A faithful adaptation, but only pretty good

Rating: 6/10 (21 November 2007)

I love the novella this film was based on. It's one of my favorite Stephen King stories. And I was incredibly excited that Darabont was finally able to bring it to the screen. I knew that no matter how great it was I probably wouldn't be able to get into it as much as the original story simply because what your imagination cooks up is always scarier than what a filmmaker can show you.
That being said, The Mist is successful in a lot of ways. There is some genuine suspense, tension, and horror in the film. A lot of the sequences are extremely well crafted and executed. While the acting isn't consistently stellar, there are some standout performances and moments. It follows the story beat for beat until the very end (more on that later) and does a great job translating from page to screen.
My biggest complaint is the quality of the effects. The monsters looked pretty fake most of the time. The incredibly high level of tension that's built up is often released the second we get a good look at one. Most of them look like they were created for a video game.
The novella benefits from the interior monologue that the film obviously couldn't give us. And even though the time frame is accurate, the film moves a lot faster (naturally) which makes it feel less desperate and frightening.
I'd like to talk about the ending so be warned that massive spoilers lay ahead. Skip to the next review if you don't want to know...
...last chance...
Alright... here's the thing... David not being able to go back for his wife in the novella was a stronger narrative choice. Realizing she's probably dead but never getting that closure is heartbreaking. Turning that car around without knowing for sure is just devastating.
And then of course there's the addition of running out of gas and now what do we do. I liked that. I liked that a lot. And I totally buy the decision they make. Some people have said the moment doesn't play out long enough to be believable. I disagree. Think about everything they've already seen and what they've gone through. They know this is a hopeless situation. They can hear their impending doom right outside the windows. The thing is, I don't feel their needed to be time to wrestle with the decision because for them there was no decision. The choice was clear. They were at the end of the road. They went as far as they could and really, what was the other option? They had no way of knowing a solution was right behind them.
That's why I thought the film should have ended a few minutes before it did. After we hear the gunshots and see David in the car with the bodies.
Because when the army shows up it's just a slap in the face. A tacked on addition that robs the previous moment of its power and resonance just to try and be ironic. Instead of feeling like "Well... there's no other way it could have ended" it's like the filmmaker saying "Haha! Look!" So instead of leaving the theater unnerved and trying to wrap your brain around the fact that he had to kill his son, you leave thinking "Oh why didn't he wait just a few more minutes???" and to me that's just not as strong. It's cruel just to be cruel. It didn't feel genuine. It felt like a great big cinematic middle finger to the audience.
The controversy of the ending aside, the film ranks as pretty good and not great for me. I don't regret seeing it but I can't help but feel a little let down and that maybe there was a better movie in there somewhere.