Creepshow (1982)

I know what you're saying... "ANOTHER Romero movie on here?!?"  However, as I was suggesting some cool Halloween-themed films/TV shows for some friends, Creepshow popped into my head.  Now, after a quick glance through the Constriction Pictures archives, I cannot believe that I haven't yet written about this flawless film that may be, for all intents and purposes, THE most important Horror film in my life (after all, the "C" in our logo comes from the original poster of course!).

From what I can recall, Creepshow is most definitely the very first Horror film I ever saw; and it was probably right after it premiered on either HBO or Cinemax in the early to mid-80s, so I was likely at the impressionable age of 2 or 3yrs old when I saw it.  For some reason though, I remember watching it with my parents multiple times . . . even though I was completely terrified!  Knowing my parents, they wouldn't have let me continue to watch it unless I insisted so, despite the nightmare fuel that it was, Creepshow was required multiple viewing in my house!

Two things in particular immediately come to mind when I think of Creepshow or utter its title; the zombified Nathan Grantham in the "Father's Day" bit and Fluffy from "The Crate" story.  Whenever either of these two creeps would pop up on-screen, I'd find myself cowering behind my Dad's back on the couch, plugging my ears and clenching my eyes as tightly as I could!  To this day, even John Harrison's music cues for these sequences make the hairs on the back of my neck stand up! 

Will someone get this man his cake already?

Fluffy:  The real star of Creepshow!

Working from an original Stephen King screenplay, the film tells five, separate tales (with an overlapping wraparound segment) which all perfectly capture the spirit of EC comic titles like "Tales From The Crypt", which it lovingly pays homage to.  The film itself is a quintessential Dream Team of Horror that finally paired up George Romero and Stephen King (after years of casual friendship and a stalled discussion on adapting The Stand for the big screen); also along for the ride and handling special make-up effects is fellow Monster Kid, Tom Savini -- so really, Creepshow is an all-star feature! 

Horror's Dream Team!

The wraparound story begins near Halloween Night, with an ominous jack-o-lantern peering out from the living room window of a house that could have just as easily been yours or mine.  Genre vet, Tom Atkins, does his best "stern tough guy" act here on his young son Billy (played by Stephen King's real life son, Joe, no less) who has been caught red-handed reading some "Horror crap" in the form of a Creepshow comic book!  Right away, Billy's bedroom recalls the very bedroom of any self-proclaimed Monster Kid and reader of Famous Monsters of Filmland or Fangoria -- lots of cool Horror posters and monster toys & model kits (see if you can list 'em all!).  Almost as quickly as the story begins, Atkins throws Billy's comic book "right into the friggin' garbage" as his son seemingly makes a deal with The Creep by muttering under his breath, "I hope you rot in Hell."  Of course, this story is wrapped up ghoulishly in the film's final moments before the end credits roll...


Is he serious?  No, he's Joe King.

"Father's Day" is the first proper story of the film; here an upper crust clan on par with the Kennedys eagerly awaits the arrival of their Great Aunt Bedelia.  To entertain themselves, family members recount the day Bedelia murdered her abusive & overbearing father and the rest of the brood covered it up.  Since that fateful day ten years earlier, Bedelia has made it a point to always visit her father's grave before settling down for a nice cooked ham dinner.  Of course, since this is Stephen King and George Romero, sometimes you just can't keep a bad guy down . . . especially when he wants his Father's Day cake!   Truth be told, I still tense up when Nathan is slamming his cane against the arms of his wheelchair declaring "I. Want. My! Cake!"


"The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verill" sees King in his acting debut (not counting the brief "Hoagie Man" cameo he and his wife Tabitha share in Romero's Knightriders) as a durn'd fool idjit who stumbles upon a crashed meteorite on his farmland.  King shines believably -- if not slightly over the top at times -- as Jordy's curiosity gets the best of him.  This is also a fine example of Creepshow's dark and twisted sense of humor found in those old EC comics!


Perhaps one of the best quote in movie history!

"Something To Tide You Over" features a pre-Cheers Ted Danson who's been caught red-handed in an extra-marital affair by a jealous, murderous husband played by Leslie Nielsen, the real star of this piece!  Some nifty water-logged zombies return for revenge in this short's final reel!

Believe it or not Ted Danson was, in fact, in Creepshow!



Leslie Nielsen is right:  farts are funny!

