The Mist The Novella Cut

This is what happened. . . 

I'm watching my copy of The Mist, The Novella Cut.  And, of course, I'm liking it a lot.  I haven't seen the end yet, but I'm liking the film more because I'm not dreading the end.  The movie is broken up with headers, much the way the novella was.  There is an opening note that assures us that this is only a fan film, not meant to in any way disparage Mr. Darabont's work.

Another difference; not only am I not dreading the end, I'm watching it with my daughters.  Why is that different?  Because I previously was hesitant to let them see a dad blow his kids brains out.

This movie really does have the feel that the novella had.

Some quick notes:
1. Mother Carmody is no Bible scholar.  She quotes Revelations, which is a common mistake.  But the Biblical book is titled Revelation, no S.  Why?  Because it is the singular Revelation of Jesus, more than it is a series of revelations of end time events.\\

2. I like almost all the scenes with the monsters.  I think they are truly horrifying.  Fromm the attack in the loading dock to the fight in the store with the flying things -- it's great stuff!  What's more, trips to the grocery store are not nearly as boring, as I can now imagine an attack by prehistoric creatures.

3.Few movies (at least in the world of Stephen King) manage to capture the feel of a novel quite as well as The Mist.  Stand By Me, Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile all do a great job bringing the book to screen.  But King's really scary stuff usually remains locked in the pages of his books, because you just can't make it happen on screen.  I think The Mist accomplishes some real scares.  This is no B-movie, as Darabont joked.

4. I don't think there is any way a crazy like Carmody would gete that many people to follow her.  I do understand there are religious nuts who gather a crowd; but she goes from being a total outcast in the community, to gaining complete trust in a few moments of crisis.

5. This is easily my favorite version of The Mist.  I LOVE IT!  I feel like something has been redeemed.  That is, it was good all along, but deeply marred by the ending.

6. The Durabont film brings resolution to two issues: Will the mist go away?  And what happened to David Drayton?  The re-cut. . .

I won't give away the ending to the novella cut, but I will say:
THERE IS HOPE.

The Mist -- There Is Hope!

I'm excited about this. . .

Kevin Karstens, a graphic illustrator, who shared with me that he also prefers King's version of the Mist and in particular, our strong dislike for the movies ending.  Kevin wrote,

I had looked forward to a film adaption for over 20 years, and was thrilled to hear they were doing one (and by Frank Darabont, no less)...until I started hearing, 'they changed the ending'....and I personally REALLY did NOT care for the 'new version'...so I did something baout it, and you might find it interesting...

What he did was recut  the movie, creating a fan film titled, "The Mist, The Novella Cut."  Great title!

The movie's webpage does a great job explaining exactly what was done:

 'The Mist-The Novella Cut' is a fan edit of the Frank Darabont/Stephen King film 'The Mist' which was released to theaters in 2007. 

It is in no way meant to disparage the wonderful work created by Mr. Darabont and his brilliant team of filmmakers, it is simply a version of the film meant to more closely adhere to the original text from the Stephen King novella upon which the movie was based. As the original story is my all time favorite King tale, I wanted a version that reflected the source material as closely as possible, especially the original, ambiguous finale...so I created this fan edit for fun. 

Certain scenes have been cut, others added from the DELETED SCENES found on the DVD release, as they mirrored actual sequences from the source material. Chapter 'headings' have been added in areas to reflect the feel of a novella, and the ending now pays homage to the 'Hartford/hope' finale originally seen in King's original text. 

This is from a conversation between Kevin Quigley and I.  Kevin is the overseer of charnelhouse, a Stephen King website.

Talk Stephen King: The novella left the story open ended. The movie, however, chose an ending scene that was rather controversial. King said he liked it. I hate it. Which of us is right?

Kevin Quigley: King and I often disagree about movies.  The ending of The Mist is atrocious.  It’s going for shock value and succeeding at that, but it doesn’t do much for the film itself.  It’s a complete shift in tone and intent, one that feels incongruous with the rest of the movie.  (talkstephenking interview with Kevin Quigley) 

Wait a minute, you may be saying -- is  the ending to the Mist really that bad? Allison Weaver wrote an article earlier this year titled, "Which Movies Have the Most Terrible Endings?"  She wrote, "Did anyone actually enjoy the ending of 'The Mist'? I don't believe it's possible. Who could be happy after watching the main character give up, shoot his own son, and then head off in search of the perfect way to kill himself? Honestly, though, even if it ended there, it would've been more acceptable than what really happened. Instead, he discovered that he and the rest of his family and friends could have survived the entire ordeal if they had just waited a few moments longer. Oops! Tough break."  My heart cries, "YESSSSSSSS!" (in best Darth Vader noooo voice)

Also of interest to this discussion is Blake Hennon's LA Times article, "‘The Mist’: Frank Darabont, Thomas Jane on ‘angry, bleak’ ending."  (herocomplex.latimes.com)  Hennon quoted Darabont,

“I was really getting something off my chest here,” Darabont said. “So if you hated the ending, I apologize for the two hours of your life I took. … This is an angry cry from the heart from a humanist who is really pretty pissed off about the fact that all the reasonable people seem to be marginalized, ground under the heel of the extremists.”

The good news is that I didn't lose two hours of my life.  The movie is great -- until characters  who had been making solid decisions began acting irrationally.

A producer once offered Darabont a 30 million dollar budget for The mist IF he would change the ending.  Darabont asked, “What ending would you like me to have?  What is your suggestion?”  The answer: I don’t know!  Darabont explained, "This is the ending I’ve been thinking about for 30 years now.  He didn’t have a suggestion."

To be clear  -- It’s okay for the main characters to die – just not that way.  Let them drive away and get eaten by a big dino-monster.  That’s fine.  But a father cannot do that to his child – not a good one.  It messes up the movie for re-watch.  To me, the ending makes the David Drayton unlikable.  As you watch again, you are thinking, “I can’t like this guy, he’s got a major character flaw.”  He does what Mother Carmody wanted to do but failed.  He does it with different intentions.  Simply put, a good reason not to blow a kids brains out when a situation looks really really really bad – is because there might be a miracle.  Not only does David Drayton carry out a incredibly painful act, but the movie rubs our face in it by showing the mist getting blown away by the army.

Curious what kind of reviews the recut of The Mist is getting?  Here are a few:

Original Runtime : 126 min
New Runtime : 1 hr 45 min
Amount of time Cut/Added : CUT: Approx 10 min ADDED: Approx 5 min

More about the changes, the website explains:

The added sequences were from the DELETED SCENES which can be found on the DVD release of 'The Mist'. These specific portions mirrored sequences from the book (Mr. Norton speaking with Stephanie before he, David & Billy leave for town, conversations in the store and so on)...also, the entire ending seen in theaters has been dropped and replaced with new scenes that reflect the original, haunting and more ambiguous 'Hartford/hope' angle found in the original text. 

Check out the website at: http://kkarstens.wix.com