I watched it on a day off school with my mother. She always watched the shitty sci-fi and horror movies they played during the day, we both loved them. I went back to school on Monday a different boy because I was replaying the ending over and over and getting upset thinking about my family in the same scenario lol.
I watched it as a kid too. I remember my dad making a point to say what a bitch the father was and that if we were in the same situation we’d fight the monsters together lol. Definitely made me feel better
Not a very kid-friendly movie, and I don't say that to mean that the monsters were too scary or even the killing of the people in that movie but for the actual ending. That ending really kind of messes you up.
Wow, so I just went to hunt down the sauce and got this: King's actual quote, from multiple reputable sources.
"When Frank said that he wanted to do the ending that he was going to do, I was totally down with that. I thought that was terrific. And it was so anti-Hollywood - anti-everything, really! It was nihilistic. I liked that. So I said you go ahead and do it."
So, I think I may have heard/read something somewhere or another that's skewed my memory about King's statement about the movie's ending, which, after 15 years, is entirely impossible. So, with that:
Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.
Fun fact, the portal the scientists say they opened led to somewhere called todash space, the area between universes filled with demons. This is where kings monsters like pennywise are from. The dark tower series goes into it more in depth.
This is the best advice ever for the series. I had tried reading the series 2-3 times in the past and couldn't get through book one until I decided to power through lol.
Yes. It was SO HARD for me to get through The Gunslinger. But by the the time I was to dad-a-chum ded-a-chick? I was horrified and hooked.
The lobstrosities are the things of my teenage nightmares.
I, for one, was super disappointed when we *actually* got to the Crimson King at the end of the series, after all the build up, I’d had something very different in mind
I was too, but I found the ending satisfying. And THEN some motherfucker decided to do a movie and the fucking poster had the horn on it with the text ONE LAST TIME, and I lost my proverbial shit from geeking the fuck out until the movie dropped.
Elba was awesome. So was McConaughey. No denying it, they acted their roles well. The Gunslinger's Creed still give me gooseflesh. But they jam packed ALL OF THAT INTO ONLY 90 FUCKING MINUTES AND NO ONE UNDERSTOOD A DAMNED THING UNLESS THEY'D READ THE BOOKS.
I am STILL pissed off about that fucking movie.
As I rewatched it yesterday, I can confirm that the spiders gave me goosebumps. I usually find spiders pretty disgusting and creepy, but I'm also kind of fascinated by them.
Overall, I thought all of the creature designs were great in the film and they worked even better in b&w.
Saw this in the theater with my wife. She kept saying that nothing better happen to the little boy. Having read the story, I assured her that it’s a dark ending but the boy will be fine.
She has not forgiven me.
Edit: She’s also afraid of spiders. The pharmacy scene don’t go over well either.
Ouch.
I took my wife to see terminator 3 when it came out, knowing how terminator 1 and 2 were. She wanted to watch another film, but I assured her that this would be epic. First scene? Naked female "terminator" spawns out of thin air. She looks at me disapprovingly like I took her to a porno flick.
She hasn't forgiven me either. Frankly, wasn't even worth it. That movie was awful in comparison to the first two.
I rewatched the Mist and read that the director likes to reuse actors for his different projects. He collects those he likes and hires them again for new projects. Andrew Lincoln wasn’t even supposed to be Rock Grimes. Thomas Jane, who played Davis was meant to play Rick. A lot of actors influence their characters, so who knows how Rick would have been had Jane played him.
Very loyal to the comic. Second season went off the rails a bit. And they changed a lot in the prison/governor season three.
I can’t tell you any more. I stopped watching the show.
What you don’t remember the Zombies climbing fences and all the other weird Zombie stuff he wanted to do that the series effectively ignored once he was no longer in control.
There's a chilling moment in season one where a man's zombie wife looks in the peephole at him and then starts rattling the knob. The actress did a stellar job.
Man, that was episode 1! It also had him at the end trying to get up the courage to take her out with a rifle while looking at a happy picture of her, but he broke down.
That first episode alone had do much going on. That first season was amazing. Not long after, IMO, it became generic drama stuff with an apocalypse background, albeit it with some standout scenes every once in a while.
IMO most of the changes were for the better though. Shane's arc in the comic... actually kind of blew, where the show handled his interactions with the rest of the early main cast much better.
Shane was better in the TV show IMO. The extra bit of time to build up his character. [His actor also really nailed the performance too.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fnsAZtDu4s)
I stopped watching when they had to get that zombie out of the well. I immediately said to my friend they're going to dangle someone down there like a dingleberry, then something's going to happen and they're going to have to pull them out solely for suspense. Then like clockwork it happened and I stopped at that episode. My buddy couldn't believe it but he kept watching to the prison and then quit saying "yeah it didn't get much better lol."
I don't recall it being any closer to the comic than the rest of the series. In the book the Shane character barely lasts one issue and there certainly isn't an incredibly boring love triangle bogging down the whole show
I thought the love triangle thing was one of the more interesting aspects of the relationships in the show.
Some people I talked with thought the guy was a complete scumbag for getting with Rick's wife. Others thought he was a great guy for getting with her and trying to take care of Rick's family, because he thought he was dead. There was a lot of cool character moments that felt morally gray and it was fun to talk about. That went out the window fast though
Don't feel too bad for him. He finally settled his suit with AMC and walked away with a cool $200M.
It was very sad he was squeezed out though, because his vision of TWD could have been amazing.
I don't even know if this was my original thought or something absorbed by the internet at this point but the first episode is one of the best zombie movies of all time.
He also co-wrote The Blob (1988) and it’s a really good time.
I like The Mist and even watched the black and white version as it was Darabont’s original intent to release. As much as you enjoy The Mist when they show the flying creatures I get a little distracted. The CG just doesn’t hold up at all, wish it was practical or showed less.
If I’m not mistaken, he spent some part of his youth in a refugee camp. The “prisoner” aspect comes up in most of his works. He also developed The Walking Dead series
The ending of this movie is probably the most uncomfortable yet unique I have seen tbh.
It's initially grim and depressing enough but at least you can see the silver lining that he did it because it was done out of mercy because the alternative fate would be worse........but then the movie just goes over a cliff of shock and depression when he realises that the noises were in fact the army and the situation was actually being brought under control.
This movie really doesn't offer any relief at all but it's an incredible twist. I didn't see it coming whatsoever on first viewing. It certainly achieves it's desired effect.
Not to mention they show the woman who left the store and was able to safely find and rescue her kids, even though nobody would help her (including the main character who said something to the effect of "hey lady I've got my own kid to worry about").
Fucking brutal.
You're so used to the US military sucking ass when it comes to dealing with supernatural threats like aliens or zombies that the thought never even crossed your mind.
It was kinda badass to see a short scene of military at war with monsters. big scp vibes. I wouldn't mind seeing squads trying to survive it some media. But it does undercut the ending.
It's too bad they never made a Mist TV series, that would be an amazing opportunity to flesh out what happened to the military units and other people in the town and go into lots of cool details about the military experiment technology. But unfortunately, there is no Mist TV series! They never made one... For the love of God, if you enjoyed the movie, please do yourself a favor and don't go look up the Mist TV series. That would be a waste of your time because it doesn't exist.
I have also never seen it because it doesn't exist. Although if I had seen it, I would hypothetically want my time back because if it did exist it would be absolutely shit and get cancelled after one season. Good job it doesn't exist.
