The Mist (2007)
Produced, Directed and Written by Frank Darabont
Based on a Novella by Stephen King
The Setup
The Mist is a horror film with just a minimum of setup before we get to the main action – that of a group of people trapped in a local town supermarket, forced to do what it takes to survive the strange, hungry monsters that are unleashed along with a strange mist that sweeps into the town. Additionally, they must deal with each other, forming groups with different agendas and ideas about how to survive.
The protagonist, David Drayton, is thinly defined, but in his Ordinary World, we learn about him throughout the film:
- he is a father to a young son, Billy and a husband to his wife, Stephanie
- he is a local, lifelong resident of the town the in which the film takes place
- he is a reasonably successful commercial artist, painting movie posters and selling them to Hollywood companies
- he’s also a neighbor to Brent Norton – an outsider to the town that he’s had conflict with in the past, including a lawsuit filed against David by Brent
- later in the film, he’s accused of being a bit to “uppity” with his success even though he’s also a “local”
A storm rolls in to town, upsetting things and highlighting, perhaps uncovering, some issues in David’s life:
- the storm stops David from finishing a painting he’s working on, jeopardizing his deadline
- the storm knocks a tree down on David’s property, destroying his art studio and the paintings he was working on
- the storm also knocks a tree down from Brent (the neighbor’s) property, causing it to fall on David’s boat house, destroying it
- the storm also knocks out power to the area around David’s house, prompting him to go into town to get supplies.
Just under the surface
The image of a storm itself can symbolize tensions building up, then releasing, in David’s mind. David and Stephanie look out over the nearby lake (a symbol of the unconscious) and notice a mysterious Mist approaching. David comments that mists are generated by two weather fronts coming together – on a psychological level, we’re getting some foreshadowing that perhaps two different, and opposing, ideas are forming in David’s unconscious and are coming toward, and threatening, David, his home, his family and his Ordinary World (in other words, rising into consciousness).
Damage from his neighbor’s fallen, already dead, but never removed, tree, forces him to confront his neighbor, Brent; but first he is warned by his wife not to escalate the already existing tensions there. Apparently, there are deep-seated tensions in the town about locals and outsiders, and new-to-the-town Brent previously sued David about something, but lost. The already dead tree that has fallen can represent the previous conflicted nature of David’s relationship with Brent, it was never properly disposed of and continued to promise more conflict. David and Brent manage to come to a tenuous agreement and partnership about heading into town to get supplies – probably not a good thing for David, psychologically, since Brent basically represents conflict, personified. Billy asks his father if he and Brent are going to be friends now – David replies that he thinks that might happen. Bad news.
As an artist, David could also be seen as someone having problems with his ability to express himself artistically – the storm destroyed his studio, not so much the rest of his house. Included in the destruction is his latest paintings (interestingly, of Stephen King’s “Gunslinger” character – about which a few more articles can be written). So, on a symbolic level, David is apparently having creativity problems – the issue starting to bubble up and disrupt the status quo is causing him to have problems with his creativity.
David leaves with Brent, the neighbor, and Billy, – he leaves his wife behind as they go into town to get supplies. At the supermarket, there is an assortment of people doing pretty much the same. It isn’t too long before the mist reaches the supermarket, causing fear to settle in – which then turns to panic as word comes around that there are killer monsters in the mist, preying on anyone foolish enough to venture outdoors.
As David interacts with the locals, we learn of the dichotomy that has David caught in the middle – that of “locals” and “outsiders”. David is a local, but apparently his success as an artist has made him a bit of an outsider. This is also symbolized by the fact that the tree that fell into his house and destroyed his paintings is described as his “father’s tree”. It’s uprooted (David is feeling that way himself) and crashes into the art studio – the place where David expresses himself creatively.
So David has some inner conflicts in play – his success is causing him to feel uprooted from the local community, and possibly from his own beginnings (his father’s tree). This feeling is causing him to have a creative blockage. And the unconscious is bubbling up, throwing all sorts of terrifying monsters at him – probably symbolic of his feelings about the town itself – it’s trying to devour him. David’s only idea is to escape – leave the town and drive as far away as possible. But he can’t see a way out of the town (literally, because of the mist) and the monsters that have been let loose don’t want to let him go.
