Anyone else seen "The Mist"?

[Et in Arcadia ego]

Another two things that I want to add to the discussion:

1. The link to Jeff's spoiler page about "The Mist" mentions that some of the other survivors in the military convoy may be from the grocery store that the hero escapes from. If that's true, that's another major flag.

I don't recall an outright admittance in the novella that Project Arrowhead was indeed responsible. Doesn't mean its not there, just that I don't recall it, and I've read it many times. I have both Dark Forces as well as Skeleton Crew(somewhere...)

It's like he wanted the bleakest ending for the hero and movie possible. Even in the story the hero doesn't find out the fate of his wife, in the movie he sees her dead.

Are we sure about this? his is another gray spot for me. I could have sworn he goes into the house after they leave the grocery..

The ending changes are just so odd, especially considering how very faithful Darabont was to the original up until that point.

Supposedly this guy is pretty tight with King, so basing logic on this, I'm not sure he's doing something against King's wishes, fwiw.

Does anyone remember if the hero was a movie poster artist in King's original story?

Commercial artist. I remember that much.

[Et in Arcadia ego]

One person who loves the new ending is Stephen King. That’s right, he couldn’t be happier with Darabont’s new finish to his tale of terror. At a press conference today to promote the film, King talked about Darabont’s take, and had nothing but superlatives to say about it. He says: “Frank wrote a new ending that I loved. It is the most shocking ending ever and there should be a law passed stating that anybody who reveals the last 5 minutes of this film should be hung from their neck until dead.”

Link

[Et in Arcadia ego]

Holy crap, I didn't know Bernie Wrightson was involved in the monster design. Bridging threads with the discussion of Jeff's last blog post, Bernie Wrightson is a legendary comic artist. He did all the early work on the Swamp Thing, my favorite comic of them all(the old issues, anyways).

[Et in Arcadia ego]

Wow. I have to take a bow here, as I nailed it 100%. From an interview with King and Darabont:

I'm wondering what are your biggest fears?

Frank Darabont: Oh, people. People. Check out the 21st century so far. I'm afraid it's going to make the 20th look like the Romper Room. And you know, there's nothing that scares me more than what people are capable of, and uh, this is actually what this movie is about. This is -- the gentleman here said it seems like a very timely and relevant thing. To me it's a rather timeless thing to say. It goes back to Greek tragedy, you know, what are people capable of when they are influenced by lack of reason and fear. Uh, that's what scares me. The other stuff -- you're taking out the pit-bull and petting it, and taking it for a walk, you know. It's the fun stuff. You exercise the terror mechanism. This gentleman has made a great, great career and a legendary name for himself doing that. That's the -- that's the fun part, you know, the controlled experiment in fear. What really scares me is the uncontrolled realities of it.

http://www.movieweb.com/news/97/24397.php

Yes, yes, I know I'm awesome, it's ok..

[Attack Ships on Fire]

Another two things that I want to add to the discussion:

1. The link to Jeff's spoiler page about "The Mist" mentions that some of the other survivors in the military convoy may be from the grocery store that the hero escapes from. If that's true, that's another major flag.

I don't recall an outright admittance in the novella that Project Arrowhead was indeed responsible. Doesn't mean its not there, just that I don't recall it, and I've read it many times. I have both Dark Forces as well as Skeleton Crew(somewhere...)

The Arrowhead Project was implied that it was the cause of the mist. In the story the people in the grocery store found the soldiers in the back store room hanging by their necks. In the movie there are 3 army soldiers. 1 is given a bigger role and he directly admits that the Arrowhead Project was trying to open holes into other dimensions. There is also a cocooned MP in the pharmacy that tells the grocery people the military was responsible for what happened just before he dies.

But if Darabont put the same actors amongst the survivors in the military convoy that the hero sees passing him by, that is a huge issue. What is that supposed to have meant? That he should have stayed inside the grocery store when they were getting ready to lynch him and his son? That evil people get rewarded? That if you do nothing and go with the group think you live happily ever after?

I know movies don't have to mean anything but again, the ending is out of place for what's come before. It sticks out like a sore thumb and that is why I'm looking closer at it to see if there is some kind of hidden meaning there.

It's like he wanted the bleakest ending for the hero and movie possible. Even in the story the hero doesn't find out the fate of his wife, in the movie he sees her dead.

Are we sure about this? his is another gray spot for me. I could have sworn he goes into the house after they leave the grocery..

