Support NeoGAF

[Ishma3L]

Yeah. It will be somewhere over 20 years between the projects. Doesn't seem that long. But it feels like it captured a completely different era when The Thing From Another World (1951) was remade into John Carpenter's The Thing (1982), despite only being 31 years apart.

The rare case in which a story's retelling ends up being one of the greatest horror movies of all time. In my experience, the exception and not the rule.

 

[CastorSoze]

Just wait until he decides to remake "The Body" or "Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption".

2 of my favourite films.

 

[clarky]

If he pulls it off Flanagan could make the relationships more meaningful and the ending even more gut-wrenching.

No way could you top that ending. Whatever they do I predict this new ending won't be as good.

 

[dorkimoe]

thomas jane was was great, we dont neeeeed this

 

[Tertullian]

The 2007 movie is bad. The CGI looks horrendous (and in a movie that would be immeasurably improved by just showing its monsters way less). The villains are the dumbest, smuggest imaginable stereotypes, while the good guys are utterly flat. The human behavior in general makes no sense (why does everyone keep deferring to the local movie poster painter for everything?). The relationship between Thomas Jane and his son is never really demonstrated, undermining the ending which is the only thing most people actually remember.

The movie's only impressive feature is its ability to bludgeon the audience so hard with its goofy-nihilistic ending that they all forget how badly-handled and shitty the rest of the film was.

So I am actually interested to see if Mike Flanagan can fix this thing up, since it's not a bad premise for a movie.


Just for the hell of it, here's my silly pitch: hide the monsters much more, and give them more of a "Biblical" flavor, so it isn't actually clear which side in the store is right. In the end, our hero tries to convince himself to shoot his own son, but at the last second he can't do it. Then the roof is ripped off the car, and the son is pulled into the air, where he is transformed into a horrifying, deformed Angel-thing before our hero's eyes. Turns out the "religious nuts" were right, and the hero's hardheaded appeal to a materialistic version of rationality is blown to bits. It's the End Times Rapture bay-bee, but it's completely horrifying and a fate worse than death. Cut to credits.

 

[Zacfoldor]

The ending of the Mist is one of the best endings ever in a movie....or the worst, haven't decided yet, but that movie still lives in my head rent free.

 

[AJUMP23]

The ending of the Mist is one of the best endings ever in a movie....or the worst, haven't decided yet, but that movie still lives in my head rent free.

It is terrible and heart ripping. Thomas Jane is really the Punisher in that ending.

 

[Diddy X]

Wasn't that ending original to that movie? So now we need another mind-blowind ending for this new one.

 

[Moondoggy]

If it doesn't end the same way as the Thomas Jane movie then doing this is pointless, it'd be like remaking Bioshock 1 and removing the twist near the end.

 

[DeepEnigma]

Wasn't that ending original to that movie? So now we need another mind-blowind ending for this new one.

I don't think it can be topped, personally.

 

[Clear]

If you knew it had that ending, would you still want to see it?

Wouldn't it just undercut any sort of tension or drama ?

As Tertullian pointed out, without that ending there's very little else of note in the movie. Its extremely derivative and forgettable otherwise.

He also makes a very good point about leaning into the religious aspects, which I think opens an interesting question about creative commitment because, surely the worst nightmare for the mostly atheistic, progressive Hollywood would be for the evangelicals to be proven right. That really ought to scare the shit out of them! But of course that option is likely going to be off the table out of fear that activists on their own side of giving credibility to their ideological opponents!

Which explains to me why modern American horror is so fucking weak-sauce. They are too concerned with being "polite" to be actually scary.

 

[NotMyProblemAnymoreCunt]

Yeah it's certainly becoming a bit too much to stomach at this point.

Is the future really just going to consist of old stuff, badly done

That Highlander reboot might turn out good due to Cavill but I'm in general tired of Hollywood remaking or going back to old IPs and rebooting them. It's gotten totally obnoxious at this point

 

[jason10mm]

Wasn't that ending original to that movie? So now we need another mind-blowind ending for this new one.

The movie just takes it about 3 minutes longer than the book. So unlikely that Flanagan would replicate the film ending, may specifically have to do something else if there are rights issues. But I don't think he would want to just repeat the film, he clearly has a spin he wants to do on it, just like his other adaptions.

 

[Grildon Tundy]

The Shawshank Redemption and The Mist: two Frank Darabont-directed Stephen King adaptations from which the message is to "never give up hope", but with endings depicting that idea WILDLY differently.

 

[jason10mm]

Darabont, or even Flanagan, should tackle The Talisman. Fuck those Stranger Things guys that chickened out Love that book and in no way do I think it's "unfilmable".

 

[Diddy X]

The Shawshank Redemption and The Mist: two Frank Darabont-directed Stephen King adaptations from which the message is to "never give up hope", but with endings depicting that idea WILDLY differently.

One gave up hope, the other didn't.

 

[Itchy.Tasty.]

Just for the hell of it, here's my silly pitch: hide the monsters much more, and give them more of a "Biblical" flavor, so it isn't actually clear which side in the store is right. In the end, our hero tries to convince himself to shoot his own son, but at the last second he can't do it. Then the roof is ripped off the car, and the son is pulled into the air, where he is transformed into a horrifying, deformed Angel-thing before our hero's eyes. Turns out the "religious nuts" were right, and the hero's hardheaded appeal to a materialistic version of rationality is blown to bits. It's the End Times Rapture bay-bee, but it's completely horrifying and a fate worse than death. Cut to credits.

This is similar to the original ending of Red State which would've made it significantly better. I don't know if it was studio interference or a change of mind by Kevin Smith, but it's a shame they didn't go with it.

In The Mist's case, Stephen King has an immense hatred for religious fundamentalism so it's an ending he would never roll with - which is a good sign in of itself because the guy rarely knows how to finish a book.