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:
Did you watch the b&w version or colour?
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.
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!
I hope so, The Long Walk is my favourite Bachman, and is up there in my top King books.
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...
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