the mist Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Admittedly, I experienced Stephen King's N. under utterly ideal conditions, which might explain why I consider it such a marvelous short story – one of King's best. I was driving to northern California for a weekend of camping and whitewater rafting (the Cal Salmon river – just an hour or so south of Oregon). It got dark just as I left the highway and hit the winding, narrow country backroads; no headlights, no cars. I happened to be listening to King's recent Just After Sunset short story compilation, where N. – one of the longer pieces in the set – appears in the middle, taking up discs 8 and 9 in their entirety. The story started just as I hit a series of switchbacks going up a mountain. The twisty roads, the oppressive darkness, the (seemingly) complete emptiness, and Stephen King in his Lovecraftian unknowable-cosmic-terror mode... I'm probably lucky to be alive and not in a ravine somewhere.

Actually, King denies that Lovecraft was the inspiration for N. Instead, he cites Arthur Machen's classic horror story The Great God Pan, which you can (and should) read in its entirety right here. Either way, N. is terrifying – a story of unspeakable horrors lurking just beyond the thin veneer we know as reality. Better yet, it's not – like some of Lovecraft's tales were – all concept. King's got a couple of great hooks: first, the story is told through letters, journal entries and newspaper clippings, somehow amplifying the atmosphere of impending doom. Second, King provides a clever alternative explanation for obsessive-compulsive disorder. It seems that all that counting, touching, and insisting that things be arranged just so isn't mental illness, but an attempt to save the world: to keep the evil out.

When's the last time a short story scared the crap out of you? Japanese author Kôji Suzuki (of the original Dark Water and The Ring) seems to be aiming for as much. According to Dread Central, he has written "Drop," a setting-suitable novella that comes printed on rolls of toilet paper. Each roll comes with multiple copies of the story, so no need for cries of anguish when the tee-pee runs out before the twist is revealed.

But seriously, folks, before this metaphor gets too corny and starts to stink, what are some of your favorite short stories that were adapted successfully to the big screen? Can you name any that you think are ripe for a film version? I'm not sure if it's short enough to count, but I'm still waiting on Frank Darabont to give us Richard Bachman's Stephen King's The Long Walk, after doing a bang-up job on both The Mist and The Shawshank Redemption (and I guess The Green Mile counts too, being a serial and all).

This is a follow-up of sorts to my piece on Mikael Hafstrøm's adaptation of Stephen King's 1408. If you're interested, you should check that out. There, I half-marveled at and half-lamented the fact that the film managed to transform 1408 from a spectacularly scary, quasi-Lovecraftian horror tale into a personal, abstract meditation on grief and loss. In effect, the movie transplanted the story from the conceptual, hard-horror half of King's ouvre (think Cell and From a Buick 8) to the character-driven half (Lisey's Story, Bag of Bones). It was still a good film, but it needed someone who understood the existential terror that King is so good at evoking: a glimpse of something so alien, so divorced from the world we know, that it is simply beyond our comprehension. That's scary. Give me a movie like that.

At the time I wrote that post, such a film already existed. I suspected that this was the case, but I hadn't read the source material, and so couldn't validly make the comparison. Now I can: Frank Darabont's The Mist understands the sort of paralyzing, staring-into-the-abyss horror that King does so well. Even more impressive: not only does it brilliantly translate that aspect of the novella to the screen, it – like 1408 – fleshes out dimensions that the author barely implied. I knew I loved the film when I saw it, but only now do I understand how accomplished it really is.

In a world where Don LaFontaine will no longer lend his voice to any trailers, and where floating heads and Photoshop skills are what passes for the 'art' in 'poster art', the prospect of Drew Struzan's retirement is almost too much to bear. The guys over at Ain't It Cool News got the initial news from TheRaider.net, and they get the fact that this makes the sun shine just that much less in this industry of ours.

In a message posted there, Struzan said: "Having been working at not working has produced a guy who could never return to illustration again. It took a lot to attempt the idea of retiring from my 40 years of effort and sacrifice but now that I have, I am delighting in life as never before. I had forgotten how to rest, to smell the proverbial roses and to see the future as opportunity. I am grateful and honored to have had the opportunity to do all the work I did. I am well pleased to have been able to give a gift of beauty and peace through my artwork to so many throughout the world. Now I have laid down the burden and have peace and happiness as the reward for my day's labor."

