Insane

Rating: 9/10 (9 December 2008)

Stephen King has amazing stories that can be excellent explored or can become a mess, unfortunately most of them become a mess when movie adapted, but for the happiness of some of his fans or for some of those ones that just enjoy a great tale, this is one of those few exceptions. Seems that Frank Darabont is the only director/writer to really understand Stephen King. He did 2 other great adaptations: The Shawshank Redemption (1994) and The Green Mile (1999), both critically acclaimed and awarded. He should think about it more often, because it's hard to find great directors and writers to make excellent movies based on Stephen King's novels as Darabont does. From the last couple years 1408 and The Mist are the best adaptations that can be seen.
Like Dreamcatcher, this one's also about strange creatures, but dislike the other one, it has been splendid adapted, becoming a completely terrifying piece of horror. It has monsters, gore, explicit violence but also great dialogs, excellent performances, an effective direction, religious and political issues and an ending completely out of Hollywood proportions.
Marcia Gay Harden as Mrs. Carmody is just an excellent example of a breathtaking performance. Thomas Jane as David Draton sometimes seems not so desperate as he should, in fact, a forgettable performance within so many characters well performed. I see some people complaining about the visual effects, yeah, they are not so convincing some times but this is just a detail when compared to other magnificent qualities seen and felt for over 2 hours.
This movie can be loved for the genre lovers and also for those ones who enjoy great subjects for later discussion, but it will probably not be pleasant for people with problems affecting some of their believes or for those ones who are expecting something easy and superficial. There are a lot more within its story than its shown and it doesn't need so much effort to understand some of them at the very beginning.
It's claustrophobic, frightening, shocking. This is not a zombie movie but some references to classic movies as Dawn Of The Dead seems necessary much for its problematic tones disguised thru entire movie, issues that involves social relationships and the constant difficulty of understanding that the modern society presents heavily thru the years, becoming a nightmare when not dealt with logic.
This movie is insane. Interesting and clever insane!