Nextflix Reviews - The Mist

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Here's a show based on the 1980 short story by Stephen King that was made into a pretty good but bleak movie in 2007. The premise is much the same, a small town, Bridgeville, Maine is going about it's normal day to day mostly idyllic business when it is plunged into turmoil when a thick fog suddenly rolls in. In most cases fog is merely an inconvenience but not this one though, for one it doesn't float off or dissipate like good fog normally does and secondly it harbours all manner of monsters and madness. Oops sorry it's not fog it's mist.... is there a difference? I'm gonna have to Google that, is it that one comes off of the sea? Whatever the difference they are both scary and mysterious making the world seem an ethereal otherworldly place. I know James Herbert did The Fog book in 1975 and John Carpenter The Fog movie in 1980, (remade in 2005), all of which were pretty interesting too.

As well as monsters the mist seems to dredge memories and fears from the townspeople's minds and kills them in nasty ways. The remaining folk hide out in various locations and we see what happens in a small town when societal conventions break down and civilisation takes a back seat to the fight for survival. All those harboured animosities and petty grudges come to the fore and new rivalries emerge as differences of opinion on how to manage the situation arise. Characters that seemed all sweetness and light become cold & ruthless and I liked the unpredictability of the plot and the character development arcs were pretty interesting. I was a bit surprised by the climatic ending which turned my expectation on it's head rather. The plot was left open with the possibility for a 2nd series but it was unfortunately cancelled after the 1st 10 part season. I think it's worth a watch, I enjoyed it personally, it's not necessarily compulsive viewing but it filled a few hours entertainingly enough.

Whilst reading up on the original story I read that it was a heavy influence on some video games like the blockbusters Half-Life and Silent Hill and the lesser known Mindscape and Vorago.

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Movie review - It

This was definitely the Horror hit from last year, the movie remake of the 1990 mini-series based on the 1986 book by Horror master Stephen King. I remember liking the TV series a lot back in the day although I am sure I only watched it once. I actually thought it had been a film back in 1990 that's how long ago I watched it I didn't even remember what the format of it was. I wonder if it's the 1st instance of the killer clown trope, (see also). I know it's certainly the most well known and probably had a big influence on the killer clown hoaxing epidemic that seemed to be all over the news in 2016.

The story is as I remembered it from when I saw it back in the day, a group of kids (The Losers Club) in Derry, Maine are menaced by the local bully Henry Bowers and his gang. This is small potatoes though as they are also being plagued by a demonic ghost clown called Pennywise who steals away Georgie the little brother of Bill Denbrough. He troubles them with visions of what they fear the most, teasing Bill that his brother is floating down there in the sewers. Unable to get the assistance of adults they vow to battle It and try to recover Georgie from the evil entity's lair. They discover that Pennywise has been plaguing the community intermittently for centuries emerging every 27 years. This is the same time period as the novel but for some reason it was changed to 30 in the TV serial.

The fact that this movie comes 27 years after the TV 2-parter is quite a good touch I think and as you'd imagine with the advances in special effects over that period Bill Skarsgård's Pennywise has a whole load more nasty visual tricks up his sleeves that Tim Curry's version of the clown had back in 1990. He uses a number of nasty, bloody visions to terrorize the children as installing fear in them is akin to "salting the meat" making them more tasty I imagine. There is something more unsettling about seeing children fighting for their lives but there is also a bit of a disconnect in my mind, I kept thinking of it a children's adventure story like Goonies or something as there are no adult characters involved in the battle with the clown.

In the 1990 series it was actually a double movie length 2-parter screened over subsequent evenings, for this 2017 remake we have to wait till September 6th 2019 for the denouement. That's quite annoying if you ask me but at least it's not 27 years I suppose! It's a bit odd though as there is a quote on Wikipedia saying it is set 30 years after the original with the kids all grown up, back to kill It for good. They don't seem to have decided on their time line, is it every 27 or 30 years that It emerges from hibernation to feast?

Maybe the wounded It needed 3 more years hibernation to recover?

Maybe I am just getting my facts muddled!

I do think it's rather a long gap between parts 1 and 2 though but who knows maybe in 27 (30?) years time if I am still around I'll be reviewing a 3rd reimagining of the novel.

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