The Ending Makes You Want to Slap Someone

Rating: 4/10 (24 November 2007)

Darabont wants to make a throwback 1950's monster flick, and he almost succeeds. Further, its the first time I've ever seen a King adaptation that actually gets the weird characters and dialogue right without seeming cheesy or over the top. All the religious fanaticism in his books doesn't really translate well to the screen, and neither does a lot of of his dialogue, so it was refreshing, as a sometimes fan, to see it all work for once. The concept, as well, was truly scary and there are some great jump out of your seat moments.
But, the thing is way too long, and it's too cinematic to really evoke a 1950's monster chiller horror film. And the O. Henry twist at the end is just really too much. As my 12 year old daughter said, it would have been a much better film with a cliché ending. Oh, I know there will be those who say that it was brave of an American film maker to do what he does (and no I'm not gonna spoil it beyond saying there's a twist), but I'll bet once the "I can't believe he had the balls to do that" shock wears off, no-one will care. Quoting my kid again, "that ending just made me want to go and slap someone". Irony is not art.