The University of Idaho Argonaut

Frank Darabont knows how to make a Stephen King movie.
“The Shawshank Redemption” and “The Green Mile” were nominated for Academy Awards.
His latest effort, “The Mist,” falls short of those films but does have its moments, even if its message gets lost in a haze thicker than the one in the movie.

The message — the average person, who you can see everyday, is capable of greater monstrosities than an actual monster — pretends to lofty ideals and reaches to become a metaphor for the Iraq war.
The people, including side switchers and religious zealots, are scary but never reach the chill factor in other King adaptations like “Misery.”

As for the monsters we do get to see, they look great.
Giant flies, spiders and something that looks like a pterodactyl are seen clearly and get a lot of on screen time.
The big monsters, including a crab-like thing and something like a “Star Wars” toy with tentacles, never come out of the mist.

If you get the special edition DVD, the monsters are even harder to see if you watch the black and white version.
That’s not a bad thing because black and white gives the film a 1950s feel that reinforces the “monsters among us,” McCarthy-era subtext.

In the King novella, the characters are left driving aimlessly in the mist and left to whatever devices the reader can imagine.
The film ending, on the other hand, proves that being saved isn’t always better.