I have to conclude that the inner conflict David is really feeling is that he’s torn between staying in the small town and being just a “local” or venturing out to become a more successful, more professionally-connected, commercial artist (and guilt about being a bit full of himself for his talent and success). Leaving the town, where his family was rooted, is a painful decision for him. It could put him at odds with his wife too, but he’s feeling an inner imperative to venture out and away from the town.
If it were a dream…
If David was a real person who was a successful commercial artist and who, one evening had a dream that a storm uprooted his father’s tree, knocking it into his house and destroying his artwork, it would be easy to interpret the dream as emotional feelings (storm) about feeling uprooted (the tree), causing him to have problems with his artistic expressions (the destruction of his art studio). One would be right to ask him if there’s something troubling him about where he is right now and where he wants to be – if there’s some inner conflict causing him trouble.
Conflicts, allies and enemies
It appears at first that David should be an effective leader in the supermarket. He and Ollie, a store clerk, learn the truth about the dangers of the mist and the monsters it contains, but he has trouble convincing the others in the store of the true nature of the threat. Various ways of dealing with this problem are attempted by different factions within the supermarket:
1. A woman in the supermarket, focused on the safety of her children she left behind, leaves. She asks around for people to help her, but is turned down by all, including David. She leaves, and it’s a mystery if she made it, but the assumption is that she doesn’t. But everyone else was too afraid to help or accompany her.
2. One group feels that there is nothing to fear in the mist – they are skeptical and unwilling to listen. This group is led by the neighbor, Brent. They don’t believe anything they’re told about the actual dangers in the mist. They head out along with another man on a separate smaller mission to get a gun. That man is tethered by a rope held by David others in the store – when the group goes out, we hear a lot of screaming and all that is pulled back via the tether is the man’s lower torso and legs. We’re pretty sure that they all were killed by the creatures of the mist.
3. The third group re-interprets everything they see and experience about the mist into a religious framework – almost welcoming the destruction as vindication of their beliefs as they welcome the Armageddon. Their leader, Mrs. Carmody, convinces her growing group of followers that the monsters are punishment from God for the hubris of mankind.
4. David forms a small group of realists – they are caught in the middle because they have no easy answers about what’s happening, other than a strong will to live and escape.
The group of religionists gain power and influence in the supermarket over time. David seems to be unable to convince them that they are wrong-headed in their attitude. And the creatures of the mist almost back up the religionists leader, Mrs. Carmody. She’s left unscathed during one particularly vicious attack by the creatures.
Mrs. Carmody believes that it’s hubris that brought about the monster invasion, even though she seems to be particularly full of herself. She accuses the military of hubris and gets a confession from the one surviving military man that the military scientists opened a doorway to another dimension (another symbol of the unconscious) letting in the mist and the monsters. This story about the scientists opening the doorway feels like it’s an add-on just so that there’s some practical explanation, when really the monsters are more symbolic than anything else, but even in this explanation, we get a justification that again sounds like symbolism.
Given the theme of conflict in the film, it’s interesting that the military itself is blamed for the accident that brought the monsters into our world – the military being another representative of the idea of conflict.
In the supermarket, David meets an attractive young outsider woman named Amanda, new to the town. Apparently, she’s an Anima figure (see the terminology page), and perhaps a replacement for his wife (pointing to his secret inner inclination to leave the family and start anew someplace else). They experience emotional bonding and she watches over Billy for David. She’s a bit naive and optimistic about people – needing to learn that when push comes to shove, people become primitive in stressful situations. She probably represents a naive part of David – one that is a bit unrealistically optimistic about people.
David leads a team out to the nearby pharmacy on a mission to find some drugs for the injured at the supermarket – he’s trying to heal the rift that’s been created. But even that is a near total disaster, with part of the team getting killed/seriously injured in the process and the drugs aren’t returned to the supermarket in time to save a particularly badly injured burn victim.
David is a sympathetic character and we, the audience root for him and are encouraged when he makes small victories, we also agree with his reasonable attitude towards the nature of the creatures in the mist. But again and again he fails to become a good leader. People die all around him and turn away from the reasonable approach and instead turn toward the religious group, and those people are getting to the point of wanting to sacrifice non-believers to the monsters in order to survive. David’s dwindling team of reasonable people are realizing that they have enemies within the supermarket as well as outside.
