The Mist

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GNTLGNT

The idiot is IN
Jun 15, 2007
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Desert Kris

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Feb 23, 2017
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I hope Marsha doesn't mind if I borrow this topic thread for information gathering purposes!

I have a question regarding The Mist that I thought I knew the answer to, but now I'm not sure. I read somewhere that there's an expanded version of The Mist, and that was edited down for inclusion in the Skeleton Key anthology. For some reason I made the assumption that the standalone publication of The Mist as a tie-in to the movie was expanded back to full length. It was under this assumption that I had been keeping an eye out for and snagged a copy of the tie-in printing. The only other reference in this regard is in a wiki article saying that the expanded version was published in Dark Forces in 1980. Can anyone comment on this? Thanks for any help that you can provide.
 

FlakeNoir

Original Kiwi© SKMB®
Moderator
Apr 11, 2006
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I hope Marsha doesn't mind if I borrow this topic thread for information gathering purposes!

I have a question regarding The Mist that I thought I knew the answer to, but now I'm not sure. I read somewhere that there's an expanded version of The Mist, and that was edited down for inclusion in the Skeleton Key anthology. For some reason I made the assumption that the standalone publication of The Mist as a tie-in to the movie was expanded back to full length. It was under this assumption that I had been keeping an eye out for and snagged a copy of the tie-in printing. The only other reference in this regard is in a wiki article saying that the expanded version was published in Dark Forces in 1980. Can anyone comment on this? Thanks for any help that you can provide.
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Moderator

Ms. Mod
Administrator
Jul 10, 2006
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I hope Marsha doesn't mind if I borrow this topic thread for information gathering purposes!

I have a question regarding The Mist that I thought I knew the answer to, but now I'm not sure. I read somewhere that there's an expanded version of The Mist, and that was edited down for inclusion in the Skeleton Key anthology. For some reason I made the assumption that the standalone publication of The Mist as a tie-in to the movie was expanded back to full length. It was under this assumption that I had been keeping an eye out for and snagged a copy of the tie-in printing. The only other reference in this regard is in a wiki article saying that the expanded version was published in Dark Forces in 1980. Can anyone comment on this? Thanks for any help that you can provide.
This was before my time working here and I haven't read that version but my understanding is that this is a different take on the story. Here's a quote from the executive producer:

"Let's call it a reimagination," says executive producer Christian Torpe. "Internally, we talk about it as doing the Fargo approach, where the movie and the TV show is the same, but it's different. It's like a weird, twisted cousin to the original source material. Fans of the movie and of the book and of Mr. King's work will certainly see elements from it. ... We also, in order to develop it for TV and turn it into an ongoing series, took our own little detours here and there."
 

Bev Vincent

Well-Known Member
Apr 11, 2006
4,351
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Texas
www.bevvincent.com
I hope Marsha doesn't mind if I borrow this topic thread for information gathering purposes!

I have a question regarding The Mist that I thought I knew the answer to, but now I'm not sure. I read somewhere that there's an expanded version of The Mist, and that was edited down for inclusion in the Skeleton Key anthology. For some reason I made the assumption that the standalone publication of The Mist as a tie-in to the movie was expanded back to full length. It was under this assumption that I had been keeping an eye out for and snagged a copy of the tie-in printing. The only other reference in this regard is in a wiki article saying that the expanded version was published in Dark Forces in 1980. Can anyone comment on this? Thanks for any help that you can provide.

Dark Forces was the original publication of the novella. It may have been slightly revised for its appearance in Skeleton Crew (King has a tendency to brush up the stories when he's putting together collections). The movie tie-in standalone edition is probably the same as the Skeleton Crew version, with perhaps some minor edits. None of them are expanded or expurgated; they're all the same story with some minor revisions.

As Marsha says, though -- the TV series forthcoming will bear very little resemblance to the novella. It's more like Colorado Kid or, to a certain extent, The Dead Zone TV series.
 

RichardX

Well-Known Member
Sep 26, 2006
1,737
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The Mist was a great story. Almost perfect. I'm working my way back through SC and had forgotten the sort of raw energy of these stories. King has become a better and more polished writer over the years but I think he has lost some of that raw story telling magic. That might in part be due to editing. My guess is he pounded out these stories back in the day and that was mostly how they were published. Those old stories had a certain magic even if they sometimes were a bit uneven.
 
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Paddy C

All Hail The KING...
Sep 18, 2017
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Bought a used paperback copy of Skeleton Crew, recently, as I'm trying to complete my SK collection. Hadn't read the book in years and currently reading The Mist. This story is an awesome example of how Mr. King can put ordinary people and places into an extremely bizarre situation as if it was the most natural thing in the World.
 
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