In what is perhaps Creepshow's standout story, "The Crate" features Adrienne Barbeau as an over-bearing loudmouth wife to Hal Holbrook's sheepishly intellectual Henry . . . and a mysterious, nearly 150yr old crate that's been tucked away and forgotten under a university stairwell.  Of course, within that titular crate is ferocious little Yeti which eats a few people, including Barbeau's Wilma (she should haven't just told it to call her Billie though)!  More on this one in a bit...

Wrapping things up is "They're Creeping Up On You", which is sort of a one-man play featuring E. G. Marshall as a Howard Hughes-esque reclusive germaphobe.  His supposedly germ-proof penthouse is suddenly besieged by millions of cockroaches, culminating in one of Creepshow's most gruesome moments!  It's interesting to note that, as a kid, while watching Creepshow on WPIX-11's annual "Shock-tober" Halloween Horror Marathon, this fifth story was almost always cut for time (as a feature, the film clocks in exactly at 120mins); so when I finally mustered up the courage to pick up a VHS of the film, seeing this story in all its creepy-crawly glory was a treat!


As I watched Creepshow the other night while getting into the Halloween spirit, one thing stood out:  it very well may be one of the first "proper" comic book movies.  Granted, comic books had been a source of inspiration for movies well before this film but, aside from the campy POW!'s, BIFF's, and KRACK's of 1966's Batman: The Movie, I can't really think of any other film that fully embraced its comic kitch and style.  There are some really great comic book panel transitions and great usage of colored lighting gels to suggest particular moods, along with some excellent comic book boarders framing (as well as behind) the action as it unfolds!  Of course, many years later, both Robert Rodriquez and Zach Snyder would go even further into "a comic book coming to life" territory with Sin City and 300 respectively.

While he was once known as the Screwdriver Zombie in Dawn of the Dead, composer John Harrison really brings Creepshow together with a score that is almost equal parts synth and traditional (albeit hauntingly beautiful) piano combined with stock cues from the Capitol Library.  The stingers that Harrison came up with for whenever Zombie Nate or Fluffy appear on-screen still make my hairs stand on end!  Much like the film itself though, the score's highlight is definitely "The Crate", with its seemingly endless piano suite that builds and builds to a crescendo, as it could easily stand alone outside of the film.


Out of all the stories in the film, "The Crate" is easily the strongest and, oddly enough, feels like an episode of the syndicated television series Creepshow would inspire, Tales From The Darkside.  Everything in this "episode" really is self-contained and could just as easily stand on its own; Hell, I wouldn't mind seeing it expanded into a feature length . . . maybe go a little deeper into what Billie was doing at her night "classes" or what Dexter Stanley did with the beautiful, young co-eds he was constantly flirting with.  Or not . . . as it is, it's pretty damn near perfect.  The stars came together and made one of King's best written works, Romero's most slick and well-crafted piece, and features the first time Savini would branch out from plain old gore while scratching that itch effects guys always seem to have to build creatures! 

Speaking of Fluffy . . . for the longest time, for some damn reason, I always thought Fluffy was a Tasmanian Devil....never really connected the dots between, ya know, Artic Expedition and a Yeti.  It wasn't until I first visited Walt Disney World in 2008 and rode Expedition Everest that I made the connection . . . in fact, the last time I went on the ride, I was genuinely creeped out by the Yeti's appearance at the ride's conclusion! 

Fluffy's Dad:  Dinsey's Everest Yeti!

One last thing that solidified Creepshow as one of the be-all, end-all of nightmares . . . what is now known as the common video artwork was also a theatrical poster.  The comic book poster that I used at the start of this piece is a personal favorite, as I have that poster; however the other, more common artwork messed me up as a kid!  You see, this poster used to hang on the wall of my older cousin's bedroom and, man, it terrified me!  Now that I think about it, what made it even more terrifying was that it was real . . . kinda.  You see, growing up in New Jersey, there was a local amusement park in Pennsylvania called Dorney Park (it's still there to this day) and my family frequented it quite a bit.  One of their oldest rides there was a combo dark ride/log flume called Journey To The Center of the Earth.  The ride itself was traumatizing to my young psyche to begin with (a boat ride in the dark...with creepy window-dressings of giant spiders and ogres killing and eating dwarves), but the terrifying part came from where you lined up for the ride itself!  No joke, at the point where you'd initially enter the queue, there was a very familiar looking ticket booth with a robed skeleton covered in cobwebs!  Sadly, the Journey To The Center of the Earth ride is long gone (too soon for me to truly appreciate it at the time unfortunately) and I can't seem to find any pics of the ticket booth....but take my word, it looked pretty damn close to the Creepshow poster!

