I know

[silverthorne]

That a lot of people don't like the ending of the movie version of The Mist, and I can understand why--there really just isn't a happy ending. Just a cessation of the horror.

For me though, that's what I like about it. It's brutal. But it's honest. And quite frankly, it lets the audience feel the full horror and pain that kind of horror would put the people through, rather than aim for a trite 'everything is okay after all in the end' or the cheap 'bwahahah!' of one last 'unexpected' kill and cheap scare at the end of the movie to indicate 'it really isn't over yet' (Final Destination sequels, I'm looking at you).

So yeah, it's horrible, and heart breaking, and just downright sucks for the main character.

But...it's true to the genre. I'm actually grateful for the chance to feel truly, truly awful about the fate of the people in the movie, and not just in that 'OMG! Did you see when his head exploded all over the place?! GROSS!!!' way.

Comments

[silverthorne.livejournal.com]

Oh, there was a definite ending. It just didn't cater to most people's idea of what a 'good' ending is (IE: Everything Works Out In The End, or Oh Hey, Let's Try and Set Up A Clever Scare and a Possible Sequel Hook. Both of which are getting some pretty heavy and unecessary use in the horror genre lately, especially the second one. Even Scream had the sense to make each movie self contained, and that was intnetionally planned as a trilogy.).

The more recent crop is better than the 80's and 70's. Granted, most people agree that Nicholson's 'Here's Johnny!!!' was downright creepy and some good acting, but I didn't really like any of the movies based on King's books until the late 90's. The Stand, Dreamcatcher, The Mist I think are all tons better than the older fair.

But then, in all those cases, someone else wrote the screenplay and concentrated on telling a good story as opposed to trying to carbon-copy the books, so it's a bit easier to enjoy them, at least on their own merits.

(Although Dreamcatcher has some pretty shaky moments, and I'm not too thrilled that they found it necessary to turn Dudditts into an alien for the final showdown. Up 'til then, I liked the movie quite a bit.)