The Mist

[Frostatine]

I mean seriously...

Decent movie, but really really depressing. Anyone else care to share?

[Archbio]

It takes a special kind of writer to take ambiguity in a story and see missed opportunities for spirit crushing.

[Dørmatte]

Two days confined away from the rest of society and they were already listening to the town lunatic and practicing human sacrifice as a reasonable means of solving the problem?

I refuse to believe that human beings can be that stupid, and as such strongly disliked this move. The idea was good, though.

[Torque]

I refuse to believe that human beings can be that stupid, and as such strongly disliked this move. The idea was good, though.

I wouldn't categorize it as stupid. I'd call it insane. They were all insane. The god-lady was just insane from the get-go. It's what happens when giant insectoid monsters, invertebrate leviathans, and dinosaur-esque creatures run rampant throughout the world killing anything and everything in the most gruesome manner possible...

Seriously tho, I loved the movie, and at the end I was screaming at the TV "JUST GIVE IT FIVE FUCKING MORE MINUTES! DAMNIT, PUNISHER DON'T KILL EVERYONE YET!"

[Dørmatte]

Yeah, insanity: The get outa jail free-card. Oh no, your honor, I wasn't in control of my actions - I was INSANE. Because insanity is like being possessed by a demon or something, it just jumps in and totally replaces your personality leaving you absolved from all personal responsibility, like in super hero comics.

More like they were all idiots who would rather listen to the person who was feeding them answers than think for themselves, no matter how wrong the answers were, or they were too afraid to face the conclution they came to when they tried thinking. In either case they were idiots or cowards and while people like that definitely exist, in my experience they're at best (worst?) half the population, not everyone.

Anyway... if I was one of the idiots in the mall I'd probably have panicked and ended-up getting killed by one of the spiders or something, but I sure as hell wouldn't have started killing people left and right to keep myself from getting bored.

What should've happened was that that millitary guy should've taken control of the situation and assured everybody that rescue was on the way - even if he believed it or not. Sure is easier than believing in the lunatic that's asking you to kill children. Instead he broke down, started crying and pretty much asked them to finish him off. Stupid movie.

[pirostyle]

I was thinking about going to see it, but it did look a little boring.
As far as I could tell from the advertisments, the movie only took place at that stupid supermarket.
I did however enjoy all the screaming from the people being dragged off. Oh and btw, what WAS in the mist anyway ??

[Invisible Queen]

In the short story, the crazy lady is pretty convincing. She's a natural born bible thumper and the monster attack drives her over the edge, and she preaches uncontrollably for like 36 hours straight, and some of the scared and confused people start listening to her because she sounds like she knows what's going on, and more people come to listen and she goes mad with power. Don't know about the movie though.

Actually the movie sounds awesome just because it's the same director who did The Green Mile and The Shawshank Redemption. :3

[G.I.R.]

The movie is a worthless pile of tripe. Stick with the book and you'll be much happier.

[Hawk]

I was actually wanting to see this at some point, but now I'm not so sure. I think I'd probably be better off with the book, judging by the comments on here. Shame really, 'cos when I first read it I really did think it would make a decent film.

But this seems to happen a lot with Kings work.

[Torque]

I thought both the book and the story were good.
I mean, it sounds to me like you're over-analyzing this a bit already there, Dørmatte. Have YOU ever been trapped in a grocery store by a cloud of pea-soup fog/mist that hides a plethora of violent and vicious killing machines that are just WAITING for you to step out so they can have lunch? No? Didn't think so.

"Science and Reality, and the 'this is what I'd do speech'. The get out of jail free card of movie reviews."

[Dørmatte]

I'm pretty sure what I'd do would be something like panic completely, and then either sit in a corner and do nothing, start a fight with somebody, or kill myself.

I wouldn't rally the bystanders around me and lead them to survival in an organized fashion, that's for certain, but assuming I didn't kick off or start drolling I sure as hell would contest the crazy preacher's wild unfounded claims, and I like to think that I'd attempt using violence to stop her from spreading her influence, but I've never been in any such situation before so I can't say that for sure. I can whip myself up into a bserker rage-like state if I want to though, and then my natural cowardice disappears, so who knows.

But, seriously. Human sacrifice. Come on. Come on.

[Lord of Joshelplex]

The ending really pissed me off. The ending in the book was much better.

[Mirai Gen]

More like they were all idiots who would rather listen to the person who was feeding them answers than think for themselves, no matter how wrong the answers were, or they were too afraid to face the conclution they came to when they tried thinking. In either case they were idiots or cowards and while people like that definitely exist, in my experience they're at best (worst?) half the population, not everyone.
Totally and completely agreed.

That was one of the reasons I liked Shaun of the Dead, actually. David spent the entire movie trying to convince everyone he should be the leader because he hated Shaun, and he was so desperate to convince them he made a line of bad choices and stupid things.

That is what a crisis does to people.

Dawn of the Dead actually handled it pretty well too. The stupid girl panicked but she didn't decide, hey, let's sacrifice someone, that'll fix the problem!

[Frostatine]

The ending really pissed me off. The ending in the book was much better.

Steven King doesn't care about making you happy.

I thought the end was appropriate, although if there had been a timelapse between the incident in the car and the resulting twist has been...oh a day or so, I would have been much happier.

Honestly, if put in that situation I would have done the same thing. Those things were scary as hell.

[Lord of Joshelplex]

Yea, but in the book they drive away. There was no "Killing his companions and then 30 seconds later the Mist clears.

[Meister]

Yeah, while I'm totally down with actually making the ending more bleak and depressing in the transition from book to film (maybe to balance out what they do to books like I am Legend) it does sound a bit like they did it for pure shock value here. Fight Club remains the only film that ever got away with it.

Also on the military:
No idea how much they emphasized this in the film but the book strongly implied that a military project on a nearby base was responsible for the mist appearing. Two soldiers stuck in the supermarket would commit suicide pretty much immediately. Maybe that's what they wanted to convey with the one military guy, too.

[Mirai Gen]

Fight Club's ending more depressing than the book?

I didn't think so, but to me that's because at the end of the book he was still insane but now he was in a psych ward for it, where as in the movie he solved his problems and got rid of Tyler and came to terms with his repressed emotions. That seemed less bleak and depressing.

[Meister]

Maybe not "depressing" as such, but the book's ending was, let's say more subdued. The usual hollywood treatment would have been he solves all his personal problems and stops the terrorists and, well, we know what happened.

Buuut anyway The Mist. (Hmm, Fight Club thread or not Fight Club thread...)