A negative ending is not always bad... except in this case

Rating: 7/10 (24 March 2008)

Can I just start by saying that finding out how to add comments on this site is like looking for a needle in a haystack...? There; now that I've got that out of my system, I'll go on to the my comments about this film. I thought it was amazing, 9/10. However, that drops to a 7/10 when you take the nihilistic ending into account. I was so let down by it that I had to visit the user comments on IMDb to find out if others were as disappointed as I am!
While I was reading, I learned that The Mist had been made by the same people who remade Halloween, and suddenly the bad ending made sense... Halloween was a mindless slaughter-fest with no redeeming qualities. I guess the amazing thing is that they managed to make such a sensitive and faithful adaptation this time around. But it's almost as if whoever was in control of the plotting on Halloween was not allowed to participate until the very end of this film, when he decided to wreak vengeance on his collaborators by destroying the amazing bond they'd established between the surviving characters. Hey, if even Stephen King was in awe of his callousness, then that says something!
I see lots of other people made similar comments about the ending; what bothers me is that the makers probably look at reviews like theirs and figure it's coming from mindless, Prozac-happy viewers with a self righteous disdain for 'depressing stuff'. I am writing this review because that is most definitely not the case with this film. A negative ending is not necessarily a bad one, except if it totally disrupts the flow of the film and makes no sense for the characters involved. Sadly, in this film the latter is definitely true.
Overall though, The Mist has a very tense, realistic and haunting atmosphere. In their next film I hope the directors will have also perfected the art of a seamless ending because if they do, they will probably find themselves leaders in this genre.