Over at RottenTomatoes the kids are always trying to predict what the quality rating of new releases will be, both by consumers and critics. This, to me, seems like a real waste of time. (Unlike most activity on the internet.) With over fifty years of movie-going under my belt, I have never been able to tell if a movie is gonna’ be any good or not by watching the trailer or looking at the poster or even reading the book it’s based on. Critics’ consensus is a very good indication to me, but ultimately, sitting there and watching it is about the only way to be sure one way or the other.
Ebert and Roeper gave it 2 thumbs up yesterday. Quite enthusiastically, I might add.
I’m definitely going, then. I’ve already told my hubby. Usually, we compromise on the movies we see. I told him he would not have a choice with this one. He doesn’t hate King’s work, but doesn’t like it nearly as much as me. And he’s not big on horror movies. But he’s got to go, dammit, so I’ll have someone’s arm to grab!
I was slightly dismayed not to see any mention of this film on stephenking.com. My hopes are buoyed by the good reviews, though. Looks like Mr Toadbriar and I are going on a date!
Just got back from seeing the film …
I never read the story - I’ve read only a few of King’s - so I can’t speak as to the translation from page to screen. The movie I saw, while certainly not an instant classic, is a solidly creepy little film.
Cusack gives a nicely progressing performance. You can see the tension and fear build in him. There are a few ‘gotcha’ moments of jump-out-and-say-boo type scares, but most of the horror is more subtle.
I won’t go into spoilers or anything too specific. I’ll just say that the film is IMHO worth $10.00. Or, in my case, $8.95 Canadian.
thwartme
Well, it’s running at 75% fresh on rottentomatoes.com, so that’s pretty darned good. I don’t know if I’ll be feeling up to seeing it this weekend, having just had some minor surgery yesterday, but next weekend for sure.
Saw it last night. I had read, and love, the original story - one of King’s best, or at least one of my favorites.
It preserves what I thought needed to be preserved from the story, and I do not feel cheated of the money we spent - it was creepy, especially for the PG-13 rating.
We just saw it, and I agree with this. It even creeped out my hubby, and he doesn’t “do” horror. Light on the blood and gore, and heavy on the creep.
Just saw it, and I thought it was pretty good. Not fantastic, but definitely good. I feel like the creepiness seriously suffered as they approached the climax - too much action, I guess, but still it was pretty effective.
I do wish they’d lingered a bit more on the paintings - I think there may even have been a third version of The Hunt which only got a quick pan-by in the background, and it’s pretty clear that the artists put a lot into the paintings, yet they are shown so briefly. Ditto on the phone - liked the transition of the voice, could have done with a bit more.
On the other hand, the trip along the ledge, all the way through the “You are here” sign were great - very nice addition. I also liked the use of the “I’ve been drugged” suspicion to naturally bring down the tension, so it could slowly build again.
The last post’s spoilered comments made me think about the original story, and I realized something:
[spoiler]In the short story, Enslin never really stood a chance. He was never given the opportunity to really question his surroundings or his thoughts or whatever. IIRC, he shakes his head, tells himself to get a hold of himself because he’s rambling, and that’s it. He’s sucked right in, and he doesn’t have a prayer. From the spoilered part above, it seems that in the film, Enslin at least makes a token attempt to stick to his guns and his sanity and try to explain what he sees. Necessary because of the length considerations, but I think it’s also more realistic.
For some reason, I thought the webcam I saw in the ads was a nice additional touch, not only to share to readers how easily “supernatural” events can be punctured, but also as additional marketing for his books. :)[/spoiler]
Just got back from seeing it. I liked the short story a lot, and enjoyed the movie quite a bit, too. Especially the ending.
Mrs. Mercotan was not as taken with it as I, but says it was “OK”.
I won’t be buying the DVD or anything, however.
RogueGF and I saw this Friday night. I thought it was somewhere between ok and good. Based on some things she had heard and the ratings I saw at Rotten Tomatoes I made the following prediction before the movie:
“This will probably be good in a creepy and suspenseful sort of way, but it will be one of those movies that fail to have a payoff at the end.”
