 every Black Friday and go down this way! The Miss is the opening of Dawn of the Dead. Transition Run. It's The Miss vs Dawn of the Dead on Movie Feud. Works in their favor. It's easier to put yourself in these implausible situations. On the Miss side of things we have the B-movie star Thomas Jane. He always plays a relatable everyman and here's no different, acting as the voice of reason in a very crazy scenario. His opposite would be the fantastic performance by Marcy Gaye Howard who's typically hidden Miss for me. Here though she embraces the role as an off her rocker religious nut who sees the bizarre happenings of the town as a sign of the end of days. And if you're a walking dead fan like myself you're in for a real treat as a few of them are sprinkled throughout this flick. Lori Holden, Jeffrey DeMunn and Melissa McBride help offset the redneck crazy folk that populate this picture. One such character is diehard two villain William Sadler as Jim. Assault of the Earth blue-collar worker who doesn't think too hard about the things that are happening around him. The whole premise has a very Lord of the Flies feel to it which I'll talk about a bit more in round two. Down of the dead may not have as many fun or loony roles as the Miss but its ensemble is still strong. Sarah Polie as Anna is a relatable protagonist who just had her life go all fresh prints of bell-air on her. What does that even mean? Oh it got flipped upside down? That's stupid. Bing Rames plays his typical badass role as an ex-marine turned cop who joins our lead early on. Eventually they happen upon others such as Jake Weber as Michael, modern families Ty Burrell as Steve, House of Cards Michael Kelly as CJ who's also in The Walking Dead and a fun performance by Mackay Pfeiffer as Andre. But my favorite character was gun shop owner Andy who spends the entire film stranded at his shop. He gets an expanded role on a DVD bonus feature via a found footage style short film. It's not very good but it does flesh out the character a bit more and let you know what he was doing while the others were dinking around in their mall. As far as the monsters go, Don gives us your standard zombies. They have fun with it though by dressing them up as Hollywood lookalikes and going just plain fucked up with the delivery of a zombie baby. The mist has more variety as different creatures pop up throughout the picture. They range from small bugs to building sized aliens. But both films also feature a fair amount of human conflict. We'll talk about that in round two. It's coming your way. In the back of my mind I was always saying better them than me. I don't want to die here. Yeah. I don't want to die here either. Granted I do run a YouTube channel that has very little respect or notice so basically dead inside already. Yeah. Anyway, I just wanted to say I like that you guys give 100% in your roles and you play this very seriously. You're not going all cheesy with things. The mist however goes a bit more tongue in cheek. It's a little bit more B movie on purpose and it also works damn good. So I like that you have a similar concept trapped in a space, have to work together but the way you handle it is very different and I respect that and I applaud that. I stumbled on my words a little bit but we're going to push through it because these things are a fucking chore to make. Okay. Yeah. Pretty much, yeah. Thanks guys. The human struggle is a popular one. It's always interesting to watch different walks of life come together to solve a common problem. Down to the dead keeps things pretty simple and straightforward where the mist goes from zero to 100 pretty fucking fast. This is based off a Stephen King novel so that's to be expected. When a mist covers a small town, a group of people finding themselves trapped in a local supermarket, they are forced to either work as a team to survive or take their chances and brave the evils that lie within the mist outside. It takes very little time for Miss Crazy to convince the other inhabitants that this is an act from God and they need to join her or face his wrath. I mentioned the Lord of the Flies earlier because it's that concept of the loudest idiot in the room overtaking the logical quiet one. Toby Jones is all he would be our piggy of the story. He warns others of the danger in following this woman's crazy ideologies. As the film ramps up, you can't help but feel frustrated right there with our hero wondering how these people can blindly follow this psycho. And I think it's a timeless message that has just as much impact on today's culture than it did years ago. I'm going to leave it at that. The Down to the Dead remake has a bit of that human tension but for the most part it stays pretty zombie heavy. The opening act is incredible and it's exactly what Fear of the Walking Dead should have been instead of, you know, fucking terrible. It's pretty nonstop from the onset as our lead joins up with the others in a mall deciding how they're going to survive another day. It's not as deep or profound as the mist but it's having a lot of fun and the writers. George A. Romero and James Gunn, you heard me, know how to craft great characters. That coupled with Zack Snyder behind the camera directing and you have a very well made horror action flick. I think a lot of great horror films end with a big twist or a dark ending and these are no exception. Down of the Dead's closing found footage stuff is remarkable. Our survivor's time on their escaped boat was definitely not a luxury cruise and the final shot of the island is creepy as hell. The Mist is on another level and I won't dare ruin it for those that haven't seen it yet or read the book. It's powerful and it's haunting. Do yourself a favor and watch both. I can't imagine they're going to disappoint you. Not going to beat around the dick. The Mist has dated effects. There's no getting around it. Especially earlier on when some of the tentacles and bugs come into the light. The shots from within the Mist, however, still look wonderful. Thanks to a clever use of fog and lighting. I'm completely impressed with how this film came together, especially since director Frank Darabont isn't known for this style of film. Granted, this was his third Stephen King adaptation as he previously directed the Shawshank Redemption and the Green Mile. They are a tad different than this, though. And since there is an intentionally cheesy level to this film, the less than stellar effects do work still. And they are ultimately just a means to drive the real story forward. Anyways, which is the human struggle. Don holds up much better since it relies heavily on classic zombie makeup techniques. Composer Tyler Bates, who's in No Shortage for Work in Hollywood, put together a very eerie score for Don. It's intense, with an almost retro vibe to some of the later pieces. While not near as amped up, the Mist score created by Mark Isham gives off a perfect ambient vibe and the last piece could not be better. I don't have a single bad thing to say about either of these. Let's conclude. A remake and a book to film done right. I love both of these movies and try to watch them every other Halloween. Picking a winner here is no easy task, but gun to my head, that's a callback. I'm going to have to go with the Mist, just due to its sheer insanity at times, the willingness to go all the way. I'm sure you have a thought or two, and I'd love to hear it. Feel free to leave a comment, vote for the winner and share this show around if you like it. This is more than just reviews. This is Movie Feuds. If you like Stephen King movie talk, I got two more coming your way with The Shining versus 1408 on the next episode. Stick around.