I watched a part of and thought it to be a bad remake, Stephen King, now that explains why. I didn't pay that much attention to it, I must have been on mom duty. The first one was much better.

Read somewhere when it first came out (pluggedin-online maybe?) what the ending is.

You're right. Horrible. I can imagine how much worse it must have been to watch that.

Idiots.

It's like they tried to imitate a twilight zone ending or something. (I Remember that episode of the new twilight zone where a woman who had been atatcked, id'd her attacker on the street, her husband gets out of the car, kills the guy, only to find that his wife his nuts and says that everyone is the attacker.) Good grief.

Ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!!!

I just went and read the FOTF review. ARGH! That's terrible!

I had no plans to see it, so I read the Wikipedia entry's plot synopsis and was completely disgusted.

Do people actually like leaving movies feeling like they were just kicked in the teeth? How did it get such positive reviews?

I was going to ask about the positive reviews too. What did you hate about the end, Jared?

Did you happen to see 'Premonition,' the Sandra Bullock remake of a Japanese film? Someone at my office said he hated the end so much, it ruined everything in the movie. I read somewhere that the original Japanese film had a better ending.

Okay, I don't mind spoiling it. If it makes you mad at me, I don't care. It'll be only a fraction as mad as you'll get if you watch the whole two hours until the ending.

It really is awful. The ending, I mean, which makes the whole thing awful.

So the hero, his son (who's like 8), "the girl," and an old couple finally make a run for it, leaving the grocery store and taking off into the mist in their truck. Then it runs out of gas. But he has a gun, so rather than wait for the mist monsters to eat them, he shoots them all ("mercy" killings, which the girl and old couple consent to, but his son obviously is freaked).
So he kills them all. His little boy!

But he only had four bullets, so he can't/doesn't kill himself. He gets out of the truck and literally seconds later the mist clears and the army shows up.
Literally. Seconds later.

It made my friend and I extremely angry.

The novella didn't end that way.

I'm detached from it since I didn't see it or read it, but I think I understand your reaction. I read that King loved that ending. Odd.

That's actually just the sort of ending that I occasionally (not always) enjoy. Something unexpected and horrifying that leaves you wide-eyed and possibly even apalled . . . Like, yes, a kick to the teeth. Too many horror movies are just scary movies, or suspenseful movies . . . When I do see one, I am seldom displeased if it leaves me with a feeling of genuine horror. That is, after all, what I paid for, right?

Seriously? No love for "The Twilight Zone"? I love that stuff . . . that and "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" (I don't know if the episode you described above was later remade or something, but that's also the first ever episode of Hitchcock Presents). I guess that makes me macabre, but I've eaten that stuff up ever since I was a kid. There's definitely an audience for it out there.

Blame Jared, it's not twists or shocks I object to. Love that stuff, including Twilight Zone-type stuff. It's not even horror movies I object to; I like horror quite a bit.
It was this particular ending that I thought not only morally repugnant on behalf of the artists, but inconsistent with the main character's development throughout the story. They established him as a guy who would protect his son, as a guy who wouldn't give in to hopelessness (like the morons still in the store), as a guy who was upright and courageous.

And fifteen minutes after leaving the store, two minutes after running out of gas, he's thinking, "Oh well, we're done for, I'll shoot my son?"

Stupid.

I didn't see it and now I'm glad.

I actually liked the movie quite a bit, and the ending made it that much better for me. This is a great character study, and I personally think there's a lot of truth to the predictions of human interaction made by the producers. Many different personalities and worldviews are introduced, and the main character, interestingly enough, is a man with an almost nuetral personality. I think he represents the "normal" human, or possibly American. He is a decent guy, but you notice he's not a polarizing force like other characters. He doesn't seem to hold higly to any belief system, and his hope, his driving force, is mainly survival: which is all directed towards escaping the building, the store.

With this in mind, I find the ending fits. I'm not saying the movie HAD to end that way, but it was most definitely a viable option. Because of his lack of any real beliefs, and his hope was gone, despair was a very real emotion staring him, and the others in the truck, fully in the face. We know in life that those that lack a real faith, and are faced with those odds, will often choose death. Did I necessarily LIKE the ending ... not a ton, I would have liked for them all to live. It was a realistic storyline though, and thought provoking.

Just my two cents. I think it's great that you bring up the subject though!

It does sound like the ending might have been a bit . . . rushed, I suppose. Like if the main character was going to despair, it shouldn't have come on so quickly, perhaps. I haven't seen it yet, so . . . *shrug*

Right.

Doug, I disagree with your take on characterization, obviously. In my mind, the character they developed for 2 hours would not have done what he did so quickly. It was essentially his "first resort." That blunder compounded the depravity of the choice made.

Ok.......this just arrived on Netflix - I have been looking forward to this one for a long time - I skipped over the spoilers here.....

I can't wait to see it because this is the 3rd teaming of director Frank Durabont with a Steven King story. The first two brought us my favorite all-time "The Shawshank Redemption" and "The Green Mile" (also terrific).....I can't imagine the combo of Durabont and King going awry - I'll watch and let you know........

Just thought I'd drop in & turns out we rented this recently, too. I loved the ending. I felt they had to do something because the book (story) just kind of... ends. You don't know what happens. I think, after the horror they had all just experienced and the utter tension (not to mention being exhausted after not sleeping much for a couple of days, and huge amounts of physical exertion) would cloud their judgement. They are all running on empty, running on adrenaline, and there they are, stuck.



They have seen what happens to others. Not a quick death for many. Some lasting for days. They're just sitting there, waiting for the same to happen to them. They only have a short time to decide what to do.

So the father does what he thinks is necessary. And he anticipates - not having a bullet for himself - that he is actually making the ultimate ultimate sacrifice for his child; he's going to put himself through the emotional torture of killing these people, his child, and then offering himself up for whatever horrors, however long they last. He's saving his child from unimaginable pain.

And then - when he thinks nothing could be worse - it turns out to be ok after all. I thought it was brilliant. An "oh my god" moment that really won't be forgotten.

By the way, nice improvements on the site. Looks great!

ok.......finally saw it.....I agree with Jared - the decision made at the end by the main character is completely inconsistent with the first 2 hours - and when his own kid is involved?

Most of us, no matter our faith, would go down fighting for our kids - there's always hope if our kids are alive - to give in that quickly was, well...........lame.......hate to say that about a Durabont movie - its his first miss......but Shyamalan has missed one too - I'll give a few freebies..........