For being the same age as I am, Creepshow has always held a special place in my heart and memory.  There's always a tendency to use this sort of cliché, but I really did, quite literally, grow up with Creepshow.  In fact, when we started visiting the Pittsburgh area on a regular basis, it was a trip to be able to set foot at some of the locations from the film!

Checking out Billy's house!

Searching for a higher education at Amberson Hall!

Checking for Fluffy...

Stephen King: The First Name In Fear

In honor of Stephen King's 69th birthday today, I thought I'd take a moment to reflect on how his work has impacted me over the years.


As a kid,  lots of things scared me to death.  One thing in particular, which I'm sure has been well-documented on here was Michael Jackson's Thriller.  But, along side that classic short film/music video, there was also the dark ride known as Journey To The Center Of The Earth at Dorney Park, the thought of what might be lurking in the darkness of the staircase to our attic (which was right across from my bedroom door), and of course, the name Stephen King.


My first experience with the King himself was definitely while watching Creepshow, which is likely the first Horror film I ever saw -- it's certainly the earliest that I can recall.  Over time, with my memory growing as hazy as my hair color, I'm not entirely sure of the details as to why I was watching it or why I even wanted to watch it.  No matter, the one clear memory I have is being absolutely terrified by the Nathan Grantham zombie in the film's opening story "Father's Day" and also on Fluffy, the tiny yeti-like creature who springs from his wooden box prison to eat Adrienne Barbeau in "The Crate". 


Whenever those two monsters were on-screen, my tiny child frame would cower behind my dad's back as he sat on the couch.  My eyes would be clenched so tightly together that you'd think they'd burst from the pressure.  I'd also plug my ears with the intensity of trying to stop a leak in a damn, for fear of hearing "Where's my cake?" or the violent noises of Fluffy having a meal! 


And, just like that, Stephen King became associated with my nightmares as a child. 

Throughout the 80s and early 90s (ie: when I was a kid), it seemed like Stephen King's name was everywhere when it came to scary movies.  In no particular order, let's take a look, shall we?


1.) Cat's Eye (1985) -- although I didn't know it at the time, of course this was a King adaptation.  This anthology film directed by Cujo's Lewis Teague centers around a wandering stray cat who is just looking for his forever home.  Along his way, he pops into various peoples' lives and their vignettes unfold before the viewer.  The final tale though, featuring a young Drew Barrymore terrified by a diminutive troll-like monster was all I needed as a kid!  Although, the story with Robert Hays being forced to traverse the ledge of a Los Angeles high-rise stoked a different sort of fear in me!


2.) The Shining (1980) -- even today, this film seems like a right of passage for young people as my nieces and their friends desperately want to watch it.  Jack Nicholson's manic performance is arguably what stands out the most in the film version of course.  True be told, I'm sure I caught parts of this movie whenever it may have aired as part of WPIX-11's Shock-tober series of films in, er, the month of October.  But the first time I really sat down to watch it would be after talking about it for some time with my mom and then finally convincing her to just buy me the VHS as a Halloween present.  The overwhelming sense of dread throughout the film, coupled with the intense case of cabin fever that Jack Torrance begins to experience make it a truly unnerving film.  1997's remake/mini-series for ABC was also pretty good -- especially since it was truer to the original book.


3.) IT (1990) -- speaking of Stephen King TV mini-series, this was the one that started it all for me.  Sure, Tobe Hooper had done 'Salem's Lot in 1979, but this was the first one that I remember watching on TV as it aired.  Say what you want about Tim Curry's performance as Pennywise and how different it may be from the source material of King's book, but damn . . . it's pretty fucking scary -- especially for the then 8yr old version of me who watched it.  Of course, in the wake of IT's success, ABC continued a streak of fantastic mini-series adapting King's books; The Tommyknockers, The Stand, and The Langoliers were all Must-See-TV in my house! 


