Yeah, I like it too, in concept. The execution makes it seem cheaper than IMO it should, because it does have a little bit of a sudden / arbitrary feeling because not all the right groundwork--again, IMO--has been laid for it. Full marks from me for trying, though.
My theory is that Darabont made two incredibly heart-warming King adaptations--Shawshank and The Green Mile--and then had to do the worst thing possible to atone for his treacly actions
That's kind of why I like it! You KNEW a movie wouldn't go there, then it did, and then it made it WORSE. I respect that.
I do not respect it at all but I cannot help but see your point
also, having read the novella, it was even MORE shocking
It's really difficult to pull off shock endings without it feeling like a trick or a gimmick, and people mostly don't enjoy the sensation. It's rare to find a movie--12 Monkeys is my favorite example--where the magician shows you the trick right from the start and then still pulls it off.
Yeah, that was the thing--this felt gratuitous, cruel, shitty, and to no end. I love a rug pull ending but this felt like shock for shock's value and I hate that shit.
And the funny thing is -- I felt that way with the ending until the "twist," at which point it somehow circled back around to great for me.
12 Monkeys is indeed a great example -- and I don't mean to go all hipsterish--because 12 Monkeys is great on its own--but La Jetée is an amazing piece of work that I don't see mentioned enough.
I have an essay on the redwoods in Vertigo, La Jetée, and 12 Monkeys that I'd still like to publish one day
Yeah Vertigo is another really interesting example. Like 12 Monkeys, it has a sort of circularity that makes the shock also, at minimum in retrospect, seem inevitable. The Mist doesn't show that level of craft, for sure.
You two are both upsettingly wrong but I appreciate your spirit and tenacity, carry on with your awful taste, I love you