But while the setup is familiar, that is where the similarities end. The important thing is not the setup, but the way the characters deal with the encroaching evil and with each other. It is in this that The Mist is a smashing success.

The setting is a small, close-knit town in Maine. One night a powerful storm rages through, leaving a path of destruction in its wake. While David Drayton (Thomas Jane) and his family survey the damage, they notice a thick mist resting ominously over a lake. David, his son Billy, and not-so-friendly neighbor Brent Norton (Andre Braugher) head into town to pick up some supplies. As they arrive at the supermarket, the mist from the lake has followed them, blanketing the town in a fog that is impossible to see through. A man runs into the store, bloodied and claiming that there is something in the mist. And that is where everything begins to go downhill.

The small town's friendly facade peels back, revealing just what can happen in the face of the unknown, and just how quickly society can regress, giving the more vocal doomsayers a readily agreeable flock to preach to. The locals and weekenders in the store split between the reasonable David and the religious zealot Ms. Carmody (Marcia Gay Harden).

What sparks the split? Think about it. You are trapped inside a store, completely enveloped by an impenetrable mist, and someone has just told you that there is something out there. How long before society begins to break down? Then, while you're in the storage room, attempting fix the generator, the back door is opened. Tentacles reach in and violently snatch away one of your own. With this evidence of what is in the mist, life as you know it will never be the same.

Okay, forget about the details, what is important is how everything is handled, for therein lies the magic of The Mist. The core of the story is one of apocalyptic horror, or survival horror - either term fits the bill, with its cynical view of man's inhumanity to man when faced with a crisis of epic proportions.

On one side is David and his sensible desire to figure out what is going on outside prior to making a judgment. On the other is Ms. Carmody, who sees the mist as the end of days, preaching to the converted with more and more fervor as the outside attacks commence. What exactly Darabont and King are attempting to say about man's reactions and cruelty, or the place of religious beliefs (extreme or otherwise), I am not sure. The more I think about it the more I do not really care. What really holds attention is the atmosphere and tension, not to mention the insane appearances of, and chaos caused by, the seemingly Lovecraft-inspired beasties.