I'm sure that he doesn't. In the novella the hero can't get to his house because the road is torn up after the earthquake that happened once he was in town. He can't get closure that his wife is living or dead and he has to turn around and head out of town. It's very ambiguous. In the movie it's clearly seen that she was killed by the mist spiders.

The ending changes are just so odd, especially considering how very faithful Darabont was to the original up until that point.

Supposedly this guy is pretty tight with King, so basing logic on this, I'm not sure he's doing something against King's wishes, fwiw.

I have nothing against Darabont having a downer ending which is why I was quick to throw that in at the beginning of this thread. What's bugging me is that moments after we see the hero kill his son and three other survivors and then stand outside to get eaten, he is rescued by the military and sees the woman from the grocery store that begged for help to get home to her two children. What was the purpose of that? The chances of her making it, let alone passing him by two days later are so remote that her return appearance is there for shock value. And if the other people on the back of the military truck are survivors of the grocery store then the ambiguous nature of what is being communicated to the viewer is further compounded. Add to that the hero's senseless logic in driving until he runs out of gas and I'm left wondering why Darabont chose this ending.

I know King and Darabont are friends and King did support the new ending but that doesn't mean too much to me. King is also friends with Mick Garris and he's done more than his share of awful King adaptations. As a matter of fact I can't recall any times that King has called out bad adaptations of his material unless the quality is really dreadful (for example, any of the "Children of the Corn" shows.)

Like I said, changing the ending to show that they all died is fine by me, and even the twist is alright, but adding salt to the wound and showing the other survivor, if not the people from the grocery store too is really going too far.

Does anyone remember if the hero was a movie poster artist in King's original story?

Commercial artist. I remember that much.

Thank you. He's a movie poster artist in the movie and it's seen that he did the poster for "The Thing".

[Attack Ships on Fire]

Holy crap, I didn't know Bernie Wrightson was involved in the monster design. Bridging threads with the discussion of Jeff's last blog post, Bernie Wrightson is a legendary comic artist. He did all the early work on the Swamp Thing, my favorite comic of them all(the old issues, anyways).

The creature design is great. The giant six legged dinosaur-sized monster roaring in the mist near the end is straight out of Lovecraft. Ethereally beautiful and mesmerizing in its nightmarish splendor. I think that you would dig that facet of the movie.

[Et in Arcadia ego]

I don't recall an outright admittance in the novella that Project Arrowhead was indeed responsible. Doesn't mean its not there, just that I don't recall it, and I've read it many times. I have both Dark Forces as well as Skeleton Crew(somewhere...)

The Arrowhead Project was implied that it was the cause of the mist. In the story the people in the grocery store found the soldiers in the back store room hanging by their necks. In the movie there are 3 army soldiers. 1 is given a bigger role and he directly admits that the Arrowhead Project was trying to open holes into other dimensions. There is also a cocooned MP in the pharmacy that tells the grocery people the military was responsible for what happened just before he dies.

Right, but in the story they never make that more than a working assumption. I'd have preferred it to stay that way; the uncertainty was an attractive quality.

But if Darabont put the same actors amongst the survivors in the military convoy that the hero sees passing him by, that is a huge issue. What is that supposed to have meant? That he should have stayed inside the grocery store when they were getting ready to lynch him and his son? That evil people get rewarded? That if you do nothing and go with the group think you live happily ever after?

I don't think so. Luck has no bias. I refer again to the Director's maneuver towards a Greek style tragedy, which always has the strongest impact when irony is present. It leads you to think damned if you do, damned if you don't, a common enough thought that passes through many of our heads in day to day life. I don't get the impression that Darabont believes in rewarding evil behavior. In his interview he mirrors many of our own general observations here at RI:

The 21st Century is fux0red.

It's like he wanted the bleakest ending for the hero and movie possible. Even in the story the hero doesn't find out the fate of his wife, in the movie he sees her dead.

Are we sure about this? his is another gray spot for me. I could have sworn he goes into the house after they leave the grocery..

I'm sure that he doesn't. In the novella the hero can't get to his house because the road is torn up after the earthquake that happened once he was in town. He can't get closure that his wife is living or dead and he has to turn around and head out of town. It's very ambiguous. In the movie it's clearly seen that she was killed by the mist spiders.

Cheers, its been a minute since I read it, couldn't be sure.

The ending changes are just so odd, especially considering how very faithful Darabont was to the original up until that point.

Supposedly this guy is pretty tight with King, so basing logic on this, I'm not sure he's doing something against King's wishes, fwiw.

