The Mist Dramatization

As a way to market the release of the film adaptation of Stephen King's short story, The Mist, Simon and Schuster released an audio cd. I had never read it and was curious so I picked this up after work one day. Before buying you should know that this isn't an audiobook persay. It isn't one person reading the short story to you as many would be accustomed to, or expect. This is more in line with the old radio dramas that they used to air back in the day. If you enjoy those then you'll certainly like this. If you want an audiobook i suggest you pick out another one of King's titles.

Before it even starts, the cd tells you to put on headphones and gives a small test. I ignored this because I didn't think it would make much of a difference. I, instead, chose to listen to it on my laptop sans headphones. I do regret that as it was quite muffled. You know those movies where the dialogue is way too quiet, so you turn it up and then an action sequence or some intense scene comes and it's way too loud? That's what it was like for me. I imagine that it works much better with the headphones. At least I would hope so, for as much as it pimps out the "3D sound" having the sound be sub par was rather anticlimactic.

The cd itself is quite good, only an hour and a half long, and it does a good job of establishing the mood of the story even without King's prose. Whle not as intense as the film, the cd does a good job of both disturbing you and giving you the creeps.

Some parts were unclear, but I attribute that to the sound. The voice acting is decent, not stellar, but not horrible. The woman voicing Mrs. Carmody does a good job with it, rivalling even Marcia Gay Harden's intense performance in the film.

If you have already seen the film, then a lot of it will seem glossed over. Darabont fleshed out a lot of backstory for the characters, here they are limited by time constraints. If you enjoyed the short story then I do recommend this as it does provide an interesting presentation of the material via a new medium. It's definitely worth the money, a fact that is augmented by it's low price.