AICN aptly directs readers to Struzan's official site, and even if they hadn't, I'd advise the same course of action in an attempt to appreciate what iconic images he crafted a career out of.

I've mentioned this before, but it's worth reiterating here: I don't really enjoy doing interviews with filmmakers and celebrities. I fancy myself a somewhat "creative" writer (not necessarily a good writer, but hopefully a creative one), and the interview format doesn't really leave all that much room for creativity. If I gave you a list of all the famous people I PASSED on interviewing, you'd probably call me a clueless buffoon. And you may be right.

But one thing I do enjoy is doing a casual interview with a filmmaker who doesn't really have a current project to "push." This way we can just talk about movies in general, and I don't have to feel the pressure of "focus on his NEW movie!" So when Erik sent me a list of five or six people that I could talk to from Genius Products (the home video distributor of Harvey Weinstein's films), I told him "Nah, thanks, unless you desperately want coverage of someone." But then I looked a little closer: Um, Frank Darabont was there to do some chatting? Uh, yes please. Anyone who's ever seen The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile, or The Mist knows that Mr. Darabont is one hell of a good filmmaker -- but anyone who's ever listened to one of his audio commentaries also knows that the guy is one of the most articulate, passionate, and well-prepared directors under the sun.

Right off the bat, I have issues with this list. Not so much for the fact that almost all of the films are sci-fi horror/thrillers, but because they left off a film with such a depressing ending that it still haunts me to this day. But first off, Den of Geek has compiled a list of what they feel are the 10 most depressing movie endings ever. Before you click over and check them out, be warned that massive amounts of spoilers await you. Here's their top ten: Soylent Green, The Elephant Man, The Descent, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, The Fly, Dead Ringers, Spider, Nineteen-Eighty Four, A.I. and -- drum roll please for number one -- The Mist.

Yes, valid points are made on all of them. Yes, they are depressing. But what about The Last American Virgin? Now there's a film with the most depressing ending I've ever seen (and if you've watched that film, you know exactly what I'm talking about). Off the top of my head, No Country for Old Men had a pretty depressing ending -- as did Goodfellas. There's Untamed Heart, Venus, Requiem for a Dream -- pretty much any film where someone is dying of an illness, but gets one last chance at love. Though it served as a bridge film, I thought Empire Strikes Back had a pretty depressing ending. Check out their list, then tell us which films were left off.

In your opinion, which film has the most depressing ending of all time? (Dammit, now I have The Last American Virgin ending stuck in my head. Sigh.)

UPDATE: Here's another list from our friend Alex on the 15 Bleakest Film Endings of All Time. A lot of the films you folks talked about in the comments are on his list, so hop on over and check it out.

Warning: Spoilers for The Mist obviously follow.

Though it opened to an enormous collective yawn, I thought that Stephen King's The Mist -- just released on DVD -- was one of the very best films of last year. Perhaps more accurately, I thought it was a movie that Frank Darabont and Stephen King tailor-made for me. There were moments in it that completely embodied everything I love about the horror genre: when a disheveled, bloodied Jeffrey DeMunn barreled into the supermarket, yelling that "there's something in the mist," the terror in his eyes and voice chilled me to the bone. That intersection between the mundane and the fantastical, the film straddling the line between the world we know and some place far beyond our imagination, is what makes that moment, and many others in The Mist, so scary. It approaches its supernatural conceit with an unforgettable combination of horror and wide-eyed wonder.

The Mist
Through the sea of torture porn mania and Korean horror remakes came The Mist -- the sort of movie to attract those who like chills and thrills, as well as those who might only scare themselves with Stephen King, or like what happens when Frank Darabont tackles King's writing. A wet and sticky mist falls upon a small coastal town, but instead of just being eerie, it gets downright deadly as monsters come to prey on those left out in the thick fog. It's strange, completely out of this world, but still believable in that way that taps into your cautious fears.

Thomas Jane got to wipe Dreamcatcher for the minds, or at least dull the memory of it with this film, and he's joined by an intriguing cast that includes Sayles powerhouse Marcia Gay Harden (as a bible reciter no less), the fighter of Demon Knight William Sadler, the American Pie-wanting Chris Owen, and the Infamous-starring Toby Jones.