David finally leads his small group out to his car in a last-ditch effort to escape. His ally, Ollie, who has shown himself to be not only reasonable, but a bit of a Gunslinger himself, shoots and kills Mrs. Carmody to allow their escape. Ollie reaches the car first, and in a brief moment of pride in his success is killed by a giant monster. Again – pride/hubris is punished by death at the hands (claws?) of the monsters of the mist.
What’s left of the group travel as far as David’s tank of gas can get them, then stop as the fuel runs out. All that are left are 5 people – David, Billy, Amanda, the older and wise schoolteacher, and the older man who originally told the patrons of the market about the monsters. David, pushed to the end of his rope and with the complicit agreement of the others, shoots and kills them, supposedly to avoid being torn apart by the monsters. With no more bullets, David futilely tries to shoot himself, then steps out of the car and calls out into the mist for the monsters to come and finish the job. Then, he sees that the Military has been not too far behind him, clearing the countryside out of monsters – he also sees the woman from the beginning of the seige – they one who left to save her kids – in a truck of survivors with her kids, safe and being transported away from the danger.
The outer irony of this ending is that “safety” was just behind them. Had they waited a few minutes, they would all be rescued. But David killed them all, leaving himself completely alone and destroyed in his guilt and anguish.
But, in a way, this is how things symbolically had to go – David wanted to be away from the town. The final step of getting away from the town and starting again as a new person is to get rid of everyone from the town – thus, shooting them, even his son.
The film seems to suggest that had he been brave at the beginning of the story and followed the woman who left for her kid’s lead, he too might be safe right now. Perhaps that was the right thing to do – focus on your family and not be concerned about your career path?
Summation…
So David, the protagonist, is depicted as a man with an inner conflict – he is experiencing commercial success and feeling detached from his roots. He doesn’t know if he should stay in town and be a local for his whole life, or move on where his success and talent are leading him.
This conflict is made concrete in the film by depicting a Mist enveloping the town – causing David to not be able to see his way out of the town (figuratively and literally). Also, the mist is filled with monsters looking to devour anyone in sight (apparently, they don’t have a problem seeing in the mist).
Like a few other films, the protagonist’s inner issue is conflated into a larger issue of an invasion of creatures attacking everyone. Just because this is a large problem doesn’t mean that it isn’t a reflection of the protagonists inner conflict. A couple of other examples of this motif in films are “The Birds” and “Cloverfield” (I’ll write about the latter in another article soon).
I guess it wouldn’t be a horror film if the answer was easy – this situation puts David in conflict not only with the monsters, but with the townspeople. Various attempts by them are made to escape, explain, or dismiss the problem. David’s reaction is reasonable and we root for him, but ultimately it’s a failure. He’s recognized as a person who’s neither a local or a full-fledged outsider. He’s in a transitional state, and not especially effective, even if he’s basically right. He tries to escape and even brings a few people with him, but when he runs out of gas (as well as psychic energy), he should have escaped, but the mist and monsters are still with him. There’s no getting away from his past and his feelings/conflicts, until he kills the allies that came with him. Only then does the mist clear and safety emerge – and he then realizes the horrible price he’s paid to get out of the town alive.
Yeah, I know…
I know this may seem like a HUGE stretch. But that’s how a lot of films like this work – you take a fairly simple, and seemingly small kind of inner conflict, then blow it up to epic proportions. There really isn’t much sense of proportion in the unconscious – just think about how crazy dreams are sometimes, even for people who live pretty sedate lives. So, this is at the core a simple film about a guy who can’t decide to pursue his career or not – but the creative powers of the unconscious, in the creators of the story/film as well as the audience, is drawn to stories that blow things out of proportion.
I’ve thought a bit about just how intentional the deeper part of the story was for the creative people behind it. I’m not sure. I can see how Stephen King might have written a story about monsters outside a store as well as inside, without realizing he was also writing a story about the inner conflict of an artist, like himself, conflicted about his own growing success. I can also see how the filmmakers might miss the deep, inner conflict as they put King’s work on screen, but I’d like to think that they were conscious of it and played it up.
-Tedd
