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Matthew Freeman is a Brooklyn based playwright with a BFA from Emerson College. His plays include THE DEATH OF KING ARTHUR, REASONS FOR MOVING, THE GREAT ESCAPE, THE AMERICANS, THE WHITE SWALLOW, AN INTERVIEW WITH THE AUTHOR, THE MOST WONDERFUL LOVE, WHEN IS A CLOCK, GLEE CLUB, THAT OLD SOFT SHOE and BRANDYWINE DISTILLERY FIRE. He served as Assistant Producer and Senior Writer for the live webcast from Times Square on New Year's Eve 2010-2012. As a freelance writer, he has contributed to Gamespy, Premiere, Complex Magazine, Maxim Online, and MTV Magazine. His plays have been published by Playscripts, Inc., New York Theatre Experience, and Samuel French.

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

The Mist on DVD

The film version of Stephen King's The Mist, directed by Frank Darabont, is out on DVD. I'm excited to see the Black & White version of the movie. It is extremely effective, surprising and bleak as bleak gets.

If you're a sucker for horror fare, but are a bit turned off by the fetish-for-icky-dummies thing that's been dominating scary movies as of late, I definitely recommend checking The Mist out.

It's for adults. And it made me nervous.

Seems David Johnston felt the same way, back when it was in release.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Really. It's good?

How does it measure up to Mikael Håfström's wonderful adaptation of King's "1408"? Are we witnessing the renaissance of Stephen King stories set to film?

Wow!

David Johnston said...

And yes, Matt, I already have it. See? I'm not just about the German Expressionism!

Freeman said...

Yes you are. You read the New York Times DVD Section like it's going out of style!

Which is IS!

I have not seen 1408. I should.

Philucifer said...

It was one of my favorites of his short stories, so I'm looking forward to seeing the DVD (missed it in the theaters). Glad to hear they've done a good adaptation.

King is really tough to adapt, in a lot of ways. His writing is deceptively literary -- it reads much better than it plots out in story beats. And his dialogue works fine on the page, but is incredibly stilted when put into the mouths of actors. Try describing one of his stories or novels to a skeptical friend, and you start getting an idea.

"Well, it's about a killer clown that's actually kind of a spider alien that fell to earth millions of years ago and lives under this town in Maine, and a bunch of kids figure it all out and have to fight it. But it's a coming-of-age story."

When you tell them it's your favorite novel ever, they tend to give you the stink-eye.