31 Fates Worse Than Death (#1: The Mist)
10.31.09 By: Scott Weinberg

That twisted gut-punch of an ending. That's our final fate worse than death. Some admire the scene, some detest it, but there's no denying that Frank Darabont's (slight) deviation from the source material gives his Stephen King adaptation a real ... impact ... once the final frames show up. We'd just survived two hours of The Mist full of giant monsters and the true evil that men (and women) can do -- and just when things look like they couldn't possibly get any bleaker ... well, either you've seen the film and you know what I mean, or you haven't seen the film and probably shouldn't. Especially if you're a parent. I don't even have children and this final twist had me almost in tears.
And with that we close our month-long look at various Fates Worse Than Death! As always, we are truly grateful to the cinematic arts for letting us experience all sorts of truly horrible things, safe in the knowledge that no matter how horrific things may get ... whew, it's all just a movie. And boy do we love our safely fictional horrors.
Happy Halloween!
Filed under: Discussion Posts, Movies We Love









Reader Comments (1 of 1)
Daneat 11-01-2009
This was a fantastic Halloween series. Lots of fun and lots of Netflix queue inspiration. Happy Halloween!
brandon.konkleat 11-01-2009
Man, you aren't kidding. The end of The Mist had me thinking about it long after the credits rolled. It was totally unexpected, and honestly I think it's what elevated the movie from "interesting" to "haunting". The controversy about it is certainly justified - it's absolutely horrific - but it's exactly the kind of bleak edge-of-humanity contemplations that good horror evoke. Horror is not just about chills and thrills, though that is fun, it's about exploring edges of the mind and the human experience that are seldom approached.
EvgNat 11-20-2009
Man this movie is real scary...
Deepakat 11-20-2009
I would like to watch it again
Grantat 11-20-2009
The end was totally unexpected, it was real horrifying
Deepakat 11-20-2009
The end kept me thinking it for days..