The Cutting Room Floor: The Mist
Over the last couple of decades there have been a bunch of Stephen King’s works translated to film, and a lot of them have met with everything from mild interest to outright disgust. Carrie, Maximum Overdrive (based on the short ‘Trucks’ and directed by King), Cat’s Eye (three of King’s shorts tied into a rather bizarre story featuring a young Drew Berrymore), Firestarter, and the list goes on and on…
Yet at the same time King has had some of his stories turned into rather good films, The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile both seemed to translate well to the big screen. This year two of King’s stories got the treatment and both were surprising at the box office, but for very different reasons. 1408 came out of nowhere to bring in 71 million at the box office and be a surprise summer hit. Based on the short of the same name the film features John Cusack as Mike Enslin, a reporter who’s made his living debunking ghost stories. His latest target is a room in the Dolphin motel, room 1408, (which when added together equals 13) He checks into the room and becomes the target of this evil room that taps into all of his deepest fears.
The other was The Mist. Written and directed by Frank Darabont (Who did both the Green Mile and Shawshank), has met with disturbingly poor box office turnout. The King Novella (and one of my favorites), set in a grocery store in a small Maine town, tells a very Lovecraftian tale of monsters in the mist. The true heart of the story however is the dynamic between the people trapped inside and how quickly they turn on each other during the time of crisis. Tom Jane ( The Punisher, Dreamcatcher) Marsha Gay Harden (Mystic River, Meet Joe Black), and Andre Braugher (Fantastic Four 2, Poseidon , and the upcoming mini series the Andromeda Strain) all put in amazing performances. With a top notch script, amazing visuals (especially the other dimensional monsters) and an ending that even King himself said he would have used if he had thought of it, The Mist is one of the top Horror Films of 2007 that virtually no one has watched and is worth catching while it’s still playing in theaters.
1408 is out right now on DVD and The Mist is currently in theaters.