Anyone seen this movie? By far King's best movie. Even though the ending gave you a " Are you Kidding me?"
I really liked it. As far as movies based on King's writings, it doesn't even sniff Shawshank Redemption .
Definitely agree there, and would also add Dolores Claiborne. Great movie. Seems like the common thread here is that they're more suspense/drama then horror.
Forgot about Green mile. I heard King didn't write the ending to the movie. No wonder it wasn't horrible :P
FINALLY got the chance to see this. (I was in the hospital when it was in theaters.) Fantastic! Apparently, the deluxe DVD has a cut of the movie in black and white, which was the director's original intent. I'd love to see that version, as I can envision it being even more effective.
Man, I still drool over that Toronado. I'm not sure what year it was, but it looked similar to this '66.
I thought this movie was terrible to be honest. Certainly not the best example of even a moderately good King based movie IMO.
What killed it for you? I enjoyed the study of group dynamics on which the movie focused. Marcia Gay Harden was outstanding.
The special effects were bad, and Spoiler (at the end) they drove all that way and then didn't even try to get out of their vehicle? They just quit. Not to mention the preachy women just ruined it for me, as every time she was on the screen was annoying as hell. I would have killed her long before she got to where she did. I never would have been able to stand her as company that long. Then, you're trying to tell me all those people who left the store died, except for the mom? She was going further then most, and probably didn't travel as fast as some of the others. It was all just fairly unbelievable.
Spoiler The effects were a little lame, yes. Not getting out of the vehicle made perfect sense at the end. These people had gone through an array of traumatic experiences, seeing many people die in horrible manners, and didn't want to meet their maker via the jaws or stinger of an otherworldy creature. I don't blame them. The mother that we saw in the truck at the end of the flick probably wasn't the only one who survived, but the fact that she made it, after asking everyone if anyone would see her home, shows us that despite the fact that there was so much danger out there, if you kept hope alive, you had a chance at surviving. Our main protagonist lost hope, even though he took action in leading an escape from the store, and ended up killing not only his friends from the store, but his own young son that he fought so hard to protect.
Spoiler I thought the movie was great up until the end, I mean he fought that hard to get them to safety and then he just gives up and rather than die fighting (like everyone would do in that situation) he would rather shoot and kill his own son. Sure, Stephen King likes to throw in those sick twists but still, that ruined the movie for me... Not to go off on a tangent, but the movies I've been seeing lately have left me disappointed, No Country for Old Men and Cloverfield, great premises, but poor endings...
Paul and others with concerns about the ending ... Spoiler There's a very significant scene in the middle of the movie where the son PLEADS repeatedly with the father not to let the monsters get him. You have to think of the ending in the context of the father honoring that request. He knows (or thinks) there's no way he can prevail at that point, so better to let his son die in his sleep than face being torn apart by the monsters. It's the only way he can honor his son's request.
Spoiler Great point, the man made a decision that no parent would ever dream of having to make, and IMO I would rather my father pull the trigger than let me be eaten or killed in some awful manner.
About the ending and whether it was that way in the book. From watching the DVD extras it turns out that while the ending wasn't purely from the book, Spoiler because the book ends in a movie unfriendly "you finish the story" drive into the mist, the movie ending was suggested in the book. I don't have the book in front of me so I'm paraphrasing but the father has a moment where he thinks to himself "There are 4 of us and only 3 bullets left in the gun, if we run out of gas before we make it out of the mist... I'll figure something out." Frank Darabont even had to remind Stephen King that the movie ending was originally alluded to by himself.
Interesting points on the ending all around. I liked it quite a bit, but I've have some heated debates with friends who thought it was horrible.
King based movies for the most part have flopped. At least his horror/thriller ones. Green Mile and Shawshanke aside I cant really think off the top of my head of many good thriller King movie? Aside from 1408, Secret Window and a couple others arent bad, but King adaptations, especially in recent history, havent had a ton of success.
Spoiler man, I try to put myself in that situation and there's just no way I could do it... plus, it's not like he was surrounded at the time... they were in a very quiet setting, not like those bugs were climbing all over the car... if it's me, I go out fighting and teach my son about honor and the fight for survival, it's nature's way, only the strong shall survive...
Easy to say when sitting in the theater...but ask yourself this, would you be able to watch your son die in pain being torn apart by some creature, or would you prefer a quick, painless death?
