Darabont Dares to Alter a Stephen King Classic

David Frese - Kansas City Star

Frank Darabont Dares to Alter a Stephen King Classic: ‘The Mist’

As the credits rolled on a recent Kansas City screening of “Stephen King’s The Mist,” two fanboys sat and complained about the liberties director Frank Darabont had taken with the source material.

“I can’t believe he did that,” one said.

“Dude, that sucks,” said the other. “Please let it be a dream.”

“I am so going online to spoil this,” said the first.

When told of this dynamic duo’s online plans, Darabont sighed.

“It’s unfortunate,” the director said from New York. “The Internet has become a global forum to whine about things. But I like that people are responding to the movie, because it takes a stance and says something that’s relevant.”

That stance came out of Darabont’s thesis for “The Mist” (opening Wednesday): When you put people in a climate of fear, they let reason go and do some horrific things.

King’s novella “The Mist” first appeared in the horror anthology Dark Forces in 1980. (It can be found in his short story collection Skeleton Crew .)

The story focuses on a group of shoppers trapped in a small-town grocery store by a mysterious fog. When some of the shoppers try to escape, they’re attacked by otherworldly creatures hidden in the mist. Left on their own and cut off from the rest of the world, the shoppers begin to turn on one another.

“It’s really subversive and creepy and spooky,” Darabont said. “And it comes at you and tells you something.”

This is Darabont’s fourth go-round with King’s material. He has been friends with the author since 1994’s “The Shawshank Redemption,” which Darabont adapted from one of King’s novellas.

It was “Shawshank” that provoked King to ask if he’d like to adapt anything else.

The first thing out of Darabont’s mouth was “The Mist.”

“I’ve loved it ever since I read it in 1980,” he said. “That’s subversive horror in the best sense of the word.”

It also feels a bit retro in a time when the cinematic horror offerings feature young Americans getting tortured, gouged, burned and sliced.

“Not a big fan of the torture porn movies,” Darabont said of the “Hostel” and “Saw” franchises. “But I wasn’t a big fan of the slasher movies, either.”

As subversive as “The Mist” was, the original story ended in a vaguely cosmic fugue. Darabont manages to outdo King and take the story to a much darker place.

“It felt right,” Darabont said. “Stephen planted the seed in the story. I sent him the script and asked him, ‘What do you think?’ His response: ‘I wish I had come up with that.’ ”

To complete the heavier feel of the film, Darabont used almost no music. The result is a quiet film that feels as much stage play as it does apocalyptic monster movie.

“Sometimes movie music feels false,” he said. “I’ve always felt that silent can be scarier than loud, a whisper more frightening than a bang, and we wanted to create a balance. We kept music to a minimum to keep that verité, documentary feel.”

He did use one song, though. At the film’s denouemont, Darabont overlaid Dead Can Dance’s “The Host of Seraphim.” It’s a heavy, spiritual piece featuring chanting and wailing. Darabont chose the song for the film years ago.

“It kind of plays as a requiem Mass for the human race,” Darabont said. “I’ve been a big fan of Dead Can Dance’s music for a long time. I thought if it worked out the way I had it worked out in my head, it could be very compelling.”

For his future projects, Darabont is staying dark. In development is a biography of “Tokyo Rose,” a U.S. citizen who was convicted of treason following World War II, and an adaptation of Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451.

“I’ve wanted to do that since I read it when I was 9 years old,” Darabont said. “I think we’ll be shooting soon, but it’s hard to tell with the writers’ strike.”

As for the future of that particular conflict, Darabont was uncertain.

“We’re as anxious as anybody to get this over with,” he said. “I don’t think anybody likes not working.”

THE DARABONT FILE

• The first film Frank Darabont directed was a short-film adaptation of Stephen King’s “The Woman in the Room.”

• He wrote the screenplays for “A Nightmare on Elm Street 3” (1987), the remake of “The Blob” (1988) and “The Fly II” (1989).

• His film “The Shawshank Redemption” was nominated for seven Oscars, including best adapted screenplay and best picture. It was adapted from a Stephen King novella.

• His film “The Green Mile” was nominated for best picture. It was adapted from a Stephen King serialized novel.

• He wrote several episodes of Steven Spielberg’s “The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones” TV series and wrote a script for the upcoming fourth Indiana Jones movie that was rejected by co-creator George Lucas.

• He had a small part as Gunner in Peter Jackson’s remake of “King Kong.”

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