Dennis Etchison's The Mist

SPEAKER_1 (0:00)

Today's episode is presented by The Influencer Project, in theaters this Friday, October 2nd. Based on true events, the film follows an influencer who travels to Copenhagen for a documentary about her online fame. However, when an obsessive stalker begins tracking her movements, she must confront the terror and reclaim her power. Beauty and fashion influencer Kiara King stars as herself in the found footage movie, which was produced by the Blair Witch Project co-creator Eduardo Sanchez and producer Greg Hale.

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Rockin Randall (0:57)

Greetings, Constant listeners, and welcome yet again to The Losers' Club, Stephen King Podcast. My name is Rockin Randall, and I say hello to you as a storm gathers outside my windows. Dare I wonder what monsters might be hiding within these rolling clouds? Perhaps I'll find out by the end of this episode about Dennis Etchison's unproduced screenplay for The Mist.

The Mist, if you're unaware, is a novella by Stephen King that was originally published in a 1980 Dark Forces anthology and was later collected in the 1985 collection Skeleton Crew. It tells the story of David Drayton, an artist who finds himself trapped in a main grocery store with his son and dozens of locals and tourists when an ominous mist rolls into town, bringing destruction and a horde of otherworldly creatures along with it. Kef, say hello and tell me about your relationship to The Mist.

Dan Caffrey (1:55)

This is Dan Carmody Caffrey.

I love The Mist. It's funny, though, because I always talk about how I'm a bit of... I'm not a Skeleton Crew hater, but I do think it's overrated. The thing we always say is that the highs are really high and the lows are really low. Fortunately, The Mist is very high. I believe the pinnacle of the book for me. There's Survivor Type. There's the jaunt. The Mist is great. And even as a kid, it's one of the stories I really remember from this. And partly because, and I know we'll be talking about it later, I remember seeing the audio drama of it, I think just for sale, like on cassette or something in the bookstore. And I remember the really cool cover they had, which was like a tentacle bursting through the front. But before I read Skeleton Crew, I remember thinking that I'm like, oh, it's just an octopus. It's about a giant octopus that attacks people on the dock. That's like what I assumed it was about, which it's obviously a little bit more than that. Yeah, love the novella.

I know we told the story. Roffman and I saw the movie together when it came out, and we were so into it until the ending. But now it's like that's the ending for me. I know we're going to talk about that.

Ashley (2:54)

We'll talk about that a little bit, yeah.

Dan Caffrey (2:55)

Yeah, so I love the movie. If you listen to our King adaptation's episode, it was, I don't think it was number one, but it was high up there.

Rockin Randall (3:03)

It was high up there. I think we're all pretty big fans of it.

Dan Caffrey (3:06)

Huge fan. I have not seen The Mist TV show. Guilt is charged, but...

Rockin Randall (3:10)

I will mention that briefly. Ashley, say hello. I don't know if you've ever talked about The Mist with us.

Ashley (3:16)

I have. This is Ashley, The Arrowhead Project, Cassidy, and I love The Mist. I feel like I love it more and more every single time I read, watch or listen to the audio drama. I fucking love The Mist. I got to talk about it. Why was I talking about it? I was on a Mist episode, I remember I got to reread it and it was really exciting. Oh, I think it was maybe even The Mist movie because I watched it in black and white for the first time, which honestly added so much to it. I don't know what it is about that movie in black and white, but I don't think I'll ever watch it in color again.

SPEAKER_1 (3:52)

Was that at our film festival?

Ashley (3:53)

It works so well.

We definitely talked about the film festival. I remember I got to pop on and introduce Christine right after The Mist. Amazing. No, it wasn't The Mist. It was another sad story because the ending of The Mist, like we said, the movie is vastly different. It's very tragic. I believe I popped on to introduce Christine after 1408, and it was like, child death. Always exciting, but The Mist has child death too. Yeah, no, I fucking love this story. The only thing that's ever made me want to dive into the Dark Tower series is the fact that I know that there's something regarding The Mist involved. Like some world or some... They mention it apparently, right?