Film: Steven King's 'The Mist'

[His Name Is Frank]

WARNING! DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY AND SEE THIS FILM IN THE THEATER! IT IS EASILY ONE OF THE TOP FIVE WORST FILMS I HAVE EVER SEEN (excluding rentals)!


Please, please heed my advice. It was painfully bad. I seriously left the movie thinking, "I am embarrassed for anyone that was involved with creating this film."
During the film, the audience booed and laughed out loud about how horrible certain parts were. Some walked out, others were just shouting for the film to end.

I have never read King's novella, but I seriously doubt it could have been anywhere near as bad as the adaptation. I thought 1408 was a shitty adaptation as well (although it made The Mist look like The Godfather); does King have anything to do with the creation of these films, or after the rights are sold, do the writers have complete power to to destroy the writing in any manner they choose? I have read almost all of King's short stories, and find him to be highly underrated for his writing of that type.

But back to the "film".....



Give me my $10 back!

The scariest thing is that the film actually received mixed reviews. How it was not panned across the board is beyond me.

Wow. I find it hard to believe that we actually watched the same movie. Maybe I'm biast,being that The Mist has been one of my favorite stories for years,but the movie literally brought every page to vivid life. King loves writing about true horror:mob mentality when choas sets in. There is no greater evil than human. The only thing different from the book is the ending. Personally,I like the film's ending better. Stephen King himself said in an interview that if had it to write over again,he would use Frank Darabont's ending instead of the original. It was very dark and bleak and spit right in the face of happy ending Hollywood. It was no Shawshank Redemption or The Green Mile in ANY sense of the word. It wasn't supposed to be. This was Stephen King's throwback to the era of giant bugs and military experiments gone wrong. I had fun finally seeing what I had envisioned for years every time I read the story. If anyone hasn't read The Mist yet,go grab a copy of Skeleton Crew and read it today. It's a creepy little story that will stick with you for years.

 

[MinneapolisAcid]

If you like movies with sucktastic endings then go see it.
I never read the book, but if the plot stays true then it should have stayed as a book.
I'd like a good read along these lines,
But this is definitely not what your average movie-goer would expect to see for a horror flick.
Good special effects though imo, but that's pretty much the most it had going for it.

 

[SonOF]

King loves writing about true horror:mob mentality when choas sets in. There is no greater evil than human.

I understand this. But the film was utterly ridiculous. Even for science-fiction and horror, the film (or whatever artistic medium) needs to allow the reader to suspend their disbelief. This allows fiction, no matter how "out there" it is to still be entertaining and enjoyable.

Suspension of disbelief: "It refers to the willingness of a person to accept as true the premises of a work of fiction, even if they are fantastic or impossible. It also refers to the willingness of the audience to overlook the limitations of a medium, so that these do not interfere with the acceptance of those premises. According to the theory, suspension of disbelief is a quid pro quo: the audience tacitly agrees to provisionally suspend their judgment in exchange for the promise of entertainment.

I could not suspend my disbelief while watching The Mist. The story was full of holes, the acting was pitiful (the "star" in particular was god awful) - nothing made any kind of logical sense, even with science fiction/horror logic in mind.

****possible "spoilers" ahead****

My take, or why I hated this bullshit film: So there's this mist that envelops the town...ok, I'm still following...this mist mummifies people in certain situations (like those people in the pharmacy)...ok, still with you...but, this mist ALSO IS THE HOME TO MONSTERS! And these monsters really suck, some are bug-like creatures, and some are strange dinosaur looking things, pretty low-rent creatures...either way, they are dangerous, and they look like they were created with CGI from 1996....and how did these monsters/mist arrive? Why, they came through a RIFT FROM ANOTHER DIMENSION of course! And how was this rift created? From some sort of military "testing," because typically, the military does a lot of testing with "other dimensions" and whatnot...

I swear, they tied up the loose ends as if a nine-year old wrote the story.

"So Johnny...what's in this "mist?"
Monsters!
"What kind of monsters, Johnny?"
Bugs! Flesh eating bugs...and Dinosaurs!
"Oooookay...So where did this mist come from?"
Another dimension!
"Ok, let's go with that..."

And I am far from a movie snob. I'll watch a lot of shit that other people think is too low-brow, or doesn't have a great plot. If it's entertaining, it's entertaining. This film, aside from sucking majorly, did not entertain me. It actually made me ANNOYED bordering on insulted as I watched it. I was wondering how the filmmakers could have seen the final cut of this shit heap and said, "Yes, this is it. This is my vision; a great final product."

 

[His Name Is Frank]

I understand this. But the film was utterly ridiculous. Even for science-fiction and horror, the film (or whatever artistic medium) needs to allow the reader to suspend their disbelief. This allows fiction, no matter how "out there" it is to still be entertaining and enjoyable.

Suspension of disbelief: "It refers to the willingness of a person to accept as true the premises of a work of fiction, even if they are fantastic or impossible. It also refers to the willingness of the audience to overlook the limitations of a medium, so that these do not interfere with the acceptance of those premises. According to the theory, suspension of disbelief is a quid pro quo: the audience tacitly agrees to provisionally suspend their judgment in exchange for the promise of entertainment.

I could not suspend my disbelief while watching The Mist. The story was full of holes, the acting was pitiful (the "star" in particular was god awful) - nothing made any kind of logical sense, even with science fiction/horror logic in mind.

