Stephen King is the second-most adapted author, behind only William Shakespeare. He is happy about that fact and is even more glad that most filmmakers and showrunners preserve the themes and subplots from his work. However, while some changes do occur when his books are adapted, he isn’t angry about it. “I rarely meddle in the filmmaking process. I see film and books as apples and oranges. Both are fruits, but the taste is remarkably different,” he wrote in a Literary Hub article.
King acknowledges that because movies and shows rely on writer’s rooms rather than one mind, there will likely be some changes. “Movies are a team sport. When I write stories, it’s just me and my keyboard against the world.” Interestingly, he likes one of the biggest changes made to his work. He admitted that it’s so good he would never even have thought about it. That particular change happens in the 2007 sci-fi horror-thriller movie, The Mist, directed by Frank Darabont and based on King’s 1980 novella.
‘The Mist’ Has One of the Saddest Endings of Any Stephen King Adaptation
Stephen King adaptations normally have happy or optimistic endings, but a few dare to go a darker route, leaving audiences shocked or heartbroken. The Mist leans toward the latter. In the film, a severe thunderstorm strikes the small town of Bridgton, Maine. While examining the damage to their home the next morning, artist David Drayton, his wife Stephanie, and their eight-year-old son, Billy, notice a thick mist covering the sky. Although it’s the first hint that something is coming, they don’t think much about it. Fearing another thunderstorm, David and Billy leave to buy supplies that will last them for a few days.
While in a supermarket, David, Billy, and the other customers realize that this isn’t just an ordinary mist. It has brought pterodactyl-like creatures, a consequence of a military experiment to find other dimensions. Barricading themselves is now the only option as the monsters maraud through the town, among wrecked cars and downed poles. Mass hysteria has never looked more deadly or terrifying than it does in The Mist. Here, director Frank Darabont isn’t focused on showing the razing of real estate. He’s more concerned with the volatile relationships between those trapped inside the store, an approach that makes for a wildly entertaining movie. Mrs. Carmody even claims it’s all divine punishment. What the hell? (Pun absolutely intended.)
Darabont crafted a creative ending. In the novella, David and Billy manage to escape in a car. The novella doesn’t reveal their fate, and it ends with them trying to figure out a way to contact other survivors and find safe shelter. In the movie adaptation of The Mist, David, Billy, and a few other people escape in a car, only for it to run out of gas. Fearing the monsters will soon arrive and kill them, David chooses to kill them, figuring it will be less painful than being mauled. However, just after shooting everyone, including his son Billy, the U.S. Army arrives. Realizing he didn’t have to kill anyone (as they would all have been rescued anyway), he screams in anguish.
Stephen King Was Blown Away by the “Anti-Hollywood” Twist Ending
A movie that isn’t a frantic and jumbled chronicle of familiar events, and one in which the protagonist ends up sad instead of defeating the threat, rarely happens in Hollywood. Darabont deserves credit for this bold plot choice. Because of that, the adaptation is now celebrated more than the book. And Stephen King isn’t bothered by it. Since there have been many terrible changes to King’s work over the years, the author was pleased when he saw how beautifully the denouement was handled here.
Regarding the book’s ending, Darabont explained on The Mist commentary track that it “always struck me as so open-ended that it would really not satisfy anybody in the audience.” He was so eager to change it that he often asked King himself for advice. Interestingly, King wanted him to make the decision. “On a phone call or in an email, every once in a while, he’d say, ‘So…have you thought of something yet?’” the director recalls.
It turns out the idea for a dark ending was right there in the novella. A passage from the book’s final pages suggests that David thinks about killing everyone if left with no other choice.
“I checked the gun and then put it into the glove compartment. Ollie had reloaded it after the expedition to the drugstore. The rest of the shells had disappeared with him, but that was all right. He had fired at Mrs. Carmody, he had fired once at the clawed thing, and the gun had discharged once when it hit the ground. There were four of us in the Scout, but if push came right down to shove, I’d find some other way out for myself.”
This scenario doesn’t transpire in the novella. Instead, the tale ends on an ambiguous and optimistic note. Since that would have been boring in a movie, Darabont chose doom for the do-gooder and everyone close to him. Regarding the change, he said: “It really is from Stephen King, although he himself didn’t realize it until I read that line back to him.”
King loved it. He thought that it was refreshing and a protest against Hollywood’s obsession with tidy, happy endings following crises. It was also a protest against the numerous adaptations that lack originality and mimic the source material until the final act. “It was so anti-Hollywood — anti-everything, really! It was nihilistic. I liked that,” he told Yahoo! Entertainment. The author appreciated the fact that even though the movie initially had mixed reviews when it came out, it was eventually reappraised and is now considered a masterclass in twists and suspense. Not only that, but the adaptation leaves out some of the book’s dramatic ploys that might have been too shameless for the screen.
Excellent filmmaking!
This story originally appeared on Movieweb
