The Shawshank Redemption is inarguably one of the most well-received movies of all time. It sits atop IMDb's list of the Top 100 movies of all time, but that doesn't quite adequately convey its cultural significance. It's a perennial cable TV favorite, the type of movie you pass while you're flipping the channels, only to get sucked in for the rest of its runtime. You've seen it. Your parents have seen it. And just about everyone loves it.

Shawshank's success bought director Frank Darabont some serious Hollywood cache. Further films like The Green Mile proved he wasn't just a one-trick pony, and award nominations followed. 

So, what is this heralded, prestigious director doing adapting Stephen King's pulpiest offering? In 2022, Darabont spoke with SlashFIlm about why he chose to direct The Mist.

The Mist called out to me for a number of reasons. One of which is I just thought it was such a potent comment on not just our society, but all societies. We've got this very, very complex technological society and we're becoming more and more dependent on that, by the way. And the more and more we do, the more and more there is this backlash of mistrusting science.

His cinematic nightmare proved oddly prescient some 15 years after it was first released, mirroring real-world chaos that later ensued. Just like his first King adaptation, The Mist is rooted in humanity first and foremost. It just so happens to be topped off with a monster movie frosting!

The more we progress into the future, the more there's going to be a part of society that wants to go back to a very primitive, very superstitious [time]. And The Mist really spoke to that. It really spoke to the thin veil between how we feel when the lights are on and everything's working fine, and when suddenly we're back in the Dark Ages.

What's scary to me is all it takes is one massive solar flare that comes directly at us instead of off into some other direction of space, and totally knocks out our technology and puts us back into the Dark Ages. If that happens, we're not going to be having a conversation like this on [the internet]. We're going to be out there shooting deer for our dinner and trying to grow turnips in the backyard.