In the Encounter Guidebook, I wrote that the chaotic mist and the dry city were:

…loosely inspired by some of the writings of Stephen King, some of the comic book work of Grant Morrison, some science fiction novels by Frank Herbert, and the Alice books of Lewis Carroll.

“Some of the writings of Stephen King” were mainly a short story from an anthology called Dark Forces; that short story is now a movie, Frank Darabont’s “The Mist”. Atmosphere-wise and creature-wise, it’s a fairly faithful adaptation. If you want to see what the chaotic mist looks like, Darabont’s film of King’s story gives you a pretty good idea. The mist isn’t quite as dense as theirs, and walking around in it isn’t quite as immediately deadly, but it’s close.