Add to that the hero's senseless logic in driving until he runs out of gas and I'm left wondering why Darabont chose this ending.

The hero's lapse in good thinking is clearly the stitch in the script where Darabont departs from the original storyline. This is probably just a crowbar effect neccessary to superimpose his own ending.

As a matter of fact I can't recall any times that King has called out bad adaptations of his material unless the quality is really dreadful (for example, any of the "Children of the Corn" shows.)

Well, let's be honest. King's been a whore for quite some time now. Personally, I walked away form his writing right at or soon after 'It'(what a horridly written mass of shite that was..). In the interview I gave a link to he doesn't miss a beat and recommends his new book released in January as a great gift, etc, blah blah.

King likes the dough, bro.

So, all this aside, we have at least a year to speculate on how The Thing is going to be mutilated. Whatchu think about that one? Apparently there's production details that can be found on IMDB, but a pro membership is required. I thought about doing a trial of the pro service just to rip the data..



Call your film buddies and ask em about it! I got a guy in Lion's Gate but he doesn't know anything about it..

edit: disaster formatting repair

[Et in Arcadia ego]

The giant six legged dinosaur-sized monster roaring in the mist near the end is straight out of Lovecraft. Ethereally beautiful and mesmerizing in its nightmarish splendor. I think that you would dig that facet of the movie.

That's actually my favorite part of the story, that one scene at the end. Doesn't his hair go white when he sees it?

[Attack Ships on Fire]

The giant six legged dinosaur-sized monster roaring in the mist near the end is straight out of Lovecraft. Ethereally beautiful and mesmerizing in its nightmarish splendor. I think that you would dig that facet of the movie.

That's actually my favorite part of the story, that one scene at the end. Doesn't his hair go white when he sees it?

It was mine too! (No white hair.) I hoped like hell that Darabont would keep it in there and it's realized perfectly. He added some tentacles on it and you hear it's roar and both new elements are perfect. He's also a genius in that he uses Dead Can Dance's "The Host of Seraphim" when the hero gets into the car and drives away. It's playing as the people in the car look out the windows and see this six-legged thing stride by them. The car jostles with every close step. After it's gone one of the characters in the back looks like he's about to say something and realizes that he can't. It's so perfect.

Again, this is why that goddamn ending sticks like a thorn in my head. Darabont is showing us that he's lived with this story playing in his head for years. Even if it's supposed to be a Greek tragedy and he has our hero forget about the gas just to get our heroes in the unfortunate situation where they're at, I still feel that the twist falls apart. I think thematically "The Mist" plays at its best being ambiguous; just like the creatures that you can't see King's story worked so perfectly because there were no final answers. You didn't know if the heroes lived or died or if the mist was worldwide or not. In the movie not only do you know the fate of the characters but you see the mist defeated in the final seconds of the movie. It's dissipating after the military convoy rolls through, less than 5 minutes after the hero does the deed. Bullshit.

The more that I ramble on about it, the more it comes across like a negative white-is-black stereotypical Hollywood ending. Everything is solved deus ex mechina in the worst way possible. Dude, if you had just waited five minutes not only would your ass be saved and you would have the chance to say a final fuck off to the jerks from the store but the mist would be lifting! The only thing Darabont could have done to make it an even bigger middle finger to his hero was to find a full gas can right beside his 4x4!

[Attack Ships on Fire]

Well, let's be honest. King's been a whore for quite some time now. Personally, I walked away form his writing right at or soon after 'It'(what a horridly written mass of shite that was..). In the interview I gave a link to he doesn't miss a beat and recommends his new book released in January as a great gift, etc, blah blah.

Ah, I didn't want to be as honest but you're right. I quit his stuff around then too and was asked by a friend to try "Insomnia", which I was surprised to like quite a bit. I'd recommend that and "Gerald's Game" from his 90s days. Picked up the final three books from "The Dark Tower" and while I at first found his use of putting himself into the books as a character a bad idea, it wasn't as big a problem in the end. I think what he was doing was having his readers try to realize that the story will never end because the books will be re-read again and ultimately they will need to end the stories for themselves. Mainly I read them to find out what happens to Father Callahan from "Salem's Lot".

So, all this aside, we have at least a year to speculate on how The Thing is going to be mutilated. Whatchu think about that one? Apparently there's production details that can be found on IMDB, but a pro membership is required. I thought about doing a trial of the pro service just to rip the data..

There's nothing on IMDB of note about the new "Thing" production. Not to sound like a conceited ass but I would know if there was. I get paid by dark ethereal powers to know this kind of stuff.

