Every spring, my old home state of Vermont shuts down for Town Meeting Day. This a day for the populace to practice democracy by directly by debating, discussing and voting on various ordinances. It is a tradition that goes back to the 17th century. On Town Meeting Day in 1999, Vermont Public Radio broadcast a brief interview with author Stephen King about the new mini-series based on his novel Storm of the Century. The timing was no coincidence since the climax of Storm takes place at what is probably one of the saddest Town Meetings in literature. I cannot remember his exact words (and if anyone can find them-you'll earn a place of honor in my heart), King started the interview by saying that there was nothing scarier to him than a group of ordinary citizens gathered together in terrible circumstances. This theme returns time and again in many of his works and their various sized screen adaptations but one of the best is Frank Darabont's 2007 version of King's novella The Mist. Huddled together for survival in a New England grocery store the morning after a storm, this collection of concerned citizens gleefully shed their silly man suits and willfully start biting the heads off their neighbors for the singular pleasure of shitting down their necks almost as soon as the blood from the first victims starts to fly.
As far as the the other monsters, the ones outside the store, the only definite information the audience get is when an old man runs into the store yelling, "There's something in the mist!" A curious remnant in the loss of civilization and in the face of all consuming anarchy, the pink skinned monsters inside start to gather around the loudest, most irrational elements of the group. In this case it is Marcia Gay Harden as Donna T. Trumpody, the town religious crank. She quickly transforms from the crazy lady to a leader when her Book of Revelations-style ranting suddenly starts to seem like a good idea. It is her end-of-the-world demagoguery that turns this lost tribe into the blood thirsty mob they had always wanted to be.
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| Ms. Harden truly deserved an Oscar for bringing to life a character whose potential of evil is on par with Anthony Hopkin's Dr. Hannibal Lecter. |
I also managed to sneak in Jennifer's Body, which I had forgotten I bought from the $5.00 bin at Walmart. Written and directed by women (Diablo Cody and Karyn Kusama), this great flick from 2009 is funny, original and tons of fun. Also none of the female characters trip and fall unexpectedly. The high school vibe makes this a perfect Friday Night Pizza and movie-dork movie.
This is the second time I've watched it for Shocktober, the first was for Shocktober Fest 2011. I guess it is a favorite! And not just because of Amanda Seyfrid and Megan Fox's kiss, which I am including below below in a craven attempt to generate traffic.
I feel so dirty now.
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