Hit and Mist
I love examining movie posters. It’s not just the art and design that go into them but how those elements must work together to communicate a concept while catching the eye. Horror posters in particular can help make or break a film because of the emphasis on arresting visuals. They can either effectively promise a lot more than they offer (as did many grindhouse one-sheets did) or turn out to be unintentionally hilarious like so much crapped-out J-horror remake art (particularly the mouth-eyed image for One Missed Call).
And then there are the ones that are hilariously misleading, such as the DVD art for The Mist special edition. But before we get too far ahead of the game, let’s take a look at the original theatrical poster first.
This poster works for me. Great composition and use of colour to suggest apocalyptic doom. I also like the way the mist creeps under the door to draw your eye to the film’s title. And there are some nice touches that fleshes out the world of the film. The older style lights in the parking lot and the spruce trees in the background tell us that the story takes place in a small, somewhat secluded town.
More importantly, though, it’s true to the film. This is the story of David Drayton’s struggle to save his boy from the unseen horror in the mist. It’s that fear of the unknown, and the central conceit of Stephen King’s story: ambiguity. The mist equals ambi-friggin’-guity, which is why the original story ends on that note (something that Darabont missed in his adaptation, but that’s another rant altogether). The upturned cars and impenetrable fog makes for a scarier image than any monster.
The Korean poster for the film offers a different take.
The main thrust of David protecting his son is still there, but now they’re in a smouldering city full of army men. The mist under the door looks more like smoke from the ruined skyscrapers and the army dudes seem to be the threat. That or Godzilla farted and they’re trying to clean up — it’s tough to tell what’s going on out there, even though nothing is hidden in the mist anymore. Also, why does it look like the inside of the supermarket exploded? I like the bloody hand print on the glass, but given the absolute devastation outside, it seems unlikely all that glass would hold up so well.
Nitpicky, I know. Perhaps something was lost in translation for this fairly nonsensical poster. At least it’s not as bad as the one for the special edition two-disc DVD release, though.
So, clearly they took the Korean poster and monkeyed with it. And by “monkeyed” I mean dumbed down. For starters, David’s son is gone and a woman added, presumably Amanda, the woman our hero sort-of hooks up with. At least they’re wearing matching outfits, so that’s, uh, cool. Actually, it looks like they’re standing in the burning ruins of the GAP wondering if they should show up for their shifts tomorrow.
Funnier yet is the “END IS NEAR” scrawled in blood on the window. Whoever decided that was a good idea is surely going to Cliche Hell. Given the absolute pants-shitting devastation surrounding the characters, this is redundancy at its finest.