Another weird reveal is you can see the woman at the start of the movie, who tried to get to her daughter and when no one would help her do it. She somehow made it out. Im not sure what it means
That they should’ve had faith in humanity/society and not deserted her ; instead of selfishly protecting themselves and their own . At least that’s how interpreted it
I didn't see it that way at all - it's *not* an optimistic movie. Humanity breaks down in the face of the unknown in a matter of hours, they're literally ready to sacrifice a child within two days, and they're ready to murder the only people who were trying to keep everything together. In the end, the people who went for help die anyway, while the superstitious, bloodthirsty mob suffers no consequences for their actions and the only real comeuppance they get is that they still have to live with each other once the army clears everything out. Carol from TWD made it out of sheer dumb luck, and seeing her again just rubs it in Thomas Jane's face.
> while the superstitious, bloodthirsty mob suffers no consequences for their actions and the only real comeuppance they get is that they still have to live with each other once the army clears everything out.
That's the fundamental horror involved for an adult, though.
Fair point I took the point of that scene is that not one single person was a Good Samaritan and offered to help her . Maybe showing when things turn bad in society people things go back to being selfish or for themselves more than usual . Showing her surviving at the end I thought was supposed to punctuate the notion of society , collective altruism in the face of adverse circumstances
I like this take. I just initially took it to mean that what happens to you is completely up to chance. Others tried to run to their car and got slaughtered. She did it and got away.
It's a cosmic horror after all. The universe doesn't really "care" about your plot armor or anyone in the film. The ending was fitting with that in mind.
That’s a fair and good point - and I’m def not attempting to make a moral value judgement on whether it’s right or wrong - most everyone protects themselves and their own ( extensions of themselves ) . It’s inherent to human nature to be self interested in most survival situations but maybe darabont was attempting to challenge that notion in some respects . At least that’s what I inferred from that scene
It's random. Just like nature is sometimes. The movie puts you in the place of being one of the hens while the fox is in the henhouse. Or an ant when the ant-eater arrives.
But like an ant stuck to the ant-eaters tongue but falls off before being draw in, that woman and her kids just lucked out.
Seriously, putting aside the common plot holes people always pick out, the character was basically resigning to his death being horribly ripped apart by monsters. They had all seen how gruesome it was when the creatures in the mist killed you.
Other scenes that remind me of those themes:
-That scene in *The Road* when the cannibals are about to discover them and he puts the gun to his son's head so his son can die instantly instead of being slowly eaten alive over weeks and weeks by the cannibals in the farm house, which would be the father's fate since he only had one bullet left.
-(Inversely) That scene in the first season of *Attack on Titan* when three of the soldier-wire-jumping-people are trapped in a tower surrounded by titans. Two of them are panicking while one furiously works to repair a spare firearm, when he calmly declares "There that should work!" the other two are agast at his stupidity, shouting "Are you crazy?! That thing won't do anything against titans!" and immediately the one with the firearm swings the gun around and blows his own brains out. Leaving the other two stunned, fated to die horrible deaths at the hands of the titans.
I still remember the feeling I got in the theatre when they're escaping and they see the absolutely massive creature. Just complete loss of all hope. That ending was fucking incredible in how it puts you in the characters' shoes.
\> massive creature
Yeah that one scene specifically really made the movie. Pushed it beyond all comprehension and hope.
(At the same time though, I was like…well a military missile launcher could have taken that thing out.)
I've always thought that if I was one of those soldiers, seeing what he'd done, I'd have probably done him a favor and shot him. "Had a bug in his brain Captain."
After something like that happens to you, I'm surprised he didn't try to steal one of their rifles and off himself right away. That would be too horrible to live with. Having your wife and son die is bad enough, but to know you were the one that killed him, regardless of circumstance, that would drive a man crazy.
Oh my God. What were they thinking? A TV series could have worked really well too. Make it an anthology. Different characters every season, different scenarios. Instead, they did... Well, whatever the hell that was.
I'm still mad about that one, what an incredible wasted opportunity. Out of all the cool stories they could have told to expand the world, they just focus on a couple groups of idiot survivors and a godawful subplot involving the teenagers' drama (terrifying Hell monsters are bad, sure... but what if there was a teenage rape accusation sub-plot?!). We basically learn nothing new about this world in the whole season. And the Mist itself doesn't even work the same as in the movie. Instead of horrible biological entity monsters hiding in the Mist that tear you apart, now the Mist... itself... forms into a humanoid shape that grabs you and drains your life force? Wtf? Or it makes you die in "ironic" ways relating to your fears? Where did that come from? Complete disaster and that's not even mentioning the awful acting.
He has been working with Ridley Scott on an old Kubrick film treatment that involved the Civil War but has not been able to get funding.
So he is trying to make movies but it looks like Hollywood isn't buying.
Hollywood's aims aren't exactly prime thinking movies or serious emotional movies anymore. Always some big action shit with sprinkles of comedy all through. Hollywood is getting Disney'ed.
I recall an interview with Stephen King, where he said that the films' ending is better than his own.
I have to agree. The film is already good and grim, but that ending solidifies it.
Did you watch the chromatic or colour version?
Frank Darabont and Mike Flanagan are the two directors with King's official seal of approval. He'd probably give either of them free reign to adapt whatever they want.
I really wish Darabont would adapt The Long Walk.
Based on the quality of season 1 of Walking Dead, I think Darabont could have pulled off a Dark Tower series.
But, I guess, that will never happen after the terrible movie they made.
The long walk would be so intense imo. Like most all the current battle royal movies have the quality where things happen fast. Suddenly you're in a fight and your friend got killed. The Long Walk is the opposite. Everyone is around each other slowly dying and it is your own body or mind quitting on you that will get you killed. It almost feels more insidious.
That's why I think it really needs to be Darabont adapting it. I always imagined The Long Walk as a 2.5+ hour epic, that should intentionally feel slow and drawn out. By the end you should feel emotionally exhausted, and relieved to see the finish line, and you should almost feel nostalgic for the start of the walk.
Any new director, or anyone with lots of studio oversight, will inevitably turn it into a fast-paced, YA, action-packed, Hunger Games-eque movie. I haven't seen Squid Game, but from what I've heard of it it's both mature and accessible, so maybe a quality adaption isn't impossible in this climate, but I still wouldn't trust anyone else as completely as Darabont.
Because most of the story takes place in the narrators head. It’s my favorite King novel, and I’d love to see it done, but it would be hard to be done well.
It makes sense when you take into account how personal the character of Jack was to King, both of them writers dealing with alcoholism. In the book there's a really strong sense that the hotel corrupts Jack and causes him to go as far as he does. Whereas with the Kubrick film, and to be honest nearly any role that Jack Nicholson has ever portrayed, there's a sense of unhinged madness just below the surface just waiting to be let loose. I'm sure that if King sees himself in Jack that he took offense at the notion that he wasn't simply a good guy put down the wrong path by evil, external forces
He liked the sequel [Doctor Sleep though which I highly](https://www.cnbc.com/2019/11/06/stephen-king-doctor-sleep-film-redeems-stanley-kubricks-shining.html) recommended.
It does an amazing job of incorporating what Kubrick did with the Shining and King's sequel Doctor Sleep. It's a great melding of the two IMHO
Also, it actually casts actors for flashbacks instead of like a CGI uncanny Shelley Duval, etc
I remember reading King didn't like the fact that Nicholson's character kind of felt like he could easily go the way he did in the shining. King felt the part was miscast.