Instead of giving us one of those annoyingly bare-bones discs that makes you want to smash it into little pieces, The Mist hits hard with a 2-disc collector's edition. On the first DVD, you can check out the feature with commentary by Darabont, deleted scenes with optional commentary, some featurettes/webisodes about Drew Struzan and behind-the-scenes fare, and a trailer gallery. The second offers, get this, the full film in black and white, plus an intro by Darabont, some making-of nibbles and a few bits about the film's fx.

Check out James Rocchi's Review | Buy the DVD

The best movie year since 1999, 2007 offered a staggering bounty of cinematic delights. I keep track of all the movies I see in a given year and give each a letter grade, "A" through "F". Usually my Top Ten list consists of all of the "A's" and a few "B's." This year, "A" pictures made up my top twenty. With so many great films, I won't wallow through a "Worst of the Year" list, I'll simply present you with a few that didn't fully satisfy:

The Biggest Disappointment: The Darjeeling Limited -- A Louis Vuitton commercial stretched to feature length. The Darjeeling Limited is a perfect title for the film because it makes plain what a limited filmmaker the once great Wes Anderson has become. Hey Wes, people running in slow-motion while a Kinks song plays is always going to look pretty neat. But if there's absolutely nothing else going on in the scene, then that's all it is -- people running in slow-motion while a Kinks song plays. We all think it's really cool that you like The Kinks. Hell, I love those guys! The Rolling Stones are awesome, too! But I wouldn't ask them to do my job for me.

and...

The Biggest Question Mark: There Will Be Blood

Undoubtedly one of the year's most impressive technical achievements, There Will Be Blood is frequently stunning. It's so stunning, in fact, that it's easy to overlook how infuriatingly empty it all is. The film focuses on two main characters, and neither one changes a lick in thirty years and 158 minutes. How did Paul Thomas Anderson, creator of such deeply emotional rides as Boogie Nights, Magnolia, and Punch Drunk Love come up with a movie completely devoid of human emotion? (I'm not counting greed.) Beautiful, brilliant, and boring in equal doses, I've seen Blood twice, and I still don't know if it's a masterpiece or a mess. I just know I felt...nothing watching it. It's as hollow, as frustrating, as difficult to know as its "hero," Daniel Plainview.

On to my list. First, ten that didn't quite make the cut. Here's #20 through #11: (#20) Breach, (#19) Once, (#18) The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, (#17) Sicko, (#16) Sweeney Todd, (#15) The Lives of Others, (#14) Eastern Promises, (#13) Zodiac, (#12) Atonement, (#11) Before the Devil Knows You're Dead

And my Top Ten is after the jump...

With The Mist coming out this week, which just so happened to get a solid review from our James Rocchi, a new interview with Stephen King has gone up on VH1, via MTV News. The discussion focuses on his relationship with long-term collaborator and Mist director Frank Darabont. In his review, James says: "The plot is vintage King, placing ordinary people in an extraordinary circumstance." This is precisely what King discusses -- praising why Darabont has been successful with his adaptations, via his "adult sensibility," and why some other directors aren't taking on his novels.

Specifically, he says: "A lot of times, filmmakers don't really seem to understand ordinary people. I think there's a reason that David Lynch has never made a Stephen King film, or John Waters, because they don't really get ordinary people. But Frank does." I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that's because they both do their own work, not adapt a popular novelist for mass appeal. Waters has made his career from unique stories about the quirks of society, so let's focus on Lynch. I presume King never watched The Straight Story, Twin Peaks, or most of his other work for that matter.

Reducing Lynch to someone who doesn't understand ordinary people is like someone reducing King down to a plebian, gory horror writer. Take Straight Story, Twin Peaks, or even the wilder works like Lost Highway. The two creators are much more similar than King would care to admit. The difference is that he tackles ordinary people with extraordinary happenings rationally and clear-cut, while Lynch is the postmodern artist of the theme. There's lots of "ordinary" people in Lynch's work -- it's just that he spins the arc in a different manner, one that's not always understandable. Alvin Straight is as "ordinary" as they come. As is many of the Peaks characters, or others. Most just go mad in maddening circumstances. Hmm. Sounds familiar.

I've said my peace, but what do you think? Is King the paragon of the ordinary, or are Lynch and he more alike than he realizes?