-out B-movie than as a psychological portrait of mankind under siege, marred by one-note characterizations and a tone that veers wildly between snarky and hysterical. Read full review
50
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
If you have seen ads or trailers suggesting that horrible things pounce on people, and they make you think you want to see this movie, you will be correct. It is a competently made Horrible Things Pouncing on People Movie. If you think Frank Darabont has equaled the "Shawshank" and "Green Mile" track record, you will be sadly mistaken. Read full review
50
The New York TimesManohla Dargis
Until the director Frank Darabont decides that he’s saying something important instead of making a nifty horror movie, The Mist isn’t half bad. Read full review
50
New York Daily NewsJack Mathews
The brutally ironic ending, I might add, won't make anybody very happy about having chosen The Mist for their evening's entertainment. Read full review
50
New York PostKyle Smith
A pretentious left-wing monster movie with about 15 minutes of alarming creatures and a whole lot of bickering, is a pre-9/11 story which Stephen King wrote eons ago. It operates in the post-9/11 era about as well as a Studebaker at the Daytona 500. Read full review
50
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
The Mist contains nary a dollop of wit and irony. As adapted and directed by Frank Darabont, there's no ambiguity either. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeTy Burr
The Mist doesn't provoke further thought; it provokes active annoyance at being punished in the service of a pulp morality tale with pretensions. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick Groen
I wouldn't say this is laugh-out-loud risible, but there are definitely moments. Still, you might want to consider sitting through the uneven thing just to get to the ending, because that's quite something. You may love it, you may hate it, but forget it you won't. Read full review
40
New York Magazine (Vulture)David Edelstein
A derivative horror picture that somehow rises to the level of a primal scream. The premise is simple, by which I mean both easy to understand and feeble-minded. Read full review
30
Village VoiceChuck Wilson
A lumbering and depressing movie. Read full review
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