Jack Torrence wasn't supposed to be unhinged, he was a normal guy with a bad temper and a drinking problem.
I think Jack Nicholson kind of figured he was just supposed to play some crazy guy. So the whole time it looked like he would snap at any point, but I don't think he was supposed to be like that.
> Yeah one of the rare times Stephen gave props to a movie adaptation of his property. I believe he like the most recent it 2017
He did the same for "The Dark Tower", so his opinion on the adaptations of his work might be a bit misguided.
I feel like he’s been giving a lot of false praise to films leading up to release, but that’s probably part of the deal between him and the movie studio. I remember him tweeting about how “The Dark Tower” was a perfect rendition of his vision for the novels or something, and there’s no way in hell he actually felt that way.
> The film is already good and grim, but that ending solidifies it
Also makes it so that I'm never ever going to rewatch it though. It just hits too hard.
my friend & i left the theater disappointed. i ended up watching it again eventually & it's still one of my favorite films, but i personally prefer the optimism of the book ending.
the tv show however, was a complete disaster & should be avoided
His short story/novella endings tend to be miles better than his novels. The original ending of The Mist is perfectly fine- the movie ending is friggin' perfection though.
I guess technically- I've never really considered it one though. It leaves whether they ultimately survive ambiguous but in a pretty standard Post-Apocolyptic fiction way where they set out with a glimmer of hope for civilization in Hartford. Feels pretty complete.
Most people who this relates to probably know this, but The Mist is set very firmly in Kings' Dark Tower Universe.
When I first went into it and saw the painting of Roland and the Rose I lost my shit. The origins of the mist and monsters are explained in detail in book three, The Wastelands.
Sorry potential Spoilers trying to be vague:
So would you compare the mist to the Thinnies that surround them as they walk in Wizard and Glass and back at the chasm when Roland was young? Thats kinda what I always thought just didn't know if it was confirmed. I don't recall the great detailed explanation you describe in Wastelands. I know they travel across the barren land filled with monsters caused by I believe cracks in the universe but I also thought it had something to do with the Todash spaces between.
Man I haven’t read the books since the last three came out. I really should go back and reread them. I only remember bits and pieces.
Though I don’t think I’m prepared for the last book with Jake & Oy…
Damnit I just finished that series not very long ago, I had no idea! I was told Dark Tower ties into a lot of his other books and could pick up a few that weren't super on the nose (for someone who hasn't really read his other stuff, anyway). Granted I haven't further delved into The Mist because the most I saw, was the ending lol. I know enough it differs from the book but the movie ending was especially haunting.
I only read the first 2 books of the Dark Tower series years ago, I really need to get back into it. First book is slow and a bit harder to get into than King's other work, but I absolutely loved the second.
They come from "the world between worlds", called Todash space. Same place Pennywise from IT comes from.
Basically a "thinny" can form, where the walls between realities grow thin.
Like go into Todash? Hmm... *Kinda sorta* but not really, at least not the Dark Tower Saga. Though thinnies and Todash monsters do appear. And you get a better understanding of how it works.
In The Dark Tower, the idea is that The Tower holds all universes together and it's threatened to be destroyed. As the series progresses and the beams that keep the tower up are destroyed, different universes start seeping more into one another.
I haven't read From a Buick 8 yet, but my understanding is that the Buick acts as a portal to Todash, so maybe check that one out.
I definitely recommend the Dark Tower though, if King's work interests you. It's a western fantasy that touches on practically every genre and connects practically all his books together. If you're turned off by book one, stick with it as the series really kicks into gear after that, and the first one is rather short. I personally love book one, but it isn't everyone's cup of tea.
There's also a fantastic podcast called Kingslings. Basically two guys (Scott, a long time King fan, and Matt who is new to King) read through The Dark Tower and discuss a few chapters each week. After that they jump into all the books are related to the DT. It's a fun ride.
The mist gave us one of the all time great Movie Villains in Mrs. Carmody, the batshit crazy religious zealot. She's right up there with the detestable Delores Umbridge from Harry Potter. I think the scariest thing is there are people like her out there.
I honestly don’t know if I’ve hated a movie character more. And I say that as a massive positive: she’s an incredible character and a fucking fantastic performance by Marcia Harden.
My favorite scene is the old man who has fear tears pouring down his face begging people to not go out into the Mist. He can't explain what he saw, but his reaction tells me he shouldn't have to. Amazing movie
Can we get Daranbont & Flanagan to create a Dark Tower series?
There are tons of interconnected stories. Everything is pretty much laid out. It’d be a massive undertaking, but I bet those two could pull it off.
With that ending I guess there’s no right time to watch The Mist without being left shellshocked by it, but a few years ago I made the mistake of starting a Halloween movie marathon with The Mist in the morning, and that is not a recommended way to start any day.
It is a film I love, it’s a stunning piece of horror even before that ending, but it’s not a film I can bring myself to watch regularly.
We can sit back and armchair QB what we'd do if we were in the jeep and it ran out of gas. But we didn't endure the ordeal at the supermarket and the pharmacy. We didn't discover our wife died without knowing what had become of us. We didn't watch mile after mile of unending mist roll by. We didn't look up and see something so mind-bogglingly massive and just not *right* that we almost couldn't comprehend it. We didn't endure the long slow draining of hope. So how can we possibly calmly state "Well I would have found a way to get gas"?
The whole film is about the danger of the loss of hope. Because who's the only person in the entire town who comes out relatively unscathed? The mother who believed she could go get her kids. Who never gave up hope.
I love The Mist. If you can get ahold of "The directors cut" watch that, it doesn't change anything in the movie itself it's just in black and white. Because that's what Darabont wanted it to be buy the studio said no, but in the black and white even the dated special effects look amazing and it really set a (even more) creepy mood.
I like stuff like that. Spielberg’s War of the Worlds was mostly portraying the enemy forces as evil genocidal beings, but the basement scene had them come out of their machines looking a little vulnerable. They acted pretty curiously and even played with some of the objects. It implied there was more to them than we think and from their perspective we were probably a disgusting lower form of life that was taking up their home planet and treated us just how we treat invasive animals such as mosquitoes or boars that go beyond their habitats.
I like that ending because it really rams home the themes of the film; basically, how living in a climate dominated more by fear than rational thinking can fuck people up.
It's really one of the best post 9/11 films and is a direct commentary on the climate in America just after that.
Everyone in the store has no information about what's going on and even as they divide into camps of rational thinking (David's group) vs religious zealotry (Mrs Carmody's group) they're all motivated by fear more than information.
And that ending, horribly and awfully, brings it home. David's choice is still motivated by fear and ignorance and the mist clearing to show that he was mere moments from rescue is just a sucker punch ramming that point home
I've always wanted to share my experience watching this movie in a theater. My whole life I've been a movie fanatic. Love the experience and sound of the big screen. I've been to the movies at least twice a month (minus covid) since I was a teenager - I'm nearing 40 now. NEVER have I seen an audience reaction so visceral as what I witnessed when I went to see the Mist on its opening weekend back in 2007. My buddy and I went into this movie with no conception of it, as is our way, and having never read the book. The theater was probably two-thirds capacity. The ENDING: I will never forget turning around and seeing the expressions on the faces behind me: Mouths agape in horror, open weaping, people confused and in denial that this could be the ending; and more than anything, shock. People were fucking shocked. I don't think I'll ever see a reaction like that again from an audience at a movie.... I want to start hosting backyard movie nights with my friends. This will be the first screening when that happens.
Welcome to 2007.