Call your film buddies and ask em about it! I got a guy in Lion's Gate but he doesn't know anything about it..

It's at Universal. My ear is to the ground on that kind of stuff and if I hear anything I will pass it along to you. So far it's been in limbo for four or five years. Ron Moore hasn't done any work on it AFAIK. Supposedly Guillermo del Toro is doing "At the Mountains of Madness" next summer which is the next Thing-like thing which is on my radar.

[Et in Arcadia ego]

The giant six legged dinosaur-sized monster roaring in the mist near the end is straight out of Lovecraft. Ethereally beautiful and mesmerizing in its nightmarish splendor. I think that you would dig that facet of the movie.

That's actually my favorite part of the story, that one scene at the end. Doesn't his hair go white when he sees it?

It was mine too! (No white hair.)

My King wires were crossed, that was in Pet Cemetery after the father saw the Wendigo.

I hoped like hell that Darabont would keep it in there and it's realized perfectly. He added some tentacles on it and you hear it's roar and both new elements are perfect. He's also a genius in that he uses Dead Can Dance's "The Host of Seraphim" when the hero gets into the car and drives away. It's playing as the people in the car look out the windows and see this six-legged thing stride by them. The car jostles with every close step. After it's gone one of the characters in the back looks like he's about to say something and realizes that he can't. It's so perfect.

Nice. That alone makes it worth seeing as that scene has lived in my head since I read Dark Forces umpteen years ago.

I think thematically "The Mist" plays at its best being ambiguous; just like the creatures that you can't see King's story worked so perfectly because there were no final answers.

I agree totally. Ambiguity is king when its time for end credits, but I'm also in the unpopular corner that for whatever reason relishes a film where all the main characters snuff it. That must be the dain bramage that fourthbase thinks I have ().

The only thing Darabont could have done to make it an even bigger middle finger to his hero was to find a full gas can right beside his 4x4!

Haha, sounds like Darabont got your number on this one. That *could* be interpreted as a success. I don't know if you're a fan of the Sopranos series(I don't bother with it much myself), but the ending of the series really scorched a lot of people's bottoms when the director simply cut to black with no closure. That too could be interpreted as success. If you take it with you when you walk out of the theater and discuss it further than 5 minutes later someone did a good job whether your piggybacking anger or praise.

The last movie to make me do that was Pan's Labyrinth(what an absolutely sublime film that was, ending and all). I'll bet hugh and fourth would gouge their eyes out on that one. And for God's sake, keep em both away from Tideland..

[Fat Lady Singing]

Hi Attack Ships on Fire, all: You wrote:

You're right with about half of the films released which are test screened and tweaked right up until their ends but I can report with certainty that the ending of "The Mist" wasn't changed due to committee.

That's really interesting. Thanks for sharing some of your inside info, there, ASOF!

[Et in Arcadia ego]

Apparently there's production details that can be found on IMDB, but a pro membership is required. I thought about doing a trial of the pro service just to rip the data..

There's nothing on IMDB of note about the new "Thing" production. Not to sound like a conceited ass but I would know if there was. I get paid by dark ethereal powers to know this kind of stuff.[/quote]

Good to know. IMDB says otherwise, but I'll take your word for it.

Useless trivia for you ASOF:

I'm sure you might know who Johnny Vulich is. He's been a decent acquaintance of mine for the last couple years. I met him on a digital audio forum and he's used a lot of my instruments/effect I've programmed in Reaktor.

He's one of us, lemme tell you. I don't think I know another American as anti-establishment as he is.

[sunny]

et wrote:

Haha, sounds like Darabont got your number on this one. That *could* be interpreted as a success. I don't know if you're a fan of the Sopranos series(I don't bother with it much myself), but the ending of the series really scorched a lot of people's bottoms when the director simply cut to black with no closure. That too could be interpreted as success.

Oh man, every time I try to walk away, they pull me back in...

The Sopranos ending was freaking brilliant on so many levels. I have talked and written it to death, but I will just say: Shroedingers Cat and, David Chase hates Americans of a certain variety.

et wrote:

The last movie to make me do that was Pan's Labyrinth(what an absolutely sublime film that was, ending and all).

Any RI'er who hasn't seen that beautiful and perfect film should be taken to the firepit and have their posting privileges revoked for the rest of their natural lives.

[sunny]

Saw it for the first time last night. Much better than I was led to believe by mainstream critics. Excellent acting, especially by Marcia Gay Harden. The ending will haunt me.