Thinking of a DVD? Maybe I Can Help

"The Mist" (aka Stephan King's The Mist) has hit the DVD shelves; but is it worth a buy or simply a rental?
The movie is a stereotypical monster flick (which is a breath of fresh air in the midst of all the 3D gore-tastical murder movies released lately) where people trapped in a grocery store are terrorized by -- you guessed it, a mist. The characters are flat and seem only to be there as means of obvious plot devices. The CGI is OK at best but fortunately not abused. So what makes this worthy of a buy or even a rental? Well, there are a few things.
What I particularly enjoyed about the movie was the balance of turmoil it depicts. The chaos of the mist soon becomes as menacing and dangerous as the rising tension inside the store amongst the refugees.
Inside the store is a group of citizens that would depict a stereotypical small vacation town: beer drinking mechanics, nerdy store clerks, loudmouth religous activists, school teachers, moms, dads, children, and the occasional vacationers who are artists and lawyers. As the myriad of these cardboard characters begin to deal with the situation the struggle for power and control, you realize that this movie is not about the creepy crawlers outside the store. No, it's tale about humans: the power of religion, the struggle for life, and the notion that cronyism is a far too powerful force.
"The Mist" wasn't terrible. Part of me enjoyed it for the return of outlandish monster movies. Another part for a horror movie trying to use human friction to create tension instead of a deranged knife-weilding maniac. It's a movie for you if want a little more out of a horror movie than cheap thrills. What would you do if you thought that you could live or die at any moment? Plan an escape? Drink? Pray? "The Mist" asks you that question.

2.75/5