From what I recall of the story, you’re baited into thinking it’s going to be about scary monsters from another dimension, but it’s mostly about an annoying fundamentalist stereotype. The really cool monster comes on at the last minute, for about ten seconds, and doesn’t do anything. It was a great story idea which was squandered for an anti-religious diatribe.
I’ll wait for the DVD.
And they’ve got a lot of crazies perfectly willing to start sacrificing little kids. I’d leave, you betcha.
Of course, The Chief Crazy does get killed…I still wouldn’t trust the rest of 'em though.
I didn’t know anything about this project, but I happened to catch a trailer for it on TV the other day (I missed the title) and instantly recognized it as The Mist. I think this bodes well for the faithfulness of the adaptation.
I hope, hope, hope that they leave the original ending. It’s one of the best things about an already-great story, IMO.
I felt the same way – but it’s not anti-religious, just anti-fundie nutcase. Personally, I think a lot of King’s stories would be improved if he took the religion out (e.g., lose the second half of The Stand).
I disagree. At no point in the short story do they see anything try to break the windows, let alone succeed in doing so. The store appears to be reasonably safe. You’re right about the food supply not being infinite, but there is enough to let them wait for a while. Smart thing to do is to stay put until either (a) the building starts to seem unsafe, or (b) food supplies run low. Staying in a known safe environment is always smarter than abandoning it for no reason.
Can someone with access to the story confirm this? I don’t have a copy of the book anymore, but I seem to recall that they put big sandbags or something up to block the windows, leaving little “loopholes” to look out of. Was this just a precautionary measure or did the creatures break through a window or skylight at some point?
There was a lot of speculation, in the book, that most of the creatures hunted by smell. The store glass would serve as a fairly decent barrier… but eventually, I’d imagine, the store would start to “leak”, and more and more mist critters would be attracted to it.
I believe the glass does break at some point.
I do believe the glass does break at one point…I have a memory of Dave watching as a sandbag slowly moves forward, and before he can grab the guy standing under it, it comes crashing down on his head.
The glass MUST break at some point because at least one of the flyers gets into the store.
Beyond that, there are much, much bigger things out there and as the food rots, the smell will pick up (the story identifies most of the creatures are blind and use their sense of smell).
I wouldn’t have stayed put, rather die trying, especially as a mom with the crazies wanting to spill innocent blood.
Having re-read the story upon confirmation of the movie’s release, I can address this. The glass actually broke when the mist first came. The town’s emergency alarm sounded, there was something resembling an earthquake, and the store’s floor seemed to drop or something, and a “pie-shaped piece” of glass fell out of one of the windows. That night, when the flying creatures and the bugs they ate came out, they made protection for the window out of big bags of lawn fertilizer, leaving loopholes for watchmen. One of the big pterodactyl things managed to push one of the fertilizer bags away, then they managed to swing some crates full of fruit up there to reinforce.
But yes, there was some indication that the things hunted by sense of smell, not sight.
and the appearance of
the large tentacled thing at the back of the store makes one realize that, like it or not, there are much bigger things that can easily get into the average grocery store - bags of fertilizer or not
On the ad’s I’ve seen, they’ve shown soldiers with flamethrowers, so perhaps the military comes in to save the day 
.
Also, I hope they never really explain what happened. That was one of my favorite parts of the story, all the local rumor swirling around about the Arrowhead Project.
Well, there were soldiers in the original story, young ones
They committed suicide in the stock room, remember?
And while there were no actual torches in the story, there was talk of some little ones that had been thrown out the week before. So maybe some minor liberties were taken.
This is my hope, too. They may have to flesh out rumors about the Arrowhead Project a little bit, but I hope they don’t get any closer than that to an explanation.
I was disappointed to see that the totally unbelievable crazy “religious” lady who advocates human sacrifice made the cut. It was always the part of the story I found totally unbelievable. (Which, in a story about dimensional rifts, alien creatures, and suspiciously unseasonal cloud cover, is pretty telling.)
I have occasionally suspected that King himself has a severe phobia of large, matronly fundamentalist women. They appear remarkably often in his earlier works, and their appearance is seldom (never?) a good sign. Skeleton Crew, the same collection in which I first read “The Mist,” also features the short story “Gramma,” which once again emphasizes that fat, unattractive women are evil. Similar obese female zealot characters appear in Carrie and The Dead Zone, and in Misery King devotes an entire book to his spiritual duel with the Hefty Maniacal Woman.
I’d hardly characterise Hastur-worshipping Gramma as fundamentalist - I mean, that implies there are non-fundamentalist[spoiler] Mythos cultists. Heh - Reform Cthulists. The Ecumenical Old Ones movement…
…wait, I see a Delta Green plot forming![/spoiler]
Well, you can’t deny that she was partial to “that old-time religion.” It just wasn’t the USUAL old-time religion.
Bump because I just finished re-reading the story. It’s still my favorite work by SK. He doesn’t get a chance to wander off too much in those 130 pages. From the time I read it, it was the ONE story of his that I wanted to see on the big screen. Finally I get my wish! Here’s hoping for a thumbs-up review tomorrow…
Holy crap this is awesome. I’m so doing this.
Because of ivylass’s post, I just finished my adaptation of The Jaunt, today. In the same book as The Mist: Skeleton Crew. Next to The Mist, The Long Walk (when is Frank gonna make that one?!) The Jaunt’s always been something I’ve wanted to see play out on screen. Mine weighs in at 29 pages, and has enough VFX, locations and characters to keep me working on this for a while.
I had no idea about the Dollar Babies thing! Thanks, Ivylass!