Frank, you have said that you wanted this to be a shot-fast, gut movie.

FD: For me as a filmmaker, it was a completely new style I wanted to embrace, an aesthetic I'd never done before. This material lent itself very well to that. I wanted a very ragged, in the moment, documentary-style film. It was a much more improvised approach in terms of the camerawork. We were shooting two cameras all the time, three if we could fit them, roving at all times. We had two brilliant camera operators who were like other cast members. The actors never knew where the cameras would wind up.

Your parents are survivors of the Hungarian Revolution and you were born in a Hungarian refugee camp. Did that experience with the fear of the unknown play into this film?

FD: Coming from that kind of a background, I grew up with the grasp of a very dicey European history during the 20^th century, where things could change on a dime. Where comfort and safety could get taken away and things could get ugly in a hurry. I've always valued America because there's generally stability here. I think that permeates your understanding of the world and it certainly can't help but trickle into your work.

As far as keeping the focus on the characters in this movie, that's a cue that comes originally from Steve King. That's what I loved about this story. Ultimately, it ain't about the monsters outside, it's about the monsters -- your friends and neighbors -- that you're stuck with inside. What does fear do to people, what does panic do to people? What happens when the rules are stripped away, when the veneer of civilization is dropped, how do people behave and react? That was always how I viewed the story and what I wanted to bring to it. Luckily, I had a cast that was on board and that trusted me as a director.

Relationships between novelists and screenwriters can often be tense. Why do you think your work with Stephen King have all been so successful?

FD: I think probably because I really love his voice as an author. He tends to -- no matter how fundamentally wacky the premise of something like this is -- [guide] us through the world that he writes with character in mind and that gets me really excited. His voice as an author is something I respond to not only as a reader, but as a storyteller myself.  Something vibes with me in his work that makes me want to get behind a camera. Luckily Steve seems to feel that we make a pretty good match. He's never minded the liberties I've taken with his material, but I think he's also appreciated that I'm trying to maintain his voice as a writer and try to be as true to his intention as possible.

Stephen King's last adaptation, 1408, was extremely successful. Thomas, what keeps bringing audiences back to pay money to be scared?

Thomas Jane: That's a philosophical-type question. I don't know anything about that.

Chris, since you mainly star in comedies, what attracted you to be in a scary film?

CO: Well, it definitely started with the fact that it was being done by Frank--

TJ: And that you got offered the role.

CO: ...It's always nice to be able to do something different, and this was very different than anything that I've done before. At least for me, I try to do as many genres of film as possible, so this was very exciting. Especially since this script isn't your average horror flick.

What were the most valuable lessons and insights you gained from making this film?

TJ: What the heck was your question, pal? Asking us how making this movie changed our lives or something? Working on anything there's obviously going to be gains...

But there's room service, so I gotta go get my hamburger.

FD: Speaking for myself, the insights I gained are terrifically valuable in terms of my craft and the approach to what I do. I learned to do things in more of an instinctive and ragged way. It amazed me how immediate and in the moment the process can be, and the result on screen can be. I imagine that it's like any art form -- you spend a part of your life learning the rules -- and then at a certain point you can get excited about throwing out the rules that you know and just throwing paint at the canvas and seeing what happens. That this came together as well as it did with a very loose approach thrills me and excites me and I think it will inform my work in the future as well. It's a way to plug more into your instinctive flow.

Did the documentary-jazzy style of filmmaking influence the actor's process of performing for the camera? Do you do it differently that for a film that is more traditionally shot?

TJ: Yeah, I think you do. It opens you up to know that anything you say or do may be used on film ...

FD: ... and may be held against you in a court of law.

TJ: I guess it might shut some people down. But for me, it really opened me up and made me feel like I could do anything I wanted with my character and it wasn't wrong. In acting, you're always trying to find the character and tell a story through the character. With this documentary kind of style, you realize that we're all humans and we're capable of a whole hell of a lot. So for me, it was quite liberating and I think that's how you get sort of a sense of truth on film.

FD: It takes a lot of courage to get into that and my cast was tremendously courageous, whether it felt weird at first or not.

CO: It made it that much easier to immerse yourself in it and really be in that moment, it was more free form. It wasn't static.

What type of horror film is The Mist? Is it a throwback or something new?

FD: I think it's unique, whether it's a throwback or not. I do feel very satisfied in the notion that it's not going to feel like someone else's movie, which is awesome. And it's not going to feel like it's in that ghetto that horror often descends into. We saw the slasher film in the 80s and so many movies were just following that formula. Now we've got the torture films, which I personally have no use for at all. This is really a story [that] is first and foremost about people. The fact that it's a horror movie follows that lead. I'm really happy with it from that standpoint. I didn't want to make something that felt like a cookie cutter, I wanted to make something that felt like it counted for something, and I think we achieved that.

TJ: [Eating a hamburger.] Yeah.