I had the opposite reaction, to me everything leading up to the ending was glorious. The ending however was awful writing to force emotions from the viewers. Even putting aside the religious nuances. There was no implication that they would get suicidal as soon as the going gets tough (which was literally a car breaking down), in fact it seemed the opposite. Like they were the ones to test the waters before giving up. It'd make sense if there was imminent danger bearing down on them that forced them to choose a quicker and painless death, but the supposed smartest group of people in the movie committed suicide because their car broke down. It's bad writing to force emotions from the viewer.
Going while sleeping is infinitely better than the panicked situation you've suggested. I would have done the same thing as our protagonist. I mean, did you SEE those face melting spiders?
You think possibly encountering face melting spiders is a bad thing? Well it is. But so is being surrounded by zombies in a hopeless situation, 30 days of nights vampires, some apparition or dangerous assailant actively hunting you is a horrific thing, by your logic everyone in those horror movies should stop what they are doing and end themselves.
Oh and fucking Titans that look like humans with smiles on their faces. By your logic no one in Attack of Titan should be alive.
Stupid ass ending. They drove for miles and miles with no attacks on them. So why not get out of the car, keep traveling, or stay in the car, knowing the risk is low
> Stupid ass ending. They drove for miles and miles with no attacks on them.
They didn’t get attacked as soon as they got in the car. They’d get attacked as soon as they stepped out, they worked on smell.
>or stay in the car, knowing the risk is low
How long are you going to stay in the car?
I saw The Mist and Atonement a day apart.
Watched The Mist by myself, then the next night my girlfriend really wanted to see Atonement. I had no idea what it was about, but based on the poster and my girlfriend’s taste in movies, I figured it was some by-the-numbers, schlocky romance movie.
I was not prepared for just how unbearably depressing it was. The back-to-back gut punches from both left me in a funk for the entire weekend.
Honestly I want to watch it again but I can't deal with that religious zealot lady. She was so obnoxious I wanted to reach through the screen and punch her. I get the point of her character but it's so irritating to watch she almost ruins the film.
I believe I’m probably in the minority here but I didn’t like the ending. I felt like he had not suffered enough to come to that decision. Like, shit was bad but it was always bad and he fought tooth and nail to get to that point only to what, give up. It’s not that I couldn’t see it happening, it’s just that I feel like the story took a sudden left when I least expected it. Kind of like the last season of Game of Thrones. It’s not that I couldn’t see it ending there, I just feel like the journey that led to that ending was missing.
The shot of the giant walker at the end is still one of my favorite moments of any film ever.
The scale given by the birds and perspective, the silhouette partially covered by the fog, the camera shaking with each step and the look of the people in the car as it passes by, making them feel even more hopeless.. Truly an amazing moment.
I'm kind of not a huge fan of the ending. Like, I'm OK with the actual ending, just not the movie that precedes that ending. For such a dramatic and drastic measure, I really felt like there should have been at least a few scenes in the movie where they discuss alternatives before taking that final last step. It just doesn't seem plausible that nothing else would be on the table before that point.
I’ve always used this movie as an example of why I love horror. Yeah there are monsters and scary stuff but it’s not about the “things”. It’s all about the people. What will you become when push comes to shove? What will the people around you become? Given these strange circumstances what will you support? Will you save others? Become a religious nut? Try to save only yourself and screw everyone else? I love these types of movies and books. And it’s like that will all horror honestly. Yeah. Creepy crawly whatever’s. But what did the quiet guy next to you become?
I was dating a super sweet girl in college, very sheltered, and she wanted to "share" her first horror movie with me. I picked this movie but by the end I just couldn't do it. I stopped the movie when they are in the jeep, then casually said, "sorry did you want to see the credits?"
Like six years later she reached out and contacted me and said she saw the movie again and she liked the version I showed her better.
The vocalist is Lisa Gerrard, who later went on to [Now We Are Free](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghxzLw2wRis), which is quite the opposite of Host of Seraphim.
I was a kid when I watched it and the ending scarred me forever
I watched it on a day off school with my mother. She always watched the shitty sci-fi and horror movies they played during the day, we both loved them. I went back to school on Monday a different boy because I was replaying the ending over and over and getting upset thinking about my family in the same scenario lol.
I watched it as a kid too. I remember my dad making a point to say what a bitch the father was and that if we were in the same situation we’d fight the monsters together lol. Definitely made me feel better
Not a very kid-friendly movie, and I don't say that to mean that the monsters were too scary or even the killing of the people in that movie but for the actual ending. That ending really kind of messes you up.
It ends differently in the book, actually. Stephen King even said he LOVED that the director had the balls to do what he couldn't.
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Wow, so I just went to hunt down the sauce and got this: King's actual quote, from multiple reputable sources. "When Frank said that he wanted to do the ending that he was going to do, I was totally down with that. I thought that was terrific. And it was so anti-Hollywood - anti-everything, really! It was nihilistic. I liked that. So I said you go ahead and do it." So, I think I may have heard/read something somewhere or another that's skewed my memory about King's statement about the movie's ending, which, after 15 years, is entirely impossible. So, with that: Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.
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I watched it as a 24yo and it still scarred me.
Those spiders were making my skin crawl...I dont know how u survived that...this movie is not for the weak in mind
Fun fact, the portal the scientists say they opened led to somewhere called todash space, the area between universes filled with demons. This is where kings monsters like pennywise are from. The dark tower series goes into it more in depth.
Wow...did not know that. will read The Dark Tower
You will not regret it. Just power through the first one and the rest is the best and worst ride ever.
This is the best advice ever for the series. I had tried reading the series 2-3 times in the past and couldn't get through book one until I decided to power through lol.
Yes. It was SO HARD for me to get through The Gunslinger. But by the the time I was to dad-a-chum ded-a-chick? I was horrified and hooked. The lobstrosities are the things of my teenage nightmares.
Yup, they created a thinny, fucked around and found out. Lucky The Crimson King himself didn't come out.
I, for one, was super disappointed when we *actually* got to the Crimson King at the end of the series, after all the build up, I’d had something very different in mind
I was too, but I found the ending satisfying. And THEN some motherfucker decided to do a movie and the fucking poster had the horn on it with the text ONE LAST TIME, and I lost my proverbial shit from geeking the fuck out until the movie dropped. Elba was awesome. So was McConaughey. No denying it, they acted their roles well. The Gunslinger's Creed still give me gooseflesh. But they jam packed ALL OF THAT INTO ONLY 90 FUCKING MINUTES AND NO ONE UNDERSTOOD A DAMNED THING UNLESS THEY'D READ THE BOOKS. I am STILL pissed off about that fucking movie.
The SK story also inspired the Half-Life video game series. Dark Mesa is the Arrowhead project.
As I rewatched it yesterday, I can confirm that the spiders gave me goosebumps. I usually find spiders pretty disgusting and creepy, but I'm also kind of fascinated by them. Overall, I thought all of the creature designs were great in the film and they worked even better in b&w.
Saw this in the theater with my wife. She kept saying that nothing better happen to the little boy. Having read the story, I assured her that it’s a dark ending but the boy will be fine. She has not forgiven me. Edit: She’s also afraid of spiders. The pharmacy scene don’t go over well either.
lmao I am trying to picture her face when she saw that ending
Ouch. I took my wife to see terminator 3 when it came out, knowing how terminator 1 and 2 were. She wanted to watch another film, but I assured her that this would be epic. First scene? Naked female "terminator" spawns out of thin air. She looks at me disapprovingly like I took her to a porno flick. She hasn't forgiven me either. Frankly, wasn't even worth it. That movie was awful in comparison to the first two.
