Starts of brilliant but ending ....

Rating: 7/10 (17 March 2009)

This movie starts out really good, the acting is great and very believable. Frank Darabont really captures the mood and settings and can recreate the environment of the book really well. Not to many scary sequences do occur and that is good for a typical King adapted movie. The mood is set more around the setting of the interaction between people locked up in a contained space in face of a unknown danger outside. The religious aspect is great and fantastic to see how people can change opinions when put to the ultimate test. So far the movie is living up to all my expectations, but then in the end-sequence something happens, that I cannot really appreciate. I read the book and Frank stayed loyal to its original ending, but he didn't manage to create the same feeling or understanding that the reader has for the deed of the main character. I wouldn't want to see it end otherwise, although it is debatable that people would actually act the same way under the same conditions. But I have the feeling that Darabont didn't know good on how to bring over the emotions on the screen and went to hasty in delivering us an ending. It could have been better build up if he had just taken a little more time in setting the right mood and showing more of the desperation that the characters feel in those final moments. Although it was an unsatisfying ending, overall it is a film that I would greatly recommend to anyone who is fan of Stephen King and the horror genre, where the focus is more on suspense then on gore blood gusting sequences. A well deserved 7 from me.