The Mist – Stephen King (1980)

The Mist by Stephen King, published in 1980, is a gripping horror novella that follows a small-town community trapped in a supermarket as a mysterious mist engulfs their town. Strange and deadly creatures lurk within the fog, forcing the survivors to confront not just external horrors but also the darkness within themselves.

Plot Summary

A brutal heat wave breaks over the small town of Bridgton, Maine, bringing with it a sudden, violent thunderstorm that lashes the land with savage winds and blinding lightning. Trees crack and fall, power lines snap, and the once-clear lake churns beneath the fury of the storm. By morning, the air is still, the sky is bright, and the wreckage of the storm is scattered across the town.

David Drayton surveys the damage to his lakeside home. A massive pine has crushed his boathouse, power is down, and the air carries an uneasy stillness. Along with his young son Billy and his neighbor Brent Norton, he heads into town to pick up supplies at the Federal Foods supermarket. The parking lot is crowded – the town’s residents have all come for the same reason. They move through the aisles, gathering what they need, while the lingering tension of the storm lingers in the backs of their minds.

Then, the mist rolls in.

It moves unnaturally, dense and white, swallowing everything in its path. It floods the lake, sweeps over the hills, and spills into the streets like a living thing. It is thick as smoke, blocking out the sun, turning the town into a ghostly, shapeless void. The mist engulfs cars, homes, and people, reducing them to shadows before swallowing them whole.

Inside the supermarket, people press against the glass, staring at the wall of whiteness that now surrounds them. At first, there is speculation – some believe it is an ordinary fog, others a chemical spill. But then comes the first scream, high and piercing, from outside in the parking lot. A man stumbles out of the mist, his face frozen in an expression of terror, blood streaming from deep gashes across his body. He collapses before he can even explain what attacked him.

Fear spreads quickly. Some try to leave, venturing into the mist, only to be yanked out of sight by unseen horrors. Others cower inside, waiting for help that never comes. Hours pass, stretching into a day. The generator hums, the fluorescent lights flicker, and the world beyond the glass doors is nothing but swirling white.

As night falls, something presses against the glass – a shape, inhuman and grotesque, its silhouette barely visible in the mist. Tentacles, thick and wet, slither through a gap in the loading dock, reaching blindly into the store. A bag boy named Norm is caught, dragged screaming into the fog. His body is never seen again.

Panic takes hold. Some, like David and Ollie Weeks, the supermarket’s assistant manager, understand that survival depends on caution and planning. But others begin to fall apart. Brent Norton refuses to believe what he has seen, stubbornly clinging to logic. He gathers a small group and walks into the mist, convinced it is all hysteria. They vanish without a sound.

And then there is Mrs. Carmody.

She has always been an odd figure in town, a woman who runs an old curiosity shop and speaks in whispers of divine punishment and hellfire. Now, in the grip of fear, she finds her moment. To her, the mist is judgment, a reckoning sent by God. And with each passing hour, as food supplies dwindle and the horror outside grows, more and more people begin to listen.

The store becomes its own fragile world, divided between those who cling to reason and those who sink into blind faith. As the night deepens, creatures begin to move against the building. Insects the size of rats swarm the windows, their wings tapping against the glass like fingers. Enormous things, like pterodactyls with razor beaks, swoop in from the fog, smashing through the windows. A stock boy is snatched up and carried screaming into the dark.

The next day, David and a small group venture to the nearby pharmacy, hoping to find medicine. The mist has filled the store, thick and cloying. Shapes move in the aisles. The walls are streaked with blood. Hanging from the ceiling, tangled in webs, are bodies – townspeople cocooned and drained, their faces frozen in silent horror. Something huge stirs in the back, a monstrous shape barely glimpsed through the shifting fog. They run, escaping with only a few supplies and the knowledge that nothing in this mist is natural.

Back at the supermarket, Mrs. Carmody has gathered her flock. Fear has made the people desperate, and desperation has made them dangerous. She speaks of sacrifice, of blood offerings to appease the forces outside. And when night falls again, and the mist churns like a living thing, she turns her gaze to Billy.

David knows they have to leave. He gathers his son, Ollie, Amanda Dumfries, and a few others who still cling to sanity. But Carmody blocks their path, her followers behind her. She raises a knife, her voice rising in a shriek, demanding that the boy be given to the mist. Before she can strike, Ollie shoots her. The spell is broken. The others back away, horror dawning on their faces.

They run.

Out into the mist, where the air is thick and damp, where the ground is littered with bones and the shapes of unimaginable things loom in the darkness. The supermarket fades behind them, swallowed by the fog. The creatures do not pursue immediately, as if momentarily stunned by their boldness.

They make it to David’s car, but not all of them survive. Ollie is snatched by something too fast to be seen. Another is crushed in the grip of a massive, many-limbed nightmare. By the time David slams the car doors shut, only he, Billy, Amanda, and an elderly couple remain.

They drive, moving blindly through the mist. The town is silent. Cars are abandoned in the streets, doors left open, blood smeared on the pavement. There is no sign of life, only the fog, endless and unbroken.

Then, through the windshield, they see it – a shape so massive it defies comprehension. Towering above them, its legs stretch high into the mist, vanishing into the whiteness above. It moves with a slow, ponderous grace, the ground trembling beneath its weight. Parasites cling to its body – smaller horrors, trailing in its wake like insects around a great beast. It pays no mind to the car. It simply moves forward, part of something far greater, something beyond human understanding.

David drives.

The road stretches ahead, vanishing into the mist. Somewhere beyond it, the world might still exist – or maybe the mist has taken everything. He does not know. He only knows that he has to keep going. The mist is everywhere.

And it may never lift.

Main Characters

• David Drayton – A commercial artist and the story’s narrator, David is a practical and protective father who struggles to keep his son safe while navigating the growing paranoia among the trapped survivors.
• Billy Drayton – David’s five-year-old son, innocent and frightened, whose safety becomes David’s primary concern throughout the nightmare.
• Brent Norton – A skeptical and pompous lawyer who refuses to believe in the supernatural elements of the mist, ultimately leading to his downfall.
• Mrs. Carmody – A religious fanatic who sees the mist as divine punishment and manipulates others into violent hysteria.
• Ollie Weeks – A calm and level-headed supermarket assistant manager, one of the few who remains rational as fear spreads.
• Amanda Dumfries – A schoolteacher who forms a brief romantic connection with David while trying to maintain a sense of normalcy in the crisis.

Theme

• Fear and Paranoia – The novella explores how people react to fear, with some clinging to reason while others fall into hysteria and violence.
• Human Nature Under Pressure – The mist acts as a crucible, revealing both heroism and savagery in the survivors.
• Religious Extremism – Mrs. Carmody’s cult-like influence shows how fear can drive people to seek dangerous and irrational beliefs.
• The Unknown and Cosmic Horror – The creatures within the mist embody Lovecraftian terror, representing forces beyond human comprehension.
• Survival and Moral Choices – David and others must make impossible decisions, questioning what it truly means to survive.

Writing Style and Tone

Stephen King’s writing style in The Mist is direct and immersive, using a first-person narrative that makes the horror feel immediate and personal. His detailed descriptions create a vivid sense of place, from the suffocating supermarket aisles to the eerie, shifting mist outside. The pacing balances tension-building moments with sudden bursts of terror, keeping the reader on edge.

The tone is dark and foreboding, laced with a growing sense of doom. King masterfully captures both the external horror of the creatures and the psychological horror of human nature under stress. His ability to make ordinary settings terrifying is fully realized here, turning a mundane shopping trip into a nightmarish battle for survival.