The Mist

[leon]

I saw this movie last night. I was spine-chilling.
That was not a monster in the mist, I was scared at the human group psychology.
Last 15 minutes of the movie were very sad.

I give 4 stars to Stephan King. :)

[FUS1ON]

Man this movie was freaking insane! I'm not sure which was scarier, the people or the monsters. I know this though ... John Carpenter is one freaky mofo! The stuff that comes from that dude's mind is waaaaay out there, but he will make you think.

9/10

[OUTLAWS CHICO]

Steven King is a very scary or is it gifted person. If you look at his bank account he is gifted !!!!!!!!

[OUTLAWS high ping camper]

You're not going to find a happy ending if Mr. King wrote the story. About the only one I remember that ended well was Shawshank Redemption. :)

[KiLLerBabe]

Very nice movie, but the end is very bad :(:P

[Pathos]

Huge spoilers for both Shawshank and The Mist movie and book to follow. Reader beware. Turn back now. Don't do drugs. Try the dip. Free Hat.


You're not going to find a happy ending if Mr. King wrote the story. About the only one I remember that ended well was Shawshank Redemption. :)
If the book-to-film translations are anything to go by, then damn straight! It's interesting that both Shawshank and The Mist have slightly different endings to the King material. Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption does not have the final scene on the beach (if memory serves, it ends with Red's contemplation on the bus), making the book hopeful, but less so than the film.

The Mist, from what i gather (haven't read the thing), seems to conclude with them driving off into the mist and picking up pieces of a broadcast on their car radio indicative of hope. So in some ways, and for obvious reasons, this makes the book both more and less hopeful than the film.

Tell you what though, The Mist theatre going experience was certainly terrific for garnering audience participation! I'm sure you can you guess the scene to which i refer?

I don't know that i've ever heard such a vocal reaction to a moment in film as loud as that which came when the religious nut was mercifully eliminated. In my cinemaplex it was the cue for an erruption of various cries of "yes!"; "f!uck yeah"; "about goddamn time"; "thank you!"; "again! Shoot her again!" (one of those may have been me) and general cheers and relief amidst an entire sea of clapping... eventually capped by everyone cracking up. You could feel a huge wad of tension just melt away. Was brilliant.

There's a thousand threads about this on IMDB (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0884328/board/flat/102401619?p=1). Everyone talks about the kick in the teeth ending, but as far as what i feel Darabont\King were going for, that right there was the real climax of the film. Statement on human condition made and concluded. Take a bow.

And how cool was it that the badass of the film was the stubby supermarket dude? Too bad this unconventional casting also blatantly telegraphed the need for his demise. Or maybe i've just seen too many damn movies.

As an aside, Shawshank is one of only two pieces i've ever actually read from King, and one of the few examples i can cite of the film being better than the book. (Admittedly in this case it was only a short story, or novella rather, but still... no mean feat.) The other piece was a short story about a guy fighting toy Army men which come to life and they have this huge mini-war in his apartment! The biggest explosion was in my pants because that shit was awesome! Can't for the life of me recall the title,so if someone could clue me in i'd appreciate foregoing the 5 seconds it would take to google it.

[FUS1ON]

Please use the spoiler code

[Pathos]

Please use the spoiler code
No worries, man. Though my every other blurb up there gives something up; I mean, even a mere paragraph or two after your inserted block i reference an additional death? That's kinda why i opened with a spoiler warning indicating big giveaways, rather than blanket the (long) length of the post. I vote that this should qualify as sufficient if you're going to go into as much detail as i have. Just looks silly to have block after block of, well, black.

Though i respect this is not a voting system and am happy either way. I was really good at painting over walls, tables, and stray parents as a kid, so this will really let me cut loose again.

Cheers, Shogs.