I’m not sure that I was completely right, but I can’t say that I think I was wrong either. I asked RogueGF what she thought happened at the end. Her reply was, “the writer ran out of ideas.”
So, with that in mind, I’m curious, how did the short story end and how did everyone interpret the movie ending?
Was Enslin out of the room? Was the room using Enslin or maybe even possessing him to get his wife too? The look on his face after the recording of his daughter’s voice played was definitely a little odd.
The wife and I saw it yesterday, and we were disappointed. Especially considering that she very rarely agrees to go see scary movies as they tend to really freak her out. Needless to say, she was not freaked out at all, and I certainly didn’t get any thrills or chills out of it.
Neither of us had read the story, so I’m willing to give it a go in the hopes that the film was just another lacking adaptation of King’s work.
The scene on the ledge was totally predictable, and was the end of any hope that I had that the movie would be at all decent. The incorporation of the paintings was totally arbitrary, had no context, and contributed nothing to either the story or the suspense. Context was also lacking (or forgettable, which is just as bad) with the hammer/axe wielding person/vision, as well as with the desicated corpse hanging out in the heating duct. Both seemed like they were afterthoughts thrown in as a desperate attempt to at least startle the audience a couple of times.
I saw it on Saturday and liked it. Cusak made it, in my opinion. He was the only real character in the movie, and pretty much just mugged for the camera for about a third of the 90-minute run time. It seemed to have much more thought put in to it than most horror and suspense movies these day, even though in the big picture that means it was about the level of a middling Twilight Zone episode.
But I had fun, didn’t feel ripped off and will recommend it to my friends. ***
I thought it was… okay. The inclusion of the daughter storyline didn’t bug me as much as I thought it would.
I was a little irritated that the paintings didn’t play a bigger part- by the time they got around to changing, there was too much going on to really see what they were doing. I thought that In the Mouth of Madness did a much better job with a painting changing over time.
I was also a bit disappointed with the Phone Voice. It was a hell of a lot creepier when I was reading the book.
I’m hoping that the movie adaptation of The Mist will be better.
My first thought with the guy in the heating duct was, oh, that’s for the video game adaptation.
FWIW, I read in a review that the end was one of several possibilities, and it was picked on the basis of test audience reactions. Not the most encouraging scenario - but it wasn’t too bad all in all.
In the storythere is no real physical problem with getting out of the room. The problem is the effect it’s having on his mind. Enslin has to do something to “short-circuit” the mind games the room is playing, so he sets his shirt on fire, staggers out the door, and is fortuitously extinguished by a passing guest with a bucket of ice.
As for my interpretation, I think he’s out. There are objective indications that he went to the hotel, and that he left it, such as Olin congratulating him from afar, and him having the tape. But as he plays the daughter’s voice, there is a truly weird look on his face. I thought it might mean that perhaps he was contemplating doing what his daughter is talking about on the tape, i.e., that they can all be back together. Not in some heartwarming spiritual way, but in a way involving a messy murder/suicide, which would be right in line with the effect the room has had on its occupants. Maybe I was just in a dark mood, though. It could be merely his grim satisfaction at proving what happened to him wasn’t a hallucination.
Gave up on King about 15 years ago, but saw the movie this weekend.
Best of its kind since Poltergeist, IMO.
My $0.02 - I thought it was a genuinely creepy movie for about the first 80%. At some point it stopped being as unsettling. I’m not sure why - maybe it became a bit too bombastic?
I liked that things were not explained, and you we’re just shown these terrifying images and scenarios.
I thought that the writing was excellent, with some very funny parts, to go along with the scares.
I saw the movie with my wife this last Saturday and we both enjoyed it quite a bit. I am a big John Cusack fan and he made the movie for me. I found it genuinely creepy, and I was very happy to see a good horror movie that didn’t involve buckets of blood and idiotic teenagers.