Although these concerns remain clearly visible at the filmʼs background, what is more emphatically dealt with in the foreground is our societyʼs breakdown and where it will take us if and when we face an emergency of epic dimensions. When the residents of a small town, alarmed by the “hurricane” that hit them destroying everything in its way, run to the local grocery store to fill up their supplies, they find themselves trapped in there by the fog. Soon enough people start showing their true colors and a micro society is created. The townʼs “hicks” show their resentment towards the small cityʼs sole artist who they feel is looking down on them, the religion fanatic starts preaching the “word of the Lord” announcing the end of days, the overly logic lawyer refuses to accept the existence of anything supernatural in the fog, and the rest of the people are left struggling to decide whose side to take.

As all these conflicting forces exclude the potential for cooperation, everybody is left even more vulnerable against a threat that is bigger than all of them. Interestingly enough, the lawyer and his team defeated by their careless non-belief that what their facing is beyond logic treatments and the big Christian congregation left in disarray after their manic leader is shot to death, the artist and his followers are the only ones that are given a chance to go out there, experience the fog, and try to get out of it.

But, donʼt be fooled! Right when you least expect it the artist/hero gets most violently dethroned in an ending that is too devastating to give away. While Iʼm not trying to argue that The Mist is perfect, the film has its shares of cheesy moments, poor special effects and a very questionable closing, its emotional impact makes it intense and thought provoking suggesting that despite what most Hollywood productions want to impress upon us, the idea of the hero might be an illusion to begin with.

The Mist is now playing in Bay Area theaters.