Alternates, please!

Rating: 4/10 (26 November 2007)

The Mist is a fairly straightforward adaptation of the novella, but with an extended ending. I didn't find the movie particularly scary, and through it all (and especially when I first read the story twenty years ago) I kept thinking of another book I read some thirty-five years ago about a fog bank that rolled across the land, a fog of time that brought creatures and people from the past into the present. Alas, when I was teenager I seldom paid attention to the names of books and authors, so I cannot recall either for that tale.
The two characters in the movie I found most interesting were Norton, played by Andre Braugher, and Ollie, played by Toby Jones. There's something intriguing about a lawyer, a man of apparent intelligence, whose mind curls into a fetal position when confronted with unusual events. And Ollie, well, what other talents did the little man possess? My favorite scene is when he loads the gun with expertise, much to his boss's confusion.
I did not like the ending, and I hope there's an alternate or two on the DVD. I thought of three as I was walking out of the theater. The Hitchcock ending, like in the novella, where they drive out of sight into the mist and we don't know what happens to them. The happy ending, where the mist begins to clear, and they meet the soldiers. And my favorite, the ambiguous ending, where they're almost on empty, with just a few more minutes of fuel left, and the camera pulls back to reveal the full extent of the mist cover, and that the soldiers are indeed closing in, but they're still miles away.
I give it four out of ten, and recommend seeing it at least once.