****possible "spoilers" ahead****

My take, or why I hated this bullshit film: So there's this mist that envelops the town...ok, I'm still following...this mist mummifies people in certain situations (like those people in the pharmacy)...ok, still with you...but, this mist ALSO IS THE HOME TO MONSTERS! And these monsters really suck, some are bug-like creatures, and some are strange dinosaur looking things, pretty low-rent creatures...either way, they are dangerous, and they look like they were created with CGI from 1996....and how did these monsters/mist arrive? Why, they came through a RIFT FROM ANOTHER DIMENSION of course! And how was this rift created? From some sort of military "testing," because typically, the military does a lot of testing with "other dimensions" and whatnot...

I swear, they tied up the loose ends as if a nine-year old wrote the story.

"So Johnny...what's in this "mist?"
Monsters!
"What kind of monsters, Johnny?"
Bugs! Flesh eating bugs...and Dinosaurs!
"Oooookay...So where did this mist come from?"
Another dimension!
"Ok, let's go with that..."

And I am far from a movie snob. I'll watch a lot of shit that other people think is too low-brow, or doesn't have a great plot. If it's entertaining, it's entertaining. This film, aside from sucking majorly, did not entertain me. It actually made me ANNOYED bordering on insulted as I watched it. I was wondering how the filmmakers could have seen the final cut of this shit heap and said, "Yes, this is it. This is my vision; a great final product."

Wow! You're right. Your point has made me realize how absurd movies I once thought were good really are. I mean,Back To The Future. The idea that time travel is possible and you can do it in a Delorian traveling on 88mph,far below the speed of light? Garbage! Night Of The Living Dead. Dead people coming back to life? That would make them live people,not living dead people. Duh! And there's no way to reanimate a dead person. Complete shit! And don't even get me started on......well,prety much every science-fiction movie ever made. You can't see it,but I'm rolling my eyes at you harder than I ever have before in my life,SonOf.

 

[lostpunk5545]

In the book the people in the pharmacy had been killed and drained by some spider like creature, not mummified.

I'm looking forward to seeing this. It is one of my favourite (long) short stories.

 

[L2R]

threads couldn't merge due to two polls, so i simply moved all the posts inthe smaller one into the bigger one, and adjusted the one vote from the smaller one to this one.

fantastic film!

my audience, too, were extremely into it. you could tell how uneasy they were when they laugh or chatter at some horrific moment. and the cheer at that moment, i think it was the same moment as in hinameisfrank's session, was immense.

the ending was fantastic. i haven't read the book, but it's so good the way it is, i can barely imagine how else it could have ended.

i wonder how many people in the theatre connected the dots between the climax and the crazy ramblings earlier in the film.
4/5

 

[the_ketaman]

I am keen to see this. Looks like a fantastic film.

 

[His Name Is Frank]

threads couldn't merge due to two polls, so i simply moved all the posts inthe smaller one into the bigger one, and adjusted the one vote from the smaller one to this one.

fantastic film!

my audience, too, were extremely into it. you could tell how uneasy they were when they laugh or chatter at some horrific moment. and the cheer at that moment, i think it was the same moment as in hinameisfrank's session, was immense.

the ending was fantastic. i haven't read the book, but it's so good the way it is, i can barely imagine how else it could have ended.

i wonder how many people in the theatre connected the dots between the climax and the crazy ramblings earlier in the film.
4/5

Read the book. The story itself is in Skeleton Crew. It's a short story and the ending is definitely different than in the movie.

 

[kryalkastleE]

So keen to see this, must drag my butt to the cinema soon.

 

[egor]

If its as shitty as the book, I'm glad I didnt waste time and money seeing it.

 

[His Name Is Frank]

If its as shitty as the book, I'm glad I didnt waste time and money seeing it.

It's one of the best stories I've ever read. You're not a Stephen King fan,I take it.

 

[CloudyHazeD]

Caught this the other night.........

I thought it was decent. Interesting plot......maybe they could have delved a litte further into the actual cause of the mist.....

At most parts, the movie was rather predictable.....especially the ending...... and I've never read the book or saw the older version of the movie........

All in all not a total waste of time

 

[SmokingMan]

I think the religious freaks in the store were more horrifying than the creatures in the mist.
Pretty good flick.

 

[L2R]

....maybe they could have delved a litte further into the actual cause of the mist.....

that would have ruined it for me. there was plenty exposition already imo. i don't need to be spoon fed explanations and special effects in order to appreciate what's going on, actually it works better without.

 

[L2R]

Read the book. The story itself is in Skeleton Crew. It's a short story and the ending is definitely different than in the movie.

had some time to kill last weekend at the airport and guess what was selling at the bookstore....

 

[mariacallas]

Gonna watch this right now

 

[L2R]

just finished reading this story, and i must say, great read that it is, i very much prefer the ending in the movie.

i'm a fan of that twilight zone gut wrenching irony.

 

[massive]

whoever recommended this movie should be shot.

zero dimensional characters and the dialogue was just painful

the way they gloated over that kid was truly pathetic

1/5

 

[L2R]

yeah kids are useless. kill them all!

 

[egor]

It's one of the best stories I've ever read. You're not a Stephen King fan,I take it.

I am an old King fan. The Stand is my favorite book of all time; I just did not enjoy The Mist. The best part of the book was the "flat earth society" refference...