The Mist (2007)

Resolved: if there are to be any more adaptations of Stephen King's writings, Frank Darabont must be behind the wheel. Darabont, the man behind critically heralded King flicks The Shawshank Redemption (which I'll have to get around to seeing one of these days) and The Green Mile (which I commend for being one of the most faithful and most incredible adaptations of any work of literature ever). With 2007's The Mist, Darabont did something risky - change the ending of King's original novella.

And King preferred that ending to his own. Kudos, Mr. D.

Kudos also for making one of the most suspenseful - but perhaps not the scariest - movies I've seen in a long while. By restricting the action of the plot (for the most part) to a supermarket sealed off by a mysterious creature-filled mist, Darabont keeps the film rolling with a cast of characters trying to survive. Thomas Jane (fresh off his "I just want my kids back!" cameo on Arrested Development, a cameo that probably won't be far from your mind) wants to defend his son and escape the creatures outside, supermarket employee Ollie (the fortunately inimitable Toby Jones) is the standard sidekick with a shooting-gallery twist, and Mrs. Carmody (Marcia Gay Harden, who seems to have been snubbed as a Best Supporting Actress) is the obligatory religious nut who believes the mist is an End Times reckoning from on high.

If it sounds a bit formulaic, don't let that fool you. The Mist is anything but. The performances keep the movie from verging on cardboard, and the characters are all thoroughly engaging. Though the film deals with the same themes that King has explored since Salem's Lot - the fact that the supernatural threats are less terrifying than the darkness within ourselves - the film is as disorientingly unfamiliar as the best science fiction.

Then there's the matter of the ending. What do we do with an ending like this one? Is it a desperate plea for the preservation of hope, or simply a brilliant exercise in irony? Is it the destruction of King's ending or the construction of a better one? Or is it a classic example of the theory that gets thrown around a lot when Lost is mentioned - purgatory? Whatever it is, it left me in stunned silence after the credits rolled. I'm not ready yet to assess it as a "great" or "terrible" ending, but I'll say it's unforgettable.

From a critical standpoint it seems as though I'm not saying anything earth-shattering here. Then allow this postulation: Darabont needs to sue J.J. Abrams and the makers of Cloverfield, and fast. I thought Cloverfield was an outstanding accomplishment in the monster suspense genre, but it seems Abrams and Cloverfield director Matt Reeves took more than a few pages from Darabont's what-I-now-realize-as superior film. Shaky cam? Check. Insect-like creatures and a larger crab-like monster? Check. Army presence (and possible culpability)? Check. Lovable character getting devoured by vicious pincer-bearing creature just when escape seems certain? Check. Ambiguous shock ending? You get the picture.

Skip Cloverfield and see what an original movie The Mist is. Leave it to Stephen King to outdo fresher faces in the movie world.