4.) Pet Sematary (1989) -- holy shit did this one affect me deeply (and it still does!).  As someone who naturally grows a close bond to pets -- in particular cats -- and has been known to be absolutely devastated when they die, Pet Sematary seems tailor-made for me and my nightmares.  I'll never forget buying the VHS of this on my own as a kid and watching it . . . the overwhelming sense of dread that enveloped my bedroom while I watched it (it probably didn't help to watch it with all the lights out of course) and the sight of poor Zelda, all twisted and cackling.  Man, nightmares for days! 


5.) Carrie (1976) -- the very first King adaptation (and some may say one of the best) thanks to this film, I cannot say nor hear the name "Carrie" without hearing it in King's own voice and getting just a little creeped out.  True story.  Obviously the most jarring part of this film in its shock ending, which still packs a bit of punch 40yrs later!


6.) Graveyard Shift (1990) -- probably not one of the better King adaptations, this film always felt very short in its running time to me.  Its monsterous rat/bat beast is pretty cool and, once the story turns to the underground cavernous mineshafts, it's a pretty no holds barred piece.  Stephen Macht's portrayal of Warwick (and that damn, odd-as-hell/almost out of place rap song/remix over the end credits repeating his "When's the last time ya bin to a grave-yahd?" line) was probably one of the creepier elements in this film. 


7.) Silver Bullet (1986) -- another early bit of nightmare fuel for me!  I first saw this on a family vacation to Phoenix to visit my aunt & uncle and my cousins.  At some point, someone wanted to rent a "scary movie" and I vividly remember going to the video store with them to find something....and even recall seeing the Thorn EMI video release poster for Dawn of the Dead in the window!  Anyway, the major standouts in this film were, of course, from the finale . . . no joke, for years, I'd get a little uneasy if I saw a floor vent, in fear that I'd drop the silver bullet needed to kill an attacking werewolf into it!  Also, that nightmare sequence where the entire church turns in werewolves?!  Forget it!


8.) Cujo (1983) -- while I can't really recall when I first saw this film, the entire idea of it terrified me.  Of course, I'd grown up around dogs (my aunt always had Shelties and at least one Doberman), but I rarely ever saw any St. Bernards . . . and if I ever did, I couldn't help but associate them with this film.  Looking back now though, I'm sure my tiny childhood brain confused some of this with the Joe Don Baker starrer The Pack, from 1977, in which a group of people are trapped by a rabid pack of dogs of all breeds.  Still though, there was that one time when my dad and I went to visit one of his buddies and, for whatever reason, he wasn't home but his two Dobermans came out to say hello...one of them jumped on me and pinned me to the ground, most likely just licking my face with excitement (but I perceived it with absolute terror!).


9.) Creepshow 2 (1987) -- Is it a cop-out to list the original Creepshow in the opening of this piece and then pull out the sequel as well?  I don't care.  All I have to say is "Thanks for the ride lady".  Yes, The Hitchhiker story used to terrify me, especially that line and the titular wanderer himself.  In fact, I remember it taking years for me to finally be able to watch this film (along with the original of course) without being scared to death -- this was another WPIX-11 Shock-tober entry!  Hell, even one of the film's trailers or TV spots used to creep me out; it featured The Creep (I'm guessing it was Savini in the makeup he wore in the film?) sitting in a crowded movie theater, turning to his right and inviting "you" to come join him for Creepshow 2.  Nope! No thanks!


10.) The Dead Zone (1983) -- this one is kind of a cheat as the film itself doesn't really scare me in the way the other do.  It was more or less just seeing the VHS cover in the video store as a kid.  I had no idea what the movie was about, but the title and seeing Stephen King's name above it, was enough to give me the creeps.  That font though... 


In closing, there's one final cool tie that forever imbeds Stephen King with me....you know that back cover photo on the Christine dust jacket?  That was taken in one of the self-wash bays at the old Frenchtown car-wash, right down the road from my house!  It's funny to look at the photo now and instantly remember those old bays (the car-wash was demolished and rebuilt years ago), but now I shudder at literally just how close King was to my house...the man who created so many nightmares for me was right down the road!!  The story goes that a car collector across the Delaware River in Pennsylvania had a car similar to Christine's make and model (or at least for the purposes of the photo shoot) and, as luck had it, the Frenchtown car-wash had bays similar to that of an old garage, so it was decided to do the shoot right then and there.  Pretty cool.

