Be prepared to be scared, very scared of the terrifying things that lurk in the heavy fog enveloping a Maine village in The Mist (Genius, $29.95).

Dozens of people holed up in a supermarket become too frightened to venture out, fearing the at-first unseen monstrous mutant creatures shrouded in mist. A giant octopus-like monster and desk-sized insects make their appearances only slowly … until the CGI effects department finally wins out. With The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile already to his credit, writer-director Frank Darabont has proven himself one of Hollywood’s ablest at bringing Stephen King tales to the big screen. In King’s The Mist, he builds a slow sense of foreboding that gives way to terror.

The script is intelligent, feeding into paranoia about government secret science projects. And it doesn’t take the easy way out or give in to predictable solutions, providing an ending straight out of The Twilight Zone.

There’s also a Two-Disc Collector’s Edition ($32.95), which has a black-and-white version of the film, a booklet, a making-of feature and special-effects shots.

Flying high

The screen version of Khaled Hosseini’s best-selling novel The Kite Runner (Paramount, $29.99), about a man who returns to Taliban-ruled Afghanistan to rescue the son of his now-deceased boyhood friend, didn’t turn out to be the enormous hit it had been expected to be.

The first 90 minutes is slow going in a long setup that flashes back to 1978 Kabul to show the bond between the two young friends and the terrible event that threatens to pull them apart. While one boy sneaks out of the country to head for America after the rise of the Taliban, the other remains. The plot uses several contrivances to bring characters back together. Perhaps it was more subtly accomplished on the printed page.

It’s not until the final half hour of The Kite Runner that things heat up with the hair-raising rescue attempt and a long-held secret that’s finally out in the open to shake up the dynamics of the film.

Easy as pie

In one of the most unsettling moments in the unsettling documentary War Made Easy (The Disinformation Co., $19.95), former CBS News anchorman Walter Cronkite, who later decided that the Vietnam War was a mistake, hops out of an Air Force jet after a bombing run over North Vietnam and says, “It’s a great way to go to war.”

In this entertaining if scary film, narrated by Sean Penn, nationally syndicated media critic and author Norman Solomon looks at how U.S. presidents and the media have kept America on a war footing by promoting fears that often later prove unfounded, such as Saddam Hussein’s “weapons of mass destruction,” or promises that are not kept, such as former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s assurances that the Iraq war would pay for itself from that country’s oil revenues.

Directors Loretta Alper and Jeremy Earp use archival TV and newsreel footage to show how government propaganda shapes our view of the world. From Lyndon Johnson to George W. Bush, the wars they promote change, but the storyline is the same: enemies are dehumanized, war is painted in black-and-white terms of Good vs. Evil, war is presented in virtuous terms as a way to spread freedom and democracy. All this is overlaid with assurances of peace even as the bombs drop. “It makes bombing other people seem almost like an act of kindness,” says Solomon.

When things in the field turn sour, there’s always a predictable call for no retreat. An amusing series of clips has everyone from George W. Bush to a string of congressmen and senators to media pundits decrying the call to “cut and run” in Iraq. Earlier, in the buildup to the Iraq invasion, drumbeats sound as the call to war becomes increasingly shrill and urgent and even many in the media jump on the war bandwagon with news segments that make war — “Showdown with Saddam” — sound like a TV show.

A miracle in Cranston

Some people in Cranston may recall the several days in 2002 when the likes of Olympia Dukakis, Jennifer Esposito and Melissa Joan Hart moved into their neighborhood not far from St. Ann Church to shoot scenes for Jesus, Mary and Joey.

The film, which had a limited theatrical release, arrives on DVD this week (Monarch, $22.95). It was written by Rhode Island native Vincent Pagano (of A Wake in Providence) and directed by James Quattrochi. It revolves around a middle-aged man (Pagano himself), still living at home with his big Italian- American family, whose life is changed when he is reunited with his childhood sweetheart, who has had a miraculous cancer cure, and the rest of his family winds up looking for their own miracles.

Also this week

Go on night patrol with a bunch of Hong Kong cops in PTU: Police Tactical Unit (Genius, $19.97); explore a David Lynch cult film in Lost Highway (Universal, $19.98); a martial arts hero takes on a villain in Kiltro (Magnolia, $26.98); five college students run into a serial killer on acid in Shrooms (Magnolia, $26.98); a young couple in Romania is terrified by nighttime visitors in Them (Dark Sky Films, $24.98); seven partygoers become targets of a twisted killer in April Fool’s Day (Sony, $24.96); a group of destitute Africans takes the World Bank and International Monetary Fund to court in Bamako (New Yorker, $29.95); a dead man searches purgatory for his dead girlfriend in Wristcutters: A Love Story (Lionsgate, $26.98); a terrorist plot goes awry in rural America in Sharpshooter (Genius, $14.95); nuclear materials go on sale on the black market in Pu-239 (HBO, $26.98); trouble ensues when three hikers think they’ve found Bigfoot in The Sasquatch Gang (Screen Media, $26.98); and Paris Hilton plays a “hottie” with a heart of gold in The Hottie & The Nottie (Liberation, $24.95).

