Not as good as the novella but that doesn't matter

Rating: 7/10 (8 July 2008)

First, to get a few of my gripes out the way. Firstly, I wish there could be more build up. In the book we get a lot more conversation between Drayton and his wife which makes him a more developed character. Also, we get one of my favourite scenes: the live electric wires. The importance this has to the later themes of danger and risk would have worked really well in a movie. Finally, an extended build-up would give us the time to really locate the movie. That would have made the conflict between locals and out-of-towners more concrete; something that was really glossed in the film. Secondly, I feel Norton was miscast. He just isn't dislikable. It's not like Darabont was concerned about the rating: Stephen King's dialogue really makes Norton dislikable; whereas in the film, he is one of the weakest characters. Finally, sometimes the film felt like it was moving from set-piece to set-piece. Some slower, more sinister scenes would have brought out the menace of the novella. However, with the exception of a few pointless scenes, such as the romance, this is a pretty darn good horror. When I first read the novella, my thought was that this would be really hard to pull off as a movie: how do you not make the monsters not become farcical by about half-way through? The obvious answer, and the answer Darabont takes, is to focus on the human conflict going on. Personally, I think there was still too much focus on the monsters sometimes, but hey, a director's gotta satisfy the immature 15 year olds on the market. This is a pretty scary ride, in a 'Stephen King movie' way (Carrie, Green Mile etc - looking at the scary side of the human psyche). The emotional intensity is carried through by great camera work.
However, at the end of the day, most of the success of this movie is down to Stephen King's original vision. The new ending is as good as the old. But beyond that, Darabont hasn't really added anything.