[OUTLAWS high ping camper]

Heh, heh, my bad, I hadn't read those 2 books. I read his older stuff.
The Shining
Cujo
Carrie
Night Shift (short stories)
Fire Starter
and the last one I read was Tommy Knockers

[Fifth]

Man this movie was freaking insane! I'm not sure which was scarier, the people or the monsters. I know this though ... John Carpenter is one freaky mofo! The stuff that comes from that dude's mind is waaaaay out there, but he will make you think.

9/10

Fully agreed, saw this movie month ago or so.

[EXEcution]

As an aside, Shawshank is one of only two pieces i've ever actually read from King, and one of the few examples i can cite of the film being better than the book. (Admittedly in this case it was only a short story, or novella rather, but still... no mean feat.) The other piece was a short story about a guy fighting toy Army men which come to life and they have this huge mini-war in his apartment! The biggest explosion was in my pants because that shit was awesome! Can't for the life of me recall the title,so if someone could clue me in i'd appreciate foregoing the 5 seconds it would take to google it.

The short story in question is called "Battleground" from King's compilation of shorts stories that were published in various magazines called Night Shift. I think that I've read most of the short stories in that book several years ago when I was going through my King obsession and actually read The Stand (a 1000+ page book) for a school project.

His other short story anthology which I prefer over Night Shift is called Skeleton Crew which has several gems such as "The Monkey" which you would greatly enjoy. :P There's also some really cool sci-fi stuff which I go nuts over. I recommend checking it out.

[BobtheCkroach]

I try with a passion to avoid watching King's movies, though I admit this one looks pretty good.

I'm simply too much a fan of his work to have it spoiled by the movies that never do it justice.

[BobtheCkroach]

actually read The Stand (a 1000+ page book)

One of my favorites. Not a page wasted.

For anyone curious,

The Stand (get the full, unabridged version...you owe it to yourself), The Dark Tower Series, The Eyes of the Dragon, Needful Things, Salem's Lot and The Green Mile are all fantastic books.

I still have a lot of his books left to go - I haven't been reading as much lately as I used to.

[Pathos]

Cheers, Exe. I do believe i may have Skeleton Crew as an audio book somewhere (though i sorta shoved those to the side the day i discovered podcasting). And I'm curious to see if Battleground is as good as i remember it being from my distant childhood. I was substantially more mature back then, so my hopes are high.

Bob - two great things about The Stand mini-series: 1) It introduced me to Gary Sinise. He really rocked that thing! Pity it fell apart in the last act. And 2) It spawned the genesis of one of my oft-repeated quotes (to the chagrin of all within earshot): "M-o-o-n. That spells moon!" Classic.

It's often lamented that the best translation of King's material can be found in his human-drama specific stuff, with works such as Shawshank, Dolores Claiborne, Stand by Me, Apt Pupil etc., so it's nice to get a The Mist every now and then to help balance the scales.

Of course, given that the bulk of his horror material works as a barely conceiled smokescreen to actually riff on said human condition, one should probably lump the whole thing together anyway.

And not to get tooooo off topic, but have we all seen the underrated Storm of the Century? Colm Feore was just terrific (Born in sin? Come on in!). Check it out.

[FUS1ON]

Even though they aren't many exterior scenes, it's looks like it would have taken place in the Northeast or even the Northwest part of the US, I was shocked to find out this was filmed here or maybe they just did the interior scenes here.

[ME BIGGD01]

Thanks to this thread and this section I was very interested to see this movie. It was good and I would give it 8 out of 10.

I always imgagine situatuions where if there was chaos and you have a lot of people around you trying to survive, how would I react. Although I found many of those people to be stupid and yes I screamed it out many times while watching I do know that I would take it upon myself to end the life of those that may cause problems in security such as the one you all know who I am talking about. That one would of been shot as soon as she opened her mouth.

The ending was like WTF!!! I would not have done that and I found there reason to be so foolish considering what they were trying to accomplish which was survive. I guess having some sort of hope until the end is a good way to survive.

Anyway, thaks for creating this thread and your reviews because I found another good movie.