This is not the primary time this form of declare has been made a couple of Frank Darabont film. The director himself as soon as speculated that “The Shawshank Redemption” could not have been made in the present day both, albeit for barely completely different causes. His clarification for “Shawshank” centered round how sluggish and considerate the movie was, whereas Jane’s considerations about “The Mist” is extra to do with the film’s downer ending.

The frequent knowledge, in any case, is that audiences want pleased endings. It is why everybody’s nonetheless mad at “How I Met Your Mom” for going manner darker than anybody anticipated with its finale, or possibly why the writers of “Scream 4” nearly had the killer get away with it however have been pressured to rewrite the ending. It is why it’s possible you’ll usually end up watching a film that feels prefer it’s moving into a darkish, probably traumatizing route, just for it to complete off with an “every thing’s nice” ultimate scene that does not really feel earned.

The 2016 movie “Passengers” is a well-known instance of this. As has been identified by many viewers, this might’ve simply been a horror story about Aurora (Jennifer Lawrence) being woken up on an empty spaceship with nobody else however a stranger named Jim (Chris Pratt) and slowly determining that he is the one who doomed her within the first place. A “Twilight Zone”-style ending might’ve match this story completely, however the film selected a secure, generic pleased ending as a substitute. It is smart, in a manner: as a very standalone authentic film in a panorama of franchises and diversifications, “Passengers” was already an enormous threat. A daring, feel-bad ending might’ve been seen as pushing issues too far.