Producers had been threatening to turn the novella into a film for years, but its high-concept premise and apocalyptic tone seemed to constipate the process. King’s legions of supporters were jubilant when the project was finally green-lighted with Frank Darabont (The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile) at the helm.

And they won’t be disappointed … although they are in for a big surprise.

After a wild storm, movie poster artist David Drayton (Thomas Jane) heads next door to complain to his odious neighbour Brent Norton (Andre Braugher) that a dead tree has destroyed his boathouse. When he gets there, he sees Norton’s Mercedes has been crushed under another tree and they make a tentative truce. David takes his son Billy (Nathan Gamble) and Norton down to the local supermarket to get supplies, leaving his wife Stephanie (Kelly Collins Lintz) in their home.

Meanwhile, a strange mist moves across the nearby lake and envelops the small town. A bloodied resident, Myron (David Jensen), runs into the supermarket screaming for people to shut the doors. It soon becomes clear the mist is full of bizarre and deadly creatures – and anyone who tries to escape faces certain death.

It’s not long before restraint and civility crumble and the people in the shopping centre divide into a number of factions, a la Lord of the Flies. Norton leads a group that is in denial of the improbable new reality that has sprung up around them; David is among those who accept what is going on and want to find a practical solution for survival. And then there is the chilling Mrs Carmody (Marcia Gay Harden), a religious nutter who believes the mist is Judgment Day as prophesied in the bible – and she uses people’s fear to bring them into her lunatic fold. For ‘non-believers’, life soon becomes as dangerous inside the shopping centre as it is out.