Friday Night Double Feature: Head Honcho Josh Tyler's Depressive Double Feature

I think it’s safe to say we all like a happy ending. That’s part of the appeal of escaping into the movies – life doesn’t always have a happy ending, so we go where we can find them. Well, the movies don’t always have happy endings either, and this week we’re embracing the idea of the downer ending with two movies that recently reinvigorated the idea of leaving the audience wishing for that happy ending.

Quite frequently, we recommend enjoying a little bit of alcohol along with your double feature. Often this is out of necessity, because the movies aren’t necessarily the best movies. This week you may be driven to drink, however. Not so out of necessity as out of depression. These are movies that don’t inspire viewers to new heights as much as they make you realize life is pointless and Nietzsche may have been onto something.

Don’t blame me for this week’s plotted out movies, however. The suggestion comes from Cinema Blend Head Honcho Josh Tyler, who actually suggested pairing up these movies back when they were in theaters. Once I saw them, I realized exactly what he meant. Thematically these are a great double feature, but darned if you won’t be depressed for days after watching them. Pair them up at your own risk.

The Mist

One of the things that appealed to me about the Stephen King’s novella upon which this movie is based was the depressive nature of the story. You have a mysterious mist which may or may not be representative of the end of the world, and the people thrown together in a grocery store can’t find a way to rise above their own shortcomings to survive. Instead the mist becomes part of the setting, occasionally providing a reminder of why people are there, while the real threat becomes the other people and their ideals. Frank Darabont captures this concept perfectly in the movie and takes it one step further with an ending that not only departs from King’s original message of hope, but feels like a slap in the face by the time the end credits roll. The end result: a movie that will make you lose faith in humanity and question how we’ve possibly even survived as long as we have.

I Am Legend

This Will Smith tale doesn’t wait until the ending to paint a depressive picture. Instead the story gets rid of the human race early on in the picture and centers around the one man who could have saved humanity but failed. Instead he continues with his efforts to find a cure for the virus that wiped out the human race, in hopes that there is still some humanity left to save. Basically the whole movie is about futility, with a few excellent (yet incredibly tense) action sequences thrown in. Is it any wonder the movie ends on a bit of a down note? Thanks to DVD there’s the alternate cut of the movie with a slightly different ending. Of course, that one isn’t much of an improvement if it’s a happy ending you’re looking for. Then again, much like King’s short story for The Mist, Richard Matheson’s I Am Legend novel didn’t exactly give director Francis Lawrence much to create smiles with.

Other depressive downers: Planet of the Apes (1968), 7even, The Descent, Old Boy, Night of the Living Dead (1968), No Country for Old Men, A Scanner Darkly

Enjoy our Double Feature suggestions? and maybe we’ll use them in a future column.