ROOM 237 (2012)

Room 237 is unlike any documentary I’ve ever seen, but then again, The Shining is unlike any Horror film I’ve ever seen. If you put 10 fans of Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining against a wall and asked them for their thoughts on the film, I’m sure you’d get 10 fascinatingly different answers and Rodney Ascher’s Room 237 offers several attempts to solve the many riddles of the film.

In my very first college film class, one of the first proper rules I learned about film is this: nothing that you see on-screen is there by accident. Everything should have a purpose. It’s this mentality that has since lead me to over-analyze countless films the same way I approached poetry and prose as an English major in school. Ever since that first class, it’s very difficult to watch something and not find myself reading between the lines for some deeper meaning. The Shining is certainly no exception, of course.

A lot of the stories behind the making of Kubrick’s loose adaptation of Stephen King's classic novel are legendary; endless amounts of takes for simple shots, drastic changes to the original story, etc. But the Interviewees in Room 237 see beyond the notion that Kubrick was simply a perfectionist . . . in fact, the theories that are presented go much, much deeper.

Room 237 is unlike most documentaries in that it’s merely a collection of clips of, not only The Shining, but most of Kubrick’s other works, as well as All The President’s Men and even Lamberto Bava’s Demons movies. These clips are expertly intertwined to show rather than tell -- something I'm sure Kubrick would approve of.

Like the film it examines, Room 237 starts out pretty even keeled with four obsessives offering their individual theories on the film ranging from it being a metaphor for the genocide of the Native Americans, the Holocaust, to Kubrick’s sly way of admitting that he directed the lunar landing in 1969 (if you believe it was faked, of course!). On one hand, you may find yourself saying “these people have entirely too much time on their hands”, but on the other, each of these theories is presented with visual evidence from The Shining to the point where you will ultimately find yourself saying, “Yeah, I can totally see that.”

As the film progresses and you find yourself deeper and deeper in riddles and hidden meanings, there’s a tendency – not unlike with The Shining itself – which gives way to a feeling of being lost in almost dream-like state. Where the theories are initially presented in a straight-forward format, they eventually overlap, creating one hell of a shroud of mystery.  Much like Kubrick’s film, just when you think you have it figured out, you’re left grasping for an answer that is just out of reach.

The bottom line is if you’re a film nerd who enjoys obsessing over a film you may hold near and dear or if you’re a fan of The Shining, you’ll love Room 237! However, if you’re looking for any behind the scenes anecdotes or trivia, there is little to be seen here, save for archival on-set footage (which I believe is mostly taken from Making The Shining, a film by Kubrick’s daughter Vivian).

Also, bonus points for its clever trailer, which is a wonderful play on the original theatrical trailer for Kubrick’s film!

Room 237 is currently enjoying a limited theatrical run in select cities, but it is also available on-demand through Xfinity.  Check it out!

The Shining (1980)

How many "Scariest Movie of All Time" lists have been made since the beginning of the Horror picture? Quite a bit, no? Chances are more than a few titles on those lists are adaptations of Stephen King books and, I'm also willing to bet that The Shining is right up there.

By now, it's pretty well known that Stanley Kubrick's film adaptation of Stephen King's 1977 novel about a haunted hotel taking its toll on a broken man differs greatly from its source material. Sure, it's not a page by page recreation of King's work, but Kubrick succeeds in making The Shining completely his own.

In case you're not familiar with the story, Jack Torrence (in a tailor-made performance by Jack Nicholson), a writer with an hopelss affinity for the bottle, is hired to be caretaker during the winter months at the Overlook Hotel. To keep him company, Jack brings along his mousey wife Wendy and their borderline autistic son, Danny. Almost immediately, strange things start to happen and it's quite apparent that the Overlook Hotel has some skeletons in its ballroom (the previous caretaker, Delbert Grady, killed his family and then himself).

The Shining is more than just a mere Horror movie; it's an exercise is fear and almost like watching a nightmare. Even if you've read King's novel, although you may see traces of its plot devices in Kubrick's film, it's still unclear what exactly is going on. In fact, the stedicam shots of Danny tearing through the Overlook on his big wheel are even terrifying!

Many could argue that Kubrick's film is a series of surreal images, strung together with the loose twine of Stephen King's novel. Kubrick uses static shots (or at least shots with very little to no movement) as he crafts some of the most memorable bits of The Shining: Jack, sporting an early beard and a black turtleneck as he stares at Wendy and Danny playing in the snow, the Grady twins in the hallway, and of course, the blood coming out of the elevator. It's as if Kubrick was trying to conjure up childhood nightmares as he made the picture!

