Gray Widowers are deadly, spider-like predators, each about the size of a dog, which have the ability to produce corrosive spiderwebs that can burn through materials like clothing and flesh.
History
Novella
Due to the doors of King's Pharmacy being left propped open when the Mist reached the pharmacy, the pharmacy patrons were smelled out by a pack of Gray Widowers which proceeded to overrun the pharmacy and slaughter the patrons.
About a day later, when an expedition of survivors from the nextdoor Grocery Store arrive for medical supplies, they are attacked by the Gray Widowers, which use the Mist as camouflage and their acidic webbing as projectiles. The Gray Widowers manage to kill three of the survivors with their deadly webs, but three of the remaining survivors manage to escape back to the market.
During the escape from the market the next day, a large Gray Widower attacks Hattie and cocoons her in its webbing, killing her. It then scuttles off through the Mist and out of sight with Hattie's cocooned remains.
Shortly after, another Gray Widower tries to follow David into his Scout, but David closes the door on it before it can get in. With all the doors and windows of the Scout closed, the scent of the survivors within is cut off from the Gray Widower, making them practically invisible to it. Thus the Gray Widower abandons the Scout when it cannot pick up the occupants' scent.
Film
Gray Widowers apparently attacked the Draytons' home when the Mist reached it, killing Stephanie and cocooning her body to the broken window in web silk.
As the doors of King's Pharmacy were propped open when the Mist reached it, the pharmacy patrons were smelled out by a pack of Gray Widowers which proceeded to overrun the pharmacy and capture and cocoon the patrons in cobweb-like webs. They killed all the patrons except for the MP, whom they used as a host for Gray Widowletts and laid thousands of eggs under his skin.
About a day later, survivors from the Food House nextdoor arrive at the pharmacy to collect medical supplies in time to witness the MP hatch the Gray Widowletts. The adult Gray Widowers then reveal themselves to the group and launch an attack, killing Bobby Eagleton and Mike Hatlen and feeding their bodies to the newly-hatched Gray Widowletts.
The next day, during the escape from the market, a Gray Widower attacks Bud Brown, Myron LaFleur and Ambrose Cornell in the parking lot; killing Myron. Ambrose is soon after attacked, surrounded and killed by a pack of Gray Widowers.
When David leans out of his Land Cruiser to get Amanda's gun, a Gray Widower attacks the car. David gets back into the car and closes the door, and the Gray Widower attempts to break in through the windscreen. However, with all of the Land Cruiser's doors and windows closed, the occupants' scent is cut off from the Gray Widower, and thus, it gives up in seconds when it cannot pick up the survivors' scent, and abandons the Land Cruiser.
When David's group is driving south through the Mist, they discover a school bus which was apparently attacked by Gray Widowers when the Mist reached it, and the children's bodies cocooned in web silk.
Anatomy
Novella
The Gray Widowers are described as black with yellow piping, 12-14 multiple-jointed legs, promegranate-like, pinkish-red eyes and appearing similar, yet almost entirely different, to spiders.
They can also fire strands of their corrosive webbing as projectiles from the oval-shaped orifice on the upper-belly, and produce low, vibrational, mewling noises.
Film
In the film, the Gray Widowers are greyish with eight spiny legs, long, thin spines, a wasp-like abdomen, four eyes, a spiny, insect-like thorax, and a skull-like head. They also produce vocal sounds ranging from low, vibrational growls to high, piercing shrieks.
Like in the novella, they can produce corrosive web strands and fire them as projectiles, but they can also lay eggs in living hosts. These eggs will appear as thousands of bulging boils on the host's skin, which each burst open after about a day to release the new hatchlings. The hatchlings, Gray Widowletts, appear identical to the adults, except they are a brownish colour, and the size of terrestrial spiders.
Life Cycle
In the film, the Gray Widowers have a parasitic life cycle: they capture living hosts and lay thousands of eggs under each one's skin. After about a day, the eggs hatch into thousands of Gray Widowletts which eat their way out of the host's skin, killing it.
Victims
- Stephanie Drayton (film only)
- Numerous King's Pharmacy patrons
- MP (film only)
- Buddy Eagleton (novella only)
- Bobby Eagleton (film only)
- Michael Hatlen
- Dan Miller (novella only)
- Hattie Turman (novella only)
- Myron LaFleur (film only)
- Ambrose Cornell (film only)
Gallery
Trivia
- The Gray Widowers' acidic webbing appears to be based off the corrosive blood of the Xenomorphs from Alien and its sequels.
- The pharmacy scene in the film is clearly based off a scene from Aliens.