The Mist

I'm a huge Stephen King fan and I often read some of his amazing stories and think they'd make great movies... But of course they rarely do, as we know. Desperation, Rose Red (okay, not a book, a screenplay), The Shining TV movie - all suffered in the lame hands of Mike Garrick...
The Mist however fares a lot better. The original is a great little short story (around 200 pages - too short for a novel, too long for a short story) and the adaptation is a real treat. It's actually got some decent acting in it too (Thomas Jane and X-Files' Laurie Holden are cool), which is unusual for a King adaptation (even Annabeth Gish let me down in Desperation). The monsters are fun, there are some great shocks and twists and it's really entertaining.
Only a few quibbles - Marcia Gay Harden's religious zealot character does get a bit much in places, and they could have probably halved the screentime if they'd cut down on her - and how she could recruit the entire store to her twisted way of thinking is anyone's guess.
The new ending is - as much reported - very bleak indeed - and perhaps a bit unnecessary.
It actually might even have made a decent TV show but... well you'll see why it can't be...
All in all, definitely worth a look.