Tagline
“The ending Stephen King wished he'd written.”
The Review
Frank Darabont's The Mist features the most devastating ending in horror history — a gut-punch conclusion so bleak that Stephen King himself said he wished he had written it. Thomas Jane leads a group of townspeople trapped in a supermarket as a mysterious mist filled with Lovecraftian creatures engulfs their small town. The real horror is not the monsters but the human response: Marcia Gay Harden's Mrs. Carmody, a religious zealot who turns the survivors into a murderous cult, is more terrifying than any creature. The final five minutes redefine the entire film and have left audiences devastated for nearly two decades.
Fun Fact
Darabont shot the film with handheld cameras and natural lighting to give it a documentary feel. Stephen King's novella ended ambiguously, but Darabont wrote the devastating theatrical ending himself. King has repeatedly called it superior to his own conclusion. The black-and-white version, Darabont's preferred cut, was later released on home video.
Score Breakdown
Total Score
21/30
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