10 March 2008

The Mist มฤตยูหมอกกินมนุษย์


I didn't know much about this film but I heard that there were people talking about it in the Pantip webboard, especially about its ending. So today we headed to Esplanade to watch it, hoping to see what all the fuss was all about and I was not disappointed.

A lot of people would've thought that it's a plain monster film, but halfway through I started to feel that there's definitely something more to it than that. For me, The Mist is a cross between H.G. Wells' The War of the Worlds and William Golding's Lord of the Flies. Beneath the surface of the monster thriller lies Stephen King's exploration of human nature and anxiety especially when they are scared of the unknown.

Because of this reason, I found myself deeply engrossed with the film, but the feeling was more of depression than excitement. I don't mean that I was saddened because King didn't do justice to what he promised to deliver. Far from that, the dialogue and the plot were so well-crafted that I was led to believe that we humans are capable of a lot of atrocious acts that can turn us against one another or even make us kill one another without any trace of remorse. In the film, King touches on such sensitive issues as religion, faith, and human frailty in the face of the unknown. The mist functions like darkness, serving as an apt setting that contributes to uneasiness and fear. In this atmosphere of uncertainty, we humans are capable of everything, both good and bad, only for the sake of self-preservation.

I won't give away the ending. Suffice to say that it's also an important turn that drives home the existential questions of the film -- whether God exists and whether we are so infinitesimal compared to Him.

No comments: