VERY much enjoyed Frank Darabont’s adaptation of Stephen King’s “The Mist.” That story has been my favorite of King’s since I first read it at like 12y/o or so, and I always longed for it to be a movie — but not a crappy movie like they always make out of Stephen King stories. I was mightily worried that I was going to be disappointed, but needn’t have been, for it was AWESOME. Everything looked just like it did in my 12y/o old brain, and I felt almost exactly the same as I did upon first reading it. Frank Darabont for the win!
I think that story really nails what society is all about, and I fear that it perhaps warped my fragile little mind upon my first reading. People really do form little power hierarchies, willfully giving up power to others when it’s too scary not to. At the first hint of crazy, people are willing to overlook a WHOLE LOT of crazy in the people to whom they decide to give power, and don’t even seem to realize it. Sure, stuff in the titular mist IS scary, but the really frightening things in the story are the ones the people do. Because their leader tells them to. Scary because it’s TRUE.
Film gets bonus points for Dark Tower inclusion, a nice reference to John Carpenter’s “The Thing,” some thought-evoking Jesus symbolism, leaving out the only thing that really made me feel skeevy in the story, and lastly: for including something new that skeeved me the crap right out, yet played right into the underlying theme of humanity’s fatal flaws. Best non-Shawshank Stephen King movie ever. I have a lot more to say on the subject of this film, but I’m going to wait for a while so as not to spoil anything for anyone who wants to see it.
VERY much disappointed by the wonderfully titled “Flight of the Living Dead.” The only thing good about it is the title. I’d much appreciate it if things would stop happening “on a Plane” now. Thanks.
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