King's Warning

The early buzz for Stephen King's The Mist appears to be pretty good. I won't be able to catch it until next week, so I'll have to steer clear of the review websites.

I read The Mist when I was a kid, and I loved it. It was a very creepy, very good story. You can find it in King's Skeleton Crew collection of shorts. I wasn't too impressed with The Mist's ending, but it looks like that has been changed for the film version. According to King, "[Director Frank Darabont] wrote a new ending that I loved. It is the most shocking ending ever and there should be a law passed stating that anybody who reveals the last 5 minutes of this film should be hung from their neck until dead."

Nice one. I laughed aloud when I read that. Internet nerds on various websites have complained that King should know the difference between "hanged" and "hung." I say Stephen King has earned the right to slaughter as much grammar and syntax as he likes.

Here's another quotation attributed to King (among others), of which I am very fond: "People want to know why I do this, why I write such gross stuff. I like to tell them I have the heart of a small boy... and I keep it in a jar on my desk."

Photo: Weekly Reader