“The Mist” was originally published in a collection of stories by Stephen King in 1980. Since it was published it gained popularity and in 2007 was adapted into a movie and in 2017 was adapted into a TV show.
During the night a storm blows through the small town of Bridgton Maine and damages buildings in town and takes down several trees.
Many people in town including the main character of the story David, his son Billy, and their neighbor Mr. Norton head to the local store to stock up on supplies.
While at the store a dense and fast-moving mist rolls over the town. The townsfolk are scared to go outside into the mist and share their theories about what it is.
Some say it’s just a storm, smoke from a fire, or the beginning of the apocalypse. The group settles in for the night and the people of the store start to form smaller groups.
In the days that they are trapped in the store, strange and horrific creatures begin to emerge from the mist and attack the store. Several survivors are killed as the people get desperate for answers.
Believing that the mist is a sign from God that the apocalypse is here, one survivor Mrs. Carmody, begins to preach to a growing group of the survivors. Things quickly escalate when she wants to sacrifice Billy to the monsters in the mist to save her congregation.
David, Billy, and a handful of other survivors escape the store and follow the roads south, discovering that the mist has spread far beyond the bounds of their town.
As his small group of survivors rest in a motel for the night, David hears the word Hartford on their radio and decides to head there in the morning.
I had seen the movie long before I read the book, but this is one of my favorite Stephen King books I’ve read so far. Stephen King has this magic way of injecting tension and terror into his stories and “The Mist” is no different.
One of my favorite parts about this story is the mystery surrounding the mist itself and the creatures within. There is not a definite answer as to where it came from.
That fear of the unknown permeates through the entire story but despite that terror of the unknown, there is some hope in the end. Hope that maybe they’ll make it out of this nightmare.
That is one other thing that Stephen King does well in some of his stories. He provides hope that the characters we care about will be able to escape the horrors of their stories and somehow survive.
One of the most well-known things about “The Mist” is how different the ending of the book is compared to the movie. I won’t say how the movie ends, and I implore everyone to watch the movie as its ending is one of the most shocking movie endings I’ve ever seen.