Cinematical

You know what's really creepy? When someone makes a movie out of a book you really like -- and the flick LOOKS just like your own mental interpretation of the book! To clarify: The first time I read Stephen King's The Mist was about 18 years ago ... and somehow Frank Darabont was able to climb INTO my brain and pull out precisely what the supermarket setting looked like in my mind's eye! OK fine, there's only so many ways you can make a supermarket look 'different' -- but there's one high-angle shot in this trailer that feels like it was sucked right out of my brain. Neat.

Anyway, hooray! The very first trailer for Frank Darabont's adaptation of The Mist is now available online, and it's pretty damn cool! I like how Darabont (or at least the trailer-cutter) makes the internal conflict (stress, fear, paranoia, religious differences) seem just as dangerous as the external ones. And since the external ones are man-eating creatures who look like they flopped out of an H.P. Lovecraft nightmare, we look to have a pretty solid balance between the brainy and the bloody.

Mostly, though, I'm just really excited to see what Mr. Darabont will do with one of King's "creepy" properties. His previous collaborations with the King (The Green Mile and The Shawshank Redemption) turned out to be pretty excellent films, so bring on the horror this time! Plus the cast (Thomas Jane, Bill Sadler, Marcia Gay Harden, Laurie Holden, Andre Braugher, Frances Sternhagen, Jeffrey DeMunn) looks to be more of a character actor ensemble than anything else -- which I also love. The Mist floats in on November 21.