Character + plot + fucking awesome squid things = happy queenofhell
So, since I spend so much time here bitching, how about I talk about something I actually enjoyed!



Holy shit, was I into this movie. I just saw it tonight, and even though I'd heard good things, I really wasn't expecting that much, because a) adaptations of King's horror works tend to be awesome in a hilarious way, not in an actually scary and good way (The Stand, anyone?), and b) movies that rely on CGI monsters are often, if not always, unintentionally hilarious as well. But this was fucking amazing. I'm guessing it helps that the guy who directed adapted two of King's non-horror works, so he knew that the most important aspect of King's stories is always the characters--that's what makes the worlds he creates seem believable, that's what makes us give a shit when people get split in half by giant tentacles. Characters (and actors who can play them well) and plot are the fucking backbone of a movie, not jump scares, scary monsters, or political themes (are you listening, George Romero? Please learn from your horrible, horrible mistakes and go back to making movies that don't fill my soul with rage! Yes, I'm still disappointed in him). I know some critics felt that they were beat over the head with the post-9/11 themes, but really, they're only there if you want to see them; otherwise it's just a commentary on human nature that fits right in to the plot--they have to muse about the darkness of humanity because they have to try and predict what the frightened and desperate people they're sharing space with are going to do next.

The monsters, though, were fucking awesome. Believably rendered, most of them resembling earthly creatures but bigger, meaner, and more fucked up, which adds to the believability (the scene with the spiders made me twitch like crazy, and I'm not even arachnophobic), except that they saved the gigantic and completely unearthly Cloverfield-esque piece of awesome for the end, as it should be.

And the ending, oh man. I knew there was controversy about it, but I wasn't expecting it to be that gut-punchy. Killing a fucking kid is the height of balls for a movie, and this movie has balls. I thought the very end of the ending, where the mist is conveniently cleaned up right after everyone but David dies and also right after the fucking gigantic monster strolled past, was a little fast and a little convenient, but eh, I'm okay with imagining it as subjective time, though I think it probably would have been better if the gun hadn't conveniently jammed and David had died.

Still, it's not an ending I expected, even after hearing about the controversy, and most of the other deaths were fairly unexpected as well--you know how there's always the character where you're like, "oh, you're going to die?" The sweet old lady who just said something wise that needs to be ironically refuted, the asshole turncoat, the comic relief guy who's too dumb to live? There were a lot of deaths that I didn't expect, and a lot of deaths that I expected that didn't happen, or deaths that happened but at a time when I didn't expect it. I love that in a horror movie, because it keeps the horror right on top by not allowing you to put up the buffer of expectation.

So basically I love love love this film. Nothing but hearts, dude. Given all the shitty remakes and equally shitty original horror movies (still looking at you, Romero) that are out now, I love seeing something that rejuvenates my faith in modern horror movies, and a film that can rejuvenate my faith that Stephen King's books can be awesomely adapted is even better.

Now I'm going to re-read The Mist novella because I haven't read it in forever. :D I'm currently reading One Hundred Years of Solitude, which is quite interesting and lovely but also sort of dry, maybe because of the translation? I mean, a lot of people die and have horrible things happen to them, but it's not particularly affecting in any way other than being sort of tonally wearing, I guess? It creates a feeling of inevitability and resignation, which I think is what he's going for, but again, it's always kind of hard to tell with translations, and unfortunately I am mostly mono-lingual (I can read a tiny bit of French--the four or so years that I spent on that language were utterly lost on me). Anyway, it'll be nice to take a break from that (and from all the Batman porn I've been reading--I rediscovered thete1 so I've been re-reading, oh, everything she wrote as well as all the stuff I hadn't read of hers) to read some Stephen King.