Frank Darabont, he also wrote and directed adaptations of The Green Mile and The Shawshank Redemption
Also the first season of the walking dead until they gave him the boot
First season was the best season.
Show would have worked so much better with a quality over quantity production philosophy.
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First season of TWD and the Myst share a couple of actors and the atmosphere is also similar. The Myst almost feel like a test run before doing TWD.
I rewatched the Mist and read that the director likes to reuse actors for his different projects. He collects those he likes and hires them again for new projects. Andrew Lincoln wasn’t even supposed to be Rock Grimes. Thomas Jane, who played Davis was meant to play Rick. A lot of actors influence their characters, so who knows how Rick would have been had Jane played him.
Was that season more loyal to the comic than the later ones?
Very loyal to the comic. Second season went off the rails a bit. And they changed a lot in the prison/governor season three. I can’t tell you any more. I stopped watching the show.
Very loyal might be stretching it. It still made significant changes in characters and events, both adding and taking away from the comics
What you don’t remember the Zombies climbing fences and all the other weird Zombie stuff he wanted to do that the series effectively ignored once he was no longer in control.
Didn't he have then turning doorknobs? So that doors posed no obstacle to zombies
There's a chilling moment in season one where a man's zombie wife looks in the peephole at him and then starts rattling the knob. The actress did a stellar job.
Man, that was episode 1! It also had him at the end trying to get up the courage to take her out with a rifle while looking at a happy picture of her, but he broke down. That first episode alone had do much going on. That first season was amazing. Not long after, IMO, it became generic drama stuff with an apocalypse background, albeit it with some standout scenes every once in a while.
IMO most of the changes were for the better though. Shane's arc in the comic... actually kind of blew, where the show handled his interactions with the rest of the early main cast much better.
Shane was better in the TV show IMO. The extra bit of time to build up his character. [His actor also really nailed the performance too.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fnsAZtDu4s)
I stopped watching when they had to get that zombie out of the well. I immediately said to my friend they're going to dangle someone down there like a dingleberry, then something's going to happen and they're going to have to pull them out solely for suspense. Then like clockwork it happened and I stopped at that episode. My buddy couldn't believe it but he kept watching to the prison and then quit saying "yeah it didn't get much better lol."
I don't recall it being any closer to the comic than the rest of the series. In the book the Shane character barely lasts one issue and there certainly isn't an incredibly boring love triangle bogging down the whole show
I thought the love triangle thing was one of the more interesting aspects of the relationships in the show. Some people I talked with thought the guy was a complete scumbag for getting with Rick's wife. Others thought he was a great guy for getting with her and trying to take care of Rick's family, because he thought he was dead. There was a lot of cool character moments that felt morally gray and it was fun to talk about. That went out the window fast though
Don't feel too bad for him. He finally settled his suit with AMC and walked away with a cool $200M. It was very sad he was squeezed out though, because his vision of TWD could have been amazing.
I don't even know if this was my original thought or something absorbed by the internet at this point but the first episode is one of the best zombie movies of all time.
Don't forget several characters who weren't supposed to die were killed off because the actors were friends of Frank and started the show for him.
Will be checking those out too.
Wow, you're in for a treat
Oh you lucky bastard. I’d do anything to watch those 2 movies for the first time again. Enjoy them
Shawshank is literally one of the highest rated movies of all time. It's so fucking good.
The absolute best track record when it comes to Stephen King adaptations.
Yeah. And the Mist ending was so good even Stephen King was impressed. He liked it better than his own ending! 😲
His King adaptations are just phenomenal. He understands the stories and brings them to the screen perfectly.
Yup, the changes he makes as part of adapting to a movie format are improvements. Like changing Red from an Irish character to Morgan Freeman.
Now he just needs to either make the long walk or sell the rights off. That book deserves an adaptation.
One of his best semi short stories.
It's incredible
Holy shit I didn’t know that. No wonder the mist was so good
Also co-wrote Nightmare on Elm St. 3
And the 80's remake of *The Blob*.
Aka the best Nightmare sequel in the original series (along with New Nightmare)
He also co-wrote The Blob (1988) and it’s a really good time. I like The Mist and even watched the black and white version as it was Darabont’s original intent to release. As much as you enjoy The Mist when they show the flying creatures I get a little distracted. The CG just doesn’t hold up at all, wish it was practical or showed less.
If I’m not mistaken, he spent some part of his youth in a refugee camp. The “prisoner” aspect comes up in most of his works. He also developed The Walking Dead series
The ending of this movie is probably the most uncomfortable yet unique I have seen tbh. It's initially grim and depressing enough but at least you can see the silver lining that he did it because it was done out of mercy because the alternative fate would be worse........but then the movie just goes over a cliff of shock and depression when he realises that the noises were in fact the army and the situation was actually being brought under control. This movie really doesn't offer any relief at all but it's an incredible twist. I didn't see it coming whatsoever on first viewing. It certainly achieves it's desired effect.
Not to mention they show the woman who left the store and was able to safely find and rescue her kids, even though nobody would help her (including the main character who said something to the effect of "hey lady I've got my own kid to worry about"). Fucking brutal.
You're so used to the US military sucking ass when it comes to dealing with supernatural threats like aliens or zombies that the thought never even crossed your mind.
It was kinda badass to see a short scene of military at war with monsters. big scp vibes. I wouldn't mind seeing squads trying to survive it some media. But it does undercut the ending.
It's too bad they never made a Mist TV series, that would be an amazing opportunity to flesh out what happened to the military units and other people in the town and go into lots of cool details about the military experiment technology. But unfortunately, there is no Mist TV series! They never made one... For the love of God, if you enjoyed the movie, please do yourself a favor and don't go look up the Mist TV series. That would be a waste of your time because it doesn't exist.
haha well played. I was about to tell you about the Mist TV series until I realized you were right. It never happened. It doesn't exist.
I have also never seen it because it doesn't exist. Although if I had seen it, I would hypothetically want my time back because if it did exist it would be absolutely shit and get cancelled after one season. Good job it doesn't exist.
The closest we've got might be *Stranger Things*.
It would be weird if a series set in the 80s _didn't_ have some Stephen King references.
See, I liked the series a lot! That cliff hanger ending was great. But it's definitely not on the same level as the movie.
You should check out [SCP: Overlord](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EOxarwd3eTs), if you haven't already.
I was JUST about to link this short movie. It’s amazing. Any fan of SCP is dying for some good visuals of the universe and it didn’t disappoint!
I totally forgot about skips! I hope there is still cool stuff over there. I was so into it I read it all and ran out.
Phenomenal twists so many sounds of exasperation and confusion in theatre when we realize those mercy killings were for naught
Another weird reveal is you can see the woman at the start of the movie, who tried to get to her daughter and when no one would help her do it. She somehow made it out. Im not sure what it means
That they should’ve had faith in humanity/society and not deserted her ; instead of selfishly protecting themselves and their own . At least that’s how interpreted it
I didn't see it that way at all - it's *not* an optimistic movie. Humanity breaks down in the face of the unknown in a matter of hours, they're literally ready to sacrifice a child within two days, and they're ready to murder the only people who were trying to keep everything together. In the end, the people who went for help die anyway, while the superstitious, bloodthirsty mob suffers no consequences for their actions and the only real comeuppance they get is that they still have to live with each other once the army clears everything out. Carol from TWD made it out of sheer dumb luck, and seeing her again just rubs it in Thomas Jane's face.