Yul Brynner starred in more than one historical epic — The Ten Commandments. The proof is in three films starring Brynner — Kings of the Sun, about the rivalry between Mayans and indigenous Indian tribes; Solomon and Sheba; and Taras Bulba, about a 16th-century battle between Cossacks and Poles. They’re $19.98 each from MGM.

From TV

Back again on your little screen are: The Invisible Man: Season One (Universal, $59.98); Wings: The Sixth Season (CBS/Paramount, $42.99); Noble House (Lionsgate, $19.98); Party of Five: The Complete Third Season (Sony, $39.95); Sliders: The Complete Fourth Season (Universal, $59.98); Upright Citizens Brigade (Shout! Factory, $14.99); Tripping the Rift (Anchor Bay, $26.97); Frisky Dingo: Season 1 (Warner, $19.97); Suburban Shootout (Acorn, $24.99); Midsomer Murders, Set 10 (Acorn, $49.99).

For kids

Keep the little ones entertained with: Arthur — Season 10 (WGBH, $49.95), or two disks from It’s a Big, Big World — Be Healthy and Happy or Everybody’s Different (Sony, $12.99 each).

Performance

Be happy with the blues in concert with Blue Man Group — How to Be a Megastar Live! (Rhino, $19.98); get a peek at twisted rock with Robyn Hitchcock: Sex, Food, Death … and Insects (A&E, $24.95).

Sports

Get behind the wheel in Daytona 500: The 50th Anniversary (A&E, $24.95); celebrate a 20th anniversary with The Los Angeles Dodgers 1988 World Series Collector’s Edition (A&E, $69.95); and check out the stars of the International Fight League in IFL 2007 Championship (Warner, $19.98).

Documentaries

Get an inside look at The Iraq War (The History Channel, $29.95); ride inside the cockpit with Korean War pilots in Missing in MIG Alley (WGBH, $19.95); don’t cry for Evita in The Mystery of Eva Peron (First Run Features, $24.95); get inside the head of a controversial movie director in Who Is Henry Jaglom? (First Run Features, $24.95); look at the shocking duties of the “ordinary” German soldier during World War II in The Unknown Soldier (First Run Features, $24.95); and see Jonathan Demme’s portrait of a former president in Jimmy Carter: Man From Plains (Sony, $24.96) as The Silence of the Lambs director follows Carter around the country during the contentious book tour for Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid.

Coming around again

The two-disc Walk the Line Extended Cut (Fox, $26.98) includes commentary by director James Mangold and extra performances by cast members of songs by Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and Roy Orbison.

There’s more than two hours of bonus content on the Bonnie and Clyde Two-Disc Special Edition (Warner, $20.97), including a new documentary — Revolution! The Making of Bonnie and Clyde — the History Channel documentary Love & Death: The Story of Bonnie & Clyde, Warren Beatty’s wardrobe tests and added scenes. There’s also the Bonnie and Clyde Ultimate Collector’s Edition (Warner, $39.92) which, besides the aforementioned, includes a 36-page hardcover book of behind-the-scenes photos, a 24-page reproduction of the original 1967 press book and a mail-in poster offer.

Collections

Six new-to-DVD gangster films from the 1930s and ’40s arrive from Warner as the Warner Bros. Pictures Gangsters Collection Volume 3 which includes Picture Snatcher, starring James Cagney as a tabloid photographer; Lady Killer, with Cagney as a former thug trying to make it in Hollywood; Smart Money, with the only screen teaming of tough guys Cagney and Edward G. Robinson; Humphrey Bogart in Black Legion; Cagney again in Mayor of Hell; and the comedy Brother Orchid, with Robinson hiding out from Bogart in a monastery. They’re $19.97 each or $59.92 for the set.

French star Alain Delon, an international movie icon in the ’60s and ’70s, is celebrated in Alain Delon 5-Film Collection (Lionsgate, $39.95), which includes Diaboliquement Votre, Le Gitan, La Piscine, Notre Histoire and La Veuve de Couderc. Each film has English subtitles.

mjanuson@projo.com