Didn't enjoy this film but can't get the ending out of my mind

Rating: 6/10 (3 October 2009)

I can say with all honesty that I didn't enjoy this film. A fairly B-grade horror film with creatures from another dimension, the usual annoying villains that populate some of Stephen King's books, in this case a religious zealot.
Trouble is I couldn't get the ending out my mind. The nightmare vision of the giant creature towering above the van. Then the awful decision by Drayton and his scream of anguish at the end.
I didn't like the ending. It was depressing. How can you enjoy something like that? However, it was a sting in the tail of the movie, and ultimately that is a sign of effective horror isn't it? Effective horror is meant to shock, effective horror is meant to have the viewer care about the characters involved in the action, and what happens to them. The Mist achieved that.
Another of King's short stories adapted into film "The raft" had a similar effect on me. I hated it, but I didn't forget the end in a hurry. Same as Pet Semetary. A whole novel spent developing interesting characters that all die horrible deaths, and undeaths.
It is certainly different to the sentimental endings in movies such as I am Legend, which destroyed an interesting book by Richard Matheson.
Maybe films like the mist are effective examples of the horror genre, which more and more I find is not my cup of tea.