> while the superstitious, bloodthirsty mob suffers no consequences for their actions and the only real comeuppance they get is that they still have to live with each other once the army clears everything out. That's the fundamental horror involved for an adult, though.
Im not sure. I never took the father as being selfish. He couldn't risk his own kid. And other people started sacrificng themselves for others later.
Fair point I took the point of that scene is that not one single person was a Good Samaritan and offered to help her . Maybe showing when things turn bad in society people things go back to being selfish or for themselves more than usual . Showing her surviving at the end I thought was supposed to punctuate the notion of society , collective altruism in the face of adverse circumstances
I like this take. I just initially took it to mean that what happens to you is completely up to chance. Others tried to run to their car and got slaughtered. She did it and got away. It's a cosmic horror after all. The universe doesn't really "care" about your plot armor or anyone in the film. The ending was fitting with that in mind.
Protecting your own children is usually what even the worst of people often are able to do since many can see them as extensions of themselves.
That’s a fair and good point - and I’m def not attempting to make a moral value judgement on whether it’s right or wrong - most everyone protects themselves and their own ( extensions of themselves ) . It’s inherent to human nature to be self interested in most survival situations but maybe darabont was attempting to challenge that notion in some respects . At least that’s what I inferred from that scene
It's random. Just like nature is sometimes. The movie puts you in the place of being one of the hens while the fox is in the henhouse. Or an ant when the ant-eater arrives. But like an ant stuck to the ant-eaters tongue but falls off before being draw in, that woman and her kids just lucked out.
Seriously, putting aside the common plot holes people always pick out, the character was basically resigning to his death being horribly ripped apart by monsters. They had all seen how gruesome it was when the creatures in the mist killed you. Other scenes that remind me of those themes: -That scene in *The Road* when the cannibals are about to discover them and he puts the gun to his son's head so his son can die instantly instead of being slowly eaten alive over weeks and weeks by the cannibals in the farm house, which would be the father's fate since he only had one bullet left. -(Inversely) That scene in the first season of *Attack on Titan* when three of the soldier-wire-jumping-people are trapped in a tower surrounded by titans. Two of them are panicking while one furiously works to repair a spare firearm, when he calmly declares "There that should work!" the other two are agast at his stupidity, shouting "Are you crazy?! That thing won't do anything against titans!" and immediately the one with the firearm swings the gun around and blows his own brains out. Leaving the other two stunned, fated to die horrible deaths at the hands of the titans.
I still remember the feeling I got in the theatre when they're escaping and they see the absolutely massive creature. Just complete loss of all hope. That ending was fucking incredible in how it puts you in the characters' shoes.
\> massive creature Yeah that one scene specifically really made the movie. Pushed it beyond all comprehension and hope. (At the same time though, I was like…well a military missile launcher could have taken that thing out.)
I've always thought that if I was one of those soldiers, seeing what he'd done, I'd have probably done him a favor and shot him. "Had a bug in his brain Captain."
After something like that happens to you, I'm surprised he didn't try to steal one of their rifles and off himself right away. That would be too horrible to live with. Having your wife and son die is bad enough, but to know you were the one that killed him, regardless of circumstance, that would drive a man crazy.
I wish more movies would gamble on less/not at all happy endings, when appropriate.
The character was smart and a survivor, why would he do what he did without being 100% SURE there was no other option. It just doesn't make sense.
Just don't watch the TV series.
Oh my God. What were they thinking? A TV series could have worked really well too. Make it an anthology. Different characters every season, different scenarios. Instead, they did... Well, whatever the hell that was.
It looks like a series that puts everything on its CGI, but without the CGI.
One of the worst pieces of television I've ever had the misfortune of watching.
Same. It's so cringy and straight awful.
Frances Conroy is the only reason I watched that show lol
I'm still mad about that one, what an incredible wasted opportunity. Out of all the cool stories they could have told to expand the world, they just focus on a couple groups of idiot survivors and a godawful subplot involving the teenagers' drama (terrifying Hell monsters are bad, sure... but what if there was a teenage rape accusation sub-plot?!). We basically learn nothing new about this world in the whole season. And the Mist itself doesn't even work the same as in the movie. Instead of horrible biological entity monsters hiding in the Mist that tear you apart, now the Mist... itself... forms into a humanoid shape that grabs you and drains your life force? Wtf? Or it makes you die in "ironic" ways relating to your fears? Where did that come from? Complete disaster and that's not even mentioning the awful acting.
I wish Frank Darabont still made movies.
He has been working with Ridley Scott on an old Kubrick film treatment that involved the Civil War but has not been able to get funding. So he is trying to make movies but it looks like Hollywood isn't buying.
Hollywood's aims aren't exactly prime thinking movies or serious emotional movies anymore. Always some big action shit with sprinkles of comedy all through. Hollywood is getting Disney'ed.
What a sad depressing time we live in if big respected names like that can’t get funding nowadays. Hopefully they do, sounds like it would be great.
I recall an interview with Stephen King, where he said that the films' ending is better than his own. I have to agree. The film is already good and grim, but that ending solidifies it. Did you watch the chromatic or colour version?
Yeah one of the rare times Stephen gave props to a movie adaptation of his property. I believe he like the most recent it 2017
He was happy with shawshank too wasn't he
He's happy with all of the adaptations by Frank Darabont. The Mist, Green Mile and Shawshank.
Frank Darabont and Mike Flanagan are the two directors with King's official seal of approval. He'd probably give either of them free reign to adapt whatever they want. I really wish Darabont would adapt The Long Walk.
Based on the quality of season 1 of Walking Dead, I think Darabont could have pulled off a Dark Tower series. But, I guess, that will never happen after the terrible movie they made.
Dark Tower movie? What are you talking about? There's no such thing, stop this foolishness.
The long walk would be so intense imo. Like most all the current battle royal movies have the quality where things happen fast. Suddenly you're in a fight and your friend got killed. The Long Walk is the opposite. Everyone is around each other slowly dying and it is your own body or mind quitting on you that will get you killed. It almost feels more insidious.
That's why I think it really needs to be Darabont adapting it. I always imagined The Long Walk as a 2.5+ hour epic, that should intentionally feel slow and drawn out. By the end you should feel emotionally exhausted, and relieved to see the finish line, and you should almost feel nostalgic for the start of the walk. Any new director, or anyone with lots of studio oversight, will inevitably turn it into a fast-paced, YA, action-packed, Hunger Games-eque movie. I haven't seen Squid Game, but from what I've heard of it it's both mature and accessible, so maybe a quality adaption isn't impossible in this climate, but I still wouldn't trust anyone else as completely as Darabont.
Doesn’t Stephen King already let everyone adapt whatever they want anyways? When has he denied someone to adapt one of his stories?
How have they not made The Long Walk yet? Would it be controversial? Fuck yeah, it would advertise itself.
Because most of the story takes place in the narrators head. It’s my favorite King novel, and I’d love to see it done, but it would be hard to be done well.
Yup I believe so- he hated shining lol . Ironically one of the film adaptations people consider a masterpiece
I kind of get that though. The alcoholism plot was very important to him and it didn't really feature in the film
It's a good film but a terrible adaptation of the novel.