At the end of the day, Stanley Kubrick's The Shining, though flawed in the eyes of many (including King himself, who wrote the 1997 Mick Garris-directed ABC mini-series remake), stands on its own as a seminal masterpiece. Twenty-seven years after the fact, it still holds up as one scary as hell motion picture! See it!

The Mist (2007)

It's no accident that Thomas Jane's David Drayton has the artwork for John Carpenter's remake of the Christian Nyby's The Thing From Another World hanging in his art studio. In 1951, that original Howard Hawks production banded a group of men -- scientists and military personnel -- together against a being from another world. In the time of the Cold War, these men were united as one against a being from "over there". Carpenter went one step further and pitted the protagonists against eachother for his remake. Simply stated, there was no unity. The tension was thick and the suspense unbearable. No one was to be trusted and fingers were pointing. No one was safe.

With stellar adaptations of The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile already under his belt, Frank Darabont has solidified himself as the quintessential go-to man for Stephen King adaptations. And, along with 1408 earlier this year, The Mist proves the "Stephen King Movie" has returned to its glory of the 1980s.

The story is simple: a freak storm rocks the small town of Castle Rock, Maine. The next morning, trees and wires are down, houses are destroyed, and a forboding mist has gathered on the lake, slowly making its way towards town. In an effort to continue with their daily lives, locals have converged on the town market, stocking up on supplies. Then the mist arrives.

In The Mist, writer/director Darabont does what George Romero did with Night of the Living Dead. That is to say, he presents a monumental castastrophe which his characters have a difficult time trying to comprehend and survive. Using flesh-eating zombies, Romero had six characters to represent six different ways human beings might react to civil unrest, the Vietnam war, or the political assassinations that plagued this country in 1968. Here, Darabont has a stock of at least 50 different characters -- some main, some supporting -- to bring that idea into 2007 where the titular mist could represent any number of fears and frustrations that plague the American public. Fill in your own blank here...

Darabont, of course, also has an A-list cast to bring his story to life. Thomas Jane is common and sympathetic as Drayton; Andre Braugher is exactly as he should be as Brent Norton, the smooth-talking and hot-headed lawyer from New York; Toby Jones as the instantly likable Ollie; and Laurie Holden as Amanda Dumries, the surrogate mother figure to Dawtry's son. The standout performance belongs to Marcia Gay Harden as the Jim Jones-like Mrs. Carmody. Her performance is so jarring that it's simply terrifying how she spouts religious diatribes and manages to form a congregation in the back of a supermarket. As Darabont's script points out, people will follow whomever seems to have an answer in a time of crisis. When Mrs. Carmody's "visions" start to become realized, tension mounts and the rules of society are soon thrown out the window. Several characters decide something...anything needs to be done, as one character says, "before people start drinking the Kool-Aid."

Keeping in line with the "fill in your own fear or frustration" for the metaphorical mist, the picture's special effects leave something to the viewer's imagination. Yes, there are some impressive CGI and practical effects on hand, courtesy of CafeFX and KNB eF/X respectively, but there reamains an air of mystery to the things seen on-screen. Harking back to the days of The Thing From Another World, for instance, Darabont only gives us brief glances of several striking designs, effectively creating a scarier screen monster.

Working on a scant 37-day shooting schedule and $17 million budget, Darabount hired the cinematography crew from TV's The Shield. Ronn Schmidt and his crew often times improvised camera set-ups on the fly and this wise directing choice fully brings the audience into the supermarket. Throughout the picture, there are breathless moments of anxiety and tension, which are made even more evident by up close and personal cinematography. Like any director worth his weight in experience, Darabont knows he has control of his audience. He forces his viewers to bear witness first-hand to the events unfolding and, ultimately, to choose sides with the characters. In the end, much like Romero and Night of the Living Dead, he asks the question of "Who's right?", leaving the answer open-ended.

After a string of recent theatrical stinkers for the Horror genre, The Mist could very well be the "must-see" picture of the Fall. The ending is sure to be discussed (and possibly ruined by online chatter and bloggers) and debated. Frank Darabont's adapatation of Stephen King's The Mist is a fine picture made for Horror fans, but it also has the potential to be a mainstream and critical hit. See it!