Yesterday, a new trailer for Spike's upcoming TV adaptation of 'The Mist' hit. It makes sense, as the release date draws ever closer to give us some new material to entice viewers.
Of the three, I think that this is the most well put together trailer. It does a better job of establishing what the viewers are in for without walking them through the plot point by point. While it does show various locales, it doesn't just jump around randomly. It allows us to become more engaged and it also makes certain scenes more tense.
This trailer also does the best job of establishing characters. Even though only a handful are named, we can see how they relate to and interact with one another. It's a big step up on that front.
Considering the fact that one of the biggest criticisms of the other trailers was the lack of monsters, I was hoping to see more on that front. There is talk of things in the mist, and we get a couple of shots that could suggest such creatures. A lot of time is dedicated to showing people wanting to arm themselves in order to prepare for what's coming, so it does seem like the producers were listening to some extent.
However, they still seem to put more emphasis on the idea that the mist is just driving people crazy. The trailer does make a point to say that this is a "re-imagining" so, really, it is looking like that's how they're going to play it.
That's not necessarily a bad thing. Viewers can still get hallucination "monsters" while providing a more grounded context for what's happening. Whether that ends up being more or less frightening depends on individual viewer sensibilities as well as how the show ends up executing the concept.
At face value, it seems like a step backward, but the original story does also put emphasis on the whole "humans are the real monsters" trope, so it could choose to put its weight behind that.
Where the first trailer suggested that "Arrowhead" was going to play a larger role in the narrative, this suggests more of a "Gaia's revenge" style plot, where nature turns against us. You could see it as a nod to "Pet Sematary" but with what we see here, it's too vague to determine whether that was intentional or pure coincidence.
It's quite possible that, much like the source material, the cause is left vague and this is merely another means of explaining what's happening. Really, we'll have to watch to see how it unfolds.
Of the three, I think this does the best job of piquing interest. It does try to address the criticisms of the other trailers as best as it can and feels the most connected to the source material. There's still room for the show to fall flat, but it is good to see the promos are getting stronger with each release. I remain cautiously optimistic about this.
Read my reaction to the first trailer here.
Read my reaction to the second trailer here.
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