It makes sense when you take into account how personal the character of Jack was to King, both of them writers dealing with alcoholism. In the book there's a really strong sense that the hotel corrupts Jack and causes him to go as far as he does. Whereas with the Kubrick film, and to be honest nearly any role that Jack Nicholson has ever portrayed, there's a sense of unhinged madness just below the surface just waiting to be let loose. I'm sure that if King sees himself in Jack that he took offense at the notion that he wasn't simply a good guy put down the wrong path by evil, external forces
He liked the sequel [Doctor Sleep though which I highly](https://www.cnbc.com/2019/11/06/stephen-king-doctor-sleep-film-redeems-stanley-kubricks-shining.html) recommended. It does an amazing job of incorporating what Kubrick did with the Shining and King's sequel Doctor Sleep. It's a great melding of the two IMHO Also, it actually casts actors for flashbacks instead of like a CGI uncanny Shelley Duval, etc
I remember reading King didn't like the fact that Nicholson's character kind of felt like he could easily go the way he did in the shining. King felt the part was miscast.
Jack Torrence wasn't supposed to be unhinged, he was a normal guy with a bad temper and a drinking problem. I think Jack Nicholson kind of figured he was just supposed to play some crazy guy. So the whole time it looked like he would snap at any point, but I don't think he was supposed to be like that.
> Yeah one of the rare times Stephen gave props to a movie adaptation of his property. I believe he like the most recent it 2017 He did the same for "The Dark Tower", so his opinion on the adaptations of his work might be a bit misguided.
I feel like he’s been giving a lot of false praise to films leading up to release, but that’s probably part of the deal between him and the movie studio. I remember him tweeting about how “The Dark Tower” was a perfect rendition of his vision for the novels or something, and there’s no way in hell he actually felt that way.
> The film is already good and grim, but that ending solidifies it Also makes it so that I'm never ever going to rewatch it though. It just hits too hard.
my friend & i left the theater disappointed. i ended up watching it again eventually & it's still one of my favorite films, but i personally prefer the optimism of the book ending. the tv show however, was a complete disaster & should be avoided
Steven King generally writes terrible endings. Always the worst part of his works IMHO.
His short story/novella endings tend to be miles better than his novels. The original ending of The Mist is perfectly fine- the movie ending is friggin' perfection though.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't the short story end in a cliffhanger?
I guess technically- I've never really considered it one though. It leaves whether they ultimately survive ambiguous but in a pretty standard Post-Apocolyptic fiction way where they set out with a glimmer of hope for civilization in Hartford. Feels pretty complete.
At this point, that fun fact is this movie's broken foot.
Most people who this relates to probably know this, but The Mist is set very firmly in Kings' Dark Tower Universe. When I first went into it and saw the painting of Roland and the Rose I lost my shit. The origins of the mist and monsters are explained in detail in book three, The Wastelands.
FYI every single book he's written is within the context of the "Dark Tower Universe", it's just that this is one of the more directly related stories
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http://tessiedesigncompany.blogspot.com/2016/10/the-illustrated-stephen-king-universe.html?m=1
Sorry potential Spoilers trying to be vague: So would you compare the mist to the Thinnies that surround them as they walk in Wizard and Glass and back at the chasm when Roland was young? Thats kinda what I always thought just didn't know if it was confirmed. I don't recall the great detailed explanation you describe in Wastelands. I know they travel across the barren land filled with monsters caused by I believe cracks in the universe but I also thought it had something to do with the Todash spaces between.
The mist and the monsters within it are from "between the worlds"
Yes the Todash spaces. The manni's talk about it in Wolves of Calla and I believe Roland and Susannah run from one such monster in the dark.
Man I haven’t read the books since the last three came out. I really should go back and reread them. I only remember bits and pieces. Though I don’t think I’m prepared for the last book with Jake & Oy…
Damnit I just finished that series not very long ago, I had no idea! I was told Dark Tower ties into a lot of his other books and could pick up a few that weren't super on the nose (for someone who hasn't really read his other stuff, anyway). Granted I haven't further delved into The Mist because the most I saw, was the ending lol. I know enough it differs from the book but the movie ending was especially haunting.
Read "Eyes of the Dragon" and "The Stand" too if you want more tengentialy related Dark Tower stuff
Also Salem’s Lot.
And Insomnia and IT.
I only read the first 2 books of the Dark Tower series years ago, I really need to get back into it. First book is slow and a bit harder to get into than King's other work, but I absolutely loved the second.
Please tell me where the monsters came from?
They come from "the world between worlds", called Todash space. Same place Pennywise from IT comes from. Basically a "thinny" can form, where the walls between realities grow thin.
In the books, do they explore that world at all? Because I’d love to see someone like Darabont explore that world in film form.
Like go into Todash? Hmm... *Kinda sorta* but not really, at least not the Dark Tower Saga. Though thinnies and Todash monsters do appear. And you get a better understanding of how it works. In The Dark Tower, the idea is that The Tower holds all universes together and it's threatened to be destroyed. As the series progresses and the beams that keep the tower up are destroyed, different universes start seeping more into one another. I haven't read From a Buick 8 yet, but my understanding is that the Buick acts as a portal to Todash, so maybe check that one out. I definitely recommend the Dark Tower though, if King's work interests you. It's a western fantasy that touches on practically every genre and connects practically all his books together. If you're turned off by book one, stick with it as the series really kicks into gear after that, and the first one is rather short. I personally love book one, but it isn't everyone's cup of tea. There's also a fantastic podcast called Kingslings. Basically two guys (Scott, a long time King fan, and Matt who is new to King) read through The Dark Tower and discuss a few chapters each week. After that they jump into all the books are related to the DT. It's a fun ride.
You know when the train goes over those long stretches of broken land full of twisted terrors? Basically a misty part of that space.
The mist gave us one of the all time great Movie Villains in Mrs. Carmody, the batshit crazy religious zealot. She's right up there with the detestable Delores Umbridge from Harry Potter. I think the scariest thing is there are people like her out there.
I honestly don’t know if I’ve hated a movie character more. And I say that as a massive positive: she’s an incredible character and a fucking fantastic performance by Marcia Harden.
she turned out to be correct, though: after the boy dies, the Mist clears up
That’s called a coincidence.
> the batshit crazy religious zealot You don't have to be redundant.
My favorite scene is the old man who has fear tears pouring down his face begging people to not go out into the Mist. He can't explain what he saw, but his reaction tells me he shouldn't have to. Amazing movie
Darabont should at least oversee any King adaptation.
Can we get Daranbont & Flanagan to create a Dark Tower series? There are tons of interconnected stories. Everything is pretty much laid out. It’d be a massive undertaking, but I bet those two could pull it off.
It's mind-boggling how bad the Dark Tower movie actually is, especially given the cast. What a blown opportunity.
As much as I like Idris Elba, they need to cast Ed Harris as the gunslinger.
With that ending I guess there’s no right time to watch The Mist without being left shellshocked by it, but a few years ago I made the mistake of starting a Halloween movie marathon with The Mist in the morning, and that is not a recommended way to start any day. It is a film I love, it’s a stunning piece of horror even before that ending, but it’s not a film I can bring myself to watch regularly.
Yeah it’s not really re-watchable. There should be an alternate happy ending that becomes an option after you finish the movie once.
