The Real Grocery Store Trip That Inspired Stephen King's The Mist

Stephen King's "The Mist" was first published in 1980 as part of his "Dark Forces" anthology and later added to 1985's "Skeleton Crew," a dynamic collection that featured 18 short stories, two poems, and two novellas. The real source of terror in "The Mist" is the tentacled Lovecraftian beasts that roam around the town of Bridgton, along with the increasingly violent divide amongst the local townsfolk (who abandon reason and give into panic). This heightened sense of paranoia that tears the small community apart is the focal point of Frank Darabont's "The Mist" film adaptation, where the creatures appear less monstrous than those gripped by religious frenzy or collective angst that manifests in unspeakably ugly ways.

In both King's novella and Darabont's movie, these events are triggered by a storm that is only a precursor to the chaotic turmoil that is about to unfold in the otherwise peaceful American town. The sudden instability caused by this natural disaster, which also casts a thick mist everywhere, propels people to go to the local supermarket to stock up on groceries. This impulse is driven by practicality, as these communal spaces are often collective safe havens in the event of a disaster. In this instance, however, the supermarket turns hellish, trapping people instead of protecting them.

What propelled King to write a novella about strange beasts in a town on the verge of societal collapse? The answer lies in the "Notes" section of "Skeleton Crew," where he details how the story presented itself to him during a trip to the grocery store amidst a raging thunderstorm.

King begins the "Notes" section by stating that "The Mist" was written in the summer of 1976, as his agent at the time, Kirby McCauley, was compiling his stories together for "Dark Forces." At the time, King couldn't "think of a thing," and no amount of wrestling with ideas led to meaningful inspiration, as if "the short-story machine in [his] head was temporarily or permanently broken." When a thunderstorm broke out one day, King decided to go grocery shopping, which is exactly when his short-story muse struck him with inspiration:

"I was halfway down the middle aisle, looking for hot-dog buns, when I imagined a big prehistoric bird flapping its way toward the meat counter at the back, knocking over cans of pineapple chunks and bottles of tomato sauce. By the time my son Joe and I were in the checkout lane, I was amusing myself with a story about all these people trapped in a supermarket surrounded by prehistoric animals."

King was initially amused by this idea but decided to give it a go, and he ended up writing a chunk of "The Mist" the same night and finished it within the week. He explained that he wasn't a fan of the story until the rewrite, where he was able to "discover a rhythm of language that [he] liked" and modify certain aspects of the story's main character, David Drayton, to ensure readers would actively root for him in the end.

King's grocery store trip might have inspired a somewhat silly idea about beasts hounding local townsfolk, yet the author ultimately transformed "The Mist" into an unforgettable tale about repressed societal angst, the sudden loss of safety, and the terrors accompanying such intense feelings.