Fantastic version, lousy ending

Rating: 7/10 (9 March 2008)

So much of King's writing is about the back-story and what goes on in peoples' heads that it takes a special kind of sensitivity to the writer's intent to do justice, which is why most movie versions fail so dismally.
The Mist is a much more straight-forward story, about suspense, monsters, and mad science, so it translated well, especially in the age of easy CGI.
That said, the director really did credit to what is probably my favourite King story, faithfully recreating the nuances and making the characters believable. I was particularly pleased that the Director retained the giant creature near the end, which was even better than my imagined creature. I also felt that the spiders in the pharmacy had an evil intent and believability that far exceeded my imagination, especially the way that the webs were launched. Mrs Carmody's homicidal and insane religious loon was made all too plausible as well.
I thoroughly enjoyed this movie, but was disgusted by the deliberately anti-Hollywood ending, in which the hero actually kills his little boy and fellow escapees to save them from the monsters (which subsequently don't appear) moments before rescue arrives.
I'm bewildered as to why what was an exceedingly ambiguous but neutral ending in the book had to be made so irredeemably horrific, shame on King for allowing it.
When I see a hateful ending like this, I have to wonder at the director's mind. Is he so far gone that he feels killing children and old people as the climax is the only way to "keep it real"? What possible point was he trying to make?
So much better than most King adaptations