great film, but the ending was "oogie"

Rating: 9/10 (8 December 2007)

I always enjoy movie versions of Stephen King's books, and Frank Darabont has already proved with The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile that he is the man when it comes to adapting Mr King's stories to the screen. He completes his hat-trick with this great movie of what some might believe to be one of King's lesser works. Everything is spot-on from direction through to the excellent committed acting performances of a well-cast group of actors, which only leaves to beg the question: why, oh why, when he decided on which ending to choose did this one not remain for a DVD alternative ending? *********SPOILER ALERT**************SPOILER ALERT********************* After all that the characters had been through, and after all they had seen, I thought they might have deserved a little more than a bullet through the head as soon as the car ran out of gas. This action did not even make logical sense. Drayton had reserved the bullets for the last possible resort when all other hope was lost, but the car coming to a standstill surely did not mean the loss of all hope. If the monsters of the mist had been approaching the car from all angles and were starting to break through the windows, then yes, fire away. But not at the first opportunity just because the car stopped, because who knows, if they'd just sat tight for a couple of hours, or even a day, maybe the mist might have begun to clear, or maybe the army might have turned up in tanks to rescue them. The fact that both events happened within a couple of minutes of our hero doing the unthinkable only proves how ridiculously hasty his actions were, and consequently how ultimately dissatisfying the ending was. It was, as another Stephen King creation, the late great Annie Wilkes, would have said,....."oogie".