Postmodern Film Analysis

A film like The Mist (2007) comes as a prime example of being a postmodern film in the disaster movie cycle. Postmodern films attempt to avoid metanarrtive’s or narratives/stories that enforce old ideas we have seen in to many movies to count, postmodern films want to be inclusive and unique. Throughout the entire film there are many different examples of postmodern ideas, but the big three examples include the diverse cast of characters, the dark examination of religion and the films ending.

First of all, the films has a massively diverse cast of characters (even though the location is a small town in Maine). The amount of unique characters opens the film up even more for people to find a character they can at least relate to. Postmodern films attempt to be inclusive, which this film succeeds in doing by having characters that inhabit different races, social classes, education levels, religious
By the films end we find 5 survivors have escaped the super market and are trying to find their way out of the mist. In the end the car runs out of gas and the survivors agree to commit suicide as opposed to being killed by the creatures. So the protagonist David (Thomas Jane) kills everyone (including his little boy) and tries to draw the monsters to him, since he ran out of bullets. The tragic occurs to him when he encounters the army driving by as the mist slowly disappears and they attack the remains creatures. This is a dark and ultimately bleak ending to the film which provides amazing contrast to older disaster movies, that had heartbreak and tragedy but most of them ultimately end with at least a glimmer of hope. The Mist is a great through back to creature features from the 1950’s and 1960’s but even with it’s basic premise the film’s messages and execution attempt to avoid metanarratives by telling stories that are both different from older disaster movie and try and do something