Based on the Stephen King's 1980 novella of the same name, the film stars an ensemble cast including Thomas Jane, Marcia Gay Harden, Laurie Holden, Andre Braugher and Toby Jones.

A severe thunderstorm strikes Bridgton, Maine, causing a tree to crash through the lakeside home of artist David Drayton, his wife Stephanie, and their eight-year-old son, Billy.

Upon their return, tensions rise as Mrs. Carmody calls for sacrifices to appease the monsters, singling out a soldier named Jessup, who reveals that the mist was the result of a military experiment to find other worlds gone wrong.

The next morning, as Mrs. Carmody demands Billy be sacrificed, assistant manager Ollie shoots and kills her, allowing David and his group to escape the store.

As David steps out of the vehicle, screaming for the monsters to come and kill him, the mist begins to clear, revealing the arrival of the U.S. Army, who are exterminating the creatures, rescuing survivors, and had only been mere seconds behind them.

Director Frank Darabont first encountered Stephen King's novella The Mist in the 1980 anthology Dark Forces and was immediately interested in adapting it into a film.

[6] Originally, Darabont considered The Mist for his directorial debut, but instead chose to adapt another of King's works, The Shawshank Redemption (1994), which went on to become a major critical success.

[7] Darabont viewed The Mist as a throwback to classic storytelling, referencing writers like Paddy Chayefsky and comparing the film's themes to Lord of the Flies, where fear drives people to behave primitively.

For instance, the novella includes a brief extramarital affair between the characters David Drayton and Amanda Dumfries, but Darabont chose to instead create a more emotional, surrogate family dynamic between them in the film.

[19] Veteran actors William Sadler, Jeffrey DeMunn, and Brian Libby, all of whom had previously worked with director Darabont on The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile, were cast in supporting roles.

[13][20] Although Darabont considered shooting The Mist digitally, he ultimately chose to film on 400 ASA Fujifilm to give it a grainy texture, adding to the atmospheric tension.

[4] Notably, the film includes a nod to King’s The Dark Tower series, with David Drayton seen painting an image based on the books in the opening scene.

[21] Darabont worked closely with the production design team to blend multiple eras within the film’s aesthetic, avoiding an overtly modern or period-specific feel.

[12] Darabont chose to use music to minimal effect in The Mist to capture the "heavier feel" of the darker ending he had written to replace the one from the novella.

[13] The Mist was screened at the film festival ShowEast on October 18, 2007, at which Darabont received the Kodak Award for Excellence in Filmmaking for his previous works The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile.

The site's critical consensus reads: "Frank Darabont's impressive camerawork and politically incisive script make The Mist a truly frightening experience.

James Berardinelli praised the film, calling it "dark, tense, and punctuated by just enough gore," adding that it finally did justice to a Stephen King horror adaptation.

[30] Michael Phillips from the Chicago Tribune echoed this sentiment, labeling it "good and creepy," while Lisa Schwarzbaum from Entertainment Weekly commended Harden's performance as Mrs. Carmody, calling it "brilliant.

He noted that while it was a "competently made Horrible Things Pouncing on People movie," it didn't live up to Darabont's past works like The Shawshank Redemption or The Green Mile.

[33] Justin Chang of Variety also had mixed feelings, stating that while The Mist worked as a "gross-out B-movie," it fell short in its psychological depth due to "one-note characterizations" and an inconsistent tone.