'The Mist': A-

It's somehow taken me twenty active years of reading King to finally arrive at Skeleton Crew, a collection of short stories he published in 1985. The first hundred-fifty or so pages is "The Mist," which has gone on to be adapted into a film I saw for the first time a few weeks back, and quite possibly my impetus for picking up a copy of this collection.

Artist David Drayton makes the mistake of vacationing at his family's old summer home during a violent mid-summer storm. A strange block of mist is left in its wake, along with a slew of giant insects, birds, and something unseen with long tentacles. We learn quickly the consequences of trying to best all of this when David and his son go to the grocery store to stock up on house supplies.

Shoppers become quarantined in the store, forcing David to figure out a way to save him and his son's life. Most pooh-pooh Drayton's initial warnings about what's in the mist, but after a stock boy gets eaten alive, things get serious.

There is a well-wrought ensemble of townie characters in "The Mist." An author specialty, considering how many of King's stories are set in rural Maine. The prophetic Mrs. Carmody brings back memories of crazy locals from movies Friday the 13th and The Birds. Her hyperbolic declarations about Judgement Day become less amusing as the story goes on, culminating with a scene during the exodus from the grocery store which made my hair stand up on my arms.

Scenes with the creatures in the mist are usually very good. Gore and viscera are kept to a surprising minimum; in its place, a surprising level of psychological horror.

I can't speak on behalf of all of Skeleton Crew, because I have not yet finished it, but the placement of "The Mist" as the initial work in this assortment was a savvy choice. Better than the film? For sure.