Stephen King stories very rarely adapt well into major motion pictures. The man with the most success has been Frank Darabont (“The Shawshank Redemption and “The Green Mile”). And now he has tackled “The Mist,” a favorite novella amongst King fans.

Well, he has pulled it off in spades … in my humble opinion.

Darabont’s screenplay sticks very close to the source material up until the final moments. We are given a movie that has equal parts nasty monsters and nasty human monsters. I am not even gonna touch the plot here. I don’t want to spoil anything for those not familiar with the original novella. Let’s just say there are some great, great set pieces … the loading dock, outside exploration, the first night, the pharmacy and the escape. There are so many tense and scary moments in this movie. The tension is helped by Darabont’s decision to shoot the film in a hand-held documentary style. It just keeps building and building until you hit a resolution (added to the story by Darabont with King’s blessing) that is so incredibly bleak you really have to see it to believe it. I suspect that the resolution is gonna be the make or break for most people watching “The Mist.”

Marcia Gay Harden rocks the movie with her portrayal of religious nut Mrs. Carmody. Thomas Jane does a pretty nice job as the story’s protagonist David Drayton. The rest of the cast is rounded out by some really solid performances by Laurie Holden, Nathan Gamble, Frances Sternhagen (yes!), Andre Braugher, Toby Jones and William Sadler.

I really do regret that I didn’t see this one on the big screen last year. I can only imagine that it was even scarier in a darkened theater … as opposed to my living room couch with my 42″ flat panel. Oh well.

I highly recommend that you get wrapped up in “The Mist.”