A little too ironic, don't you think?

Rating: 7/10 (3 September 2008)

Although it was a short story, that I've read a long time ago, I never forgot this one and I was very pleased to hear that 'The Mist' was being made into a movie. Most Stephen King book to movie translations can be rated between bad and really bad, but still I've always had sort of a weak for (most of) these films. There are a few exceptions of course, for example, The Shining, in my opinion still the best horror film ever made(the Kubrick version that is). The Mist isn't as good or as scary as Kubrick's masterpiece, and although it has the same director/co-writer, it also can't compare to The Shawshank Redemption or The Green Mile, it was still enjoyable and sure had it's creepy moments. I liked a lot of scenes like when a giant praying-mantis-like monster, appeared out of the mist, to grab a human with it's huge claws, and disappeared again. The spiders where cool too, just as the tentacles that came from beneath the door... There also where some things that annoyed me, like the overly present religious woman. If I recall correct, she was also in the book, but she didn't irritate me nearly as much then. I jumped out of my seat and yelled out 'Yes!!! Die you @#%$!' (in my living room, not in the theater), when she was killed. The actors didn't really make the bizarre events more believable for me, I actually had to laugh when a few of them argued about 'how to tell the rest of the people in the supermarket there are tentacles outside...', with dead serious faces. But maybe it would still sound stupid if it where Jack Nickelson and Michael Douglas having the same conversation, I don't know. I also didn't like some of the camera work very much, sometimes it looked like the camera was deliberately calibrated or focused, I think to add some effect, but it was only unpleasant. And then the ending... Stephen King's novel leaves you guessing, an open end; a group of people escape from the supermarket in a car and as they are driving, they find out that they never had a chance, as a tower-high monster walks past them, it had a feeling of despair. The novel ends there, but I guess the writers thought this wouldn't be a very satisfying ending for the movie, and they where probably right. Although I've warned you about the spoilers, I won't tell you how it ends. I'll just tell you that I personally thought: 'Why? Was this really necessary?'. This kind of irony just doesn't happen to anyone. If only he had waited for 5 more minutes, take some time to make the right decision man, why the hurry? But I guess the ending is what people will talk about after seeing the movie. Me, I couldn't believe it and would rather have seen an open ending than this...