Movies I Like That No One Else Seems To: The Mist

Spoilers below...

So last night I was looking through some of my movies and got to the M's and caught sight of this one. It made me think about how pretty much everyone I know who has seen the movie dislikes it except me - I love the heck out of it.

The movie hits a lot of my high points. A horror movie that's more than just a slasher flick or something like that. It focuses more on the way people react to the situation than on the evil bad things themselves. It has a touch of sci fi to it, a touch of post-apocalyptic-ness. Plus the music at the end (Host of Seraphim, in case you're curious) is just creepy as all get out.

Yet the few times I've shown it to other people, I tend to walk away as the only one who likes the movie, or part of the minority.

The reason most people seem to dislike it (as I understand it) is the fact that it's depressing as heck or that the main characters seem to do a complete shift at the end when they give up and essentially commit suicide after fighting so hard for survival.

I can understand the first complaint a bit more than the second - if you don't like depressing movies, you don't like depressing movies. End of story. I can't argue with that, and I can respect it. I just have trouble with the second issue, the complaint that it seems to break the characters. My feeling was that the suicide was essentially the end of a long road that, at every turn, was met with setback after setback. Every encounter with these creatures had been met with death and dying. It was easier to deal with in the supermarket when there were dozens of people around. But by the end, they were down to just the handful of them. They could see nothing beyond their car, and they could hear the strange creatures closing in. Given the idea that it was the end of the line, what's the other choice? Go down fighting (and therefore dying painfully) or end it quick?

A bit of a shame I'm in the minority on liking this movie, but that's okay. I'm not trying to convince anyone that doesn't like the movie to like it with this post or anything - just figured I'd say a few words about it. If you liked it, give it another watch! If you didn't, pull down a different movie and give that one a viewing instead. Movies are just good fun.