Friday 17 July 2009

Downbeat denouements

Finally got round to watching Frank Darabont's excellent adaptation of Stephen King's The Mist the other night. It was everything I'd expected. Well crafted with a smart script and neat monsters, and head and shoulders above typical genre fare.

What I didn't expect, however, was that ending. If you've not seen The Mist, fear not, I won't go into spoilerifc details but boy, Darabont's disturbing denouement left me shaken and depressed. And I like downbeat endings. Se7en? Brilliant. The Parallax View? Hell, yeah. But The Mist's really upset me.

It's been years since I read King's original novella, but, from what I remember, he left it open-ended. Darabont's is just plain nasty and fucked up. And all power to him for getting it made that way.

5 comments:

Matt Jones said...

Did you watch the b&w version or colour?

Mark Salisbury said...

Only watched the colour one so far, but I'm definitely going to check out the B&W, which, I think, is Darabont's preference.

Unknown said...

Yeah, the ending was a real punch to the gut but a good one nonetheless. Definitely one of the best horror films to come out this decade.

I heard that he might be tackling King's THE LONG WALK next. Can't wait!

Mark Salisbury said...

I hope so, The Long Walk is my favourite Bachman, and is up there in my top King books.

Gerard said...

I'm so keen to check out the B&W version of this. I will say, however, that the ending I only liked in theory. In theory, it's the kind of ending I generally tend to gravitate towards, but with it all unfolding as quickly as it did in the film I felt it was robbed of any impact - to be honest, playing out as it did, it actually made me giggle...