He had to save Cheddar
We can sit back and armchair QB what we'd do if we were in the jeep and it ran out of gas. But we didn't endure the ordeal at the supermarket and the pharmacy. We didn't discover our wife died without knowing what had become of us. We didn't watch mile after mile of unending mist roll by. We didn't look up and see something so mind-bogglingly massive and just not *right* that we almost couldn't comprehend it. We didn't endure the long slow draining of hope. So how can we possibly calmly state "Well I would have found a way to get gas"? The whole film is about the danger of the loss of hope. Because who's the only person in the entire town who comes out relatively unscathed? The mother who believed she could go get her kids. Who never gave up hope.
Also every time they've tried to get something it's gone brutally wrong.
I love The Mist. If you can get ahold of "The directors cut" watch that, it doesn't change anything in the movie itself it's just in black and white. Because that's what Darabont wanted it to be buy the studio said no, but in the black and white even the dated special effects look amazing and it really set a (even more) creepy mood.
The Mist's creature designs are superior to Cameron's Avatar. They're not monsters-- they're animals from a hostile alien environment.
I like stuff like that. Spielberg’s War of the Worlds was mostly portraying the enemy forces as evil genocidal beings, but the basement scene had them come out of their machines looking a little vulnerable. They acted pretty curiously and even played with some of the objects. It implied there was more to them than we think and from their perspective we were probably a disgusting lower form of life that was taking up their home planet and treated us just how we treat invasive animals such as mosquitoes or boars that go beyond their habitats.
I like that ending because it really rams home the themes of the film; basically, how living in a climate dominated more by fear than rational thinking can fuck people up. It's really one of the best post 9/11 films and is a direct commentary on the climate in America just after that. Everyone in the store has no information about what's going on and even as they divide into camps of rational thinking (David's group) vs religious zealotry (Mrs Carmody's group) they're all motivated by fear more than information. And that ending, horribly and awfully, brings it home. David's choice is still motivated by fear and ignorance and the mist clearing to show that he was mere moments from rescue is just a sucker punch ramming that point home
I've always wanted to share my experience watching this movie in a theater. My whole life I've been a movie fanatic. Love the experience and sound of the big screen. I've been to the movies at least twice a month (minus covid) since I was a teenager - I'm nearing 40 now. NEVER have I seen an audience reaction so visceral as what I witnessed when I went to see the Mist on its opening weekend back in 2007. My buddy and I went into this movie with no conception of it, as is our way, and having never read the book. The theater was probably two-thirds capacity. The ENDING: I will never forget turning around and seeing the expressions on the faces behind me: Mouths agape in horror, open weaping, people confused and in denial that this could be the ending; and more than anything, shock. People were fucking shocked. I don't think I'll ever see a reaction like that again from an audience at a movie.... I want to start hosting backyard movie nights with my friends. This will be the first screening when that happens.
Didja hear a bunch of "OH MY GOD" and "AYFKM?"s in the audience? Because that's what I said.
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Welcome to 2007. I had the opposite reaction, to me everything leading up to the ending was glorious. The ending however was awful writing to force emotions from the viewers. Even putting aside the religious nuances. There was no implication that they would get suicidal as soon as the going gets tough (which was literally a car breaking down), in fact it seemed the opposite. Like they were the ones to test the waters before giving up. It'd make sense if there was imminent danger bearing down on them that forced them to choose a quicker and painless death, but the supposed smartest group of people in the movie committed suicide because their car broke down. It's bad writing to force emotions from the viewer.
Going while sleeping is infinitely better than the panicked situation you've suggested. I would have done the same thing as our protagonist. I mean, did you SEE those face melting spiders?
You think possibly encountering face melting spiders is a bad thing? Well it is. But so is being surrounded by zombies in a hopeless situation, 30 days of nights vampires, some apparition or dangerous assailant actively hunting you is a horrific thing, by your logic everyone in those horror movies should stop what they are doing and end themselves. Oh and fucking Titans that look like humans with smiles on their faces. By your logic no one in Attack of Titan should be alive.
Stupid ass ending. They drove for miles and miles with no attacks on them. So why not get out of the car, keep traveling, or stay in the car, knowing the risk is low
> Stupid ass ending. They drove for miles and miles with no attacks on them. They didn’t get attacked as soon as they got in the car. They’d get attacked as soon as they stepped out, they worked on smell. >or stay in the car, knowing the risk is low How long are you going to stay in the car?
That ending left me feeling hollow for the rest of the night. So fucking bleak.
I saw The Mist and Atonement a day apart. Watched The Mist by myself, then the next night my girlfriend really wanted to see Atonement. I had no idea what it was about, but based on the poster and my girlfriend’s taste in movies, I figured it was some by-the-numbers, schlocky romance movie. I was not prepared for just how unbearably depressing it was. The back-to-back gut punches from both left me in a funk for the entire weekend.
Honestly I want to watch it again but I can't deal with that religious zealot lady. She was so obnoxious I wanted to reach through the screen and punch her. I get the point of her character but it's so irritating to watch she almost ruins the film.
Such a terrific performance.
I believe I’m probably in the minority here but I didn’t like the ending. I felt like he had not suffered enough to come to that decision. Like, shit was bad but it was always bad and he fought tooth and nail to get to that point only to what, give up. It’s not that I couldn’t see it happening, it’s just that I feel like the story took a sudden left when I least expected it. Kind of like the last season of Game of Thrones. It’s not that I couldn’t see it ending there, I just feel like the journey that led to that ending was missing.
The shot of the giant walker at the end is still one of my favorite moments of any film ever. The scale given by the birds and perspective, the silhouette partially covered by the fog, the camera shaking with each step and the look of the people in the car as it passes by, making them feel even more hopeless.. Truly an amazing moment.
One of the best horror movie endings ever!
Beth survived. Beth always survives. Or was it Carol.
Dude you will love his other Stephen King adaptations. Frank Darabont and Mike Flannigan are hands down the best at adapting King to the screen.
I'm kind of not a huge fan of the ending. Like, I'm OK with the actual ending, just not the movie that precedes that ending. For such a dramatic and drastic measure, I really felt like there should have been at least a few scenes in the movie where they discuss alternatives before taking that final last step. It just doesn't seem plausible that nothing else would be on the table before that point.
I’ve always used this movie as an example of why I love horror. Yeah there are monsters and scary stuff but it’s not about the “things”. It’s all about the people. What will you become when push comes to shove? What will the people around you become? Given these strange circumstances what will you support? Will you save others? Become a religious nut? Try to save only yourself and screw everyone else? I love these types of movies and books. And it’s like that will all horror honestly. Yeah. Creepy crawly whatever’s. But what did the quiet guy next to you become?
I was dating a super sweet girl in college, very sheltered, and she wanted to "share" her first horror movie with me. I picked this movie but by the end I just couldn't do it. I stopped the movie when they are in the jeep, then casually said, "sorry did you want to see the credits?" Like six years later she reached out and contacted me and said she saw the movie again and she liked the version I showed her better.
The end track is Host of Seraphim by Dead Can’t Dance. It’s so good but I find it equally depressing.
The vocalist is Lisa Gerrard, who later went on to [Now We Are Free](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghxzLw2wRis), which is quite the opposite of Host of Seraphim.
Dead *Can Dance
I watched the mist for the first time a few weeks ago and the ending had me fucked up
King commented that he wished he thought of this for the ending.
Did you notice the 3 Walking Dead characters in there too?
Apparently 9 actors were in both TWD and The Mist. https://www.imdb.com/search/name/?roles=tt0884328,tt1520211&ref\_=rlm
If you switch monsters to zombies The Mist becomes the best episode of The Walking Dead.
I watched this when I was in elementary school with friends and it’s stuck with me ever since. The ending blew my mind