This Stephen King Theory Makes The Ending Of The Mist Horrifying In A Completely Different Way

Warning: This article contains spoilers for The Mist, both the book and movie.

The Stephen King novella The Mist was already great, but longtime Stephen King adapter Frank Darabont redefined it completely with his 2007 adaptation and its brutally devastating ending changed from the original book. However, one fan theory offers a new read of that ending that lessens the impact - until you really think about it. Most people in general came to The Mist through the movie, but longtime readers largely discovered it in King's 1985 collection Skeleton Crew.

The story is a simple one: a strange mist filled with carnivorous, bloodthirsty monsters descends upon a town, trapping a group of humans inside a grocery store. The monsters have an eldritch, Lovecraftian vibe, something from another dimension beyond our understanding. As with so many of Stephen King's stories, though, the smaller battle waged underneath the grander cosmic and supernatural spectacle is one of good and evil that plays out among the human survivors. However, one theory suggests evil wins that battle, opening up a host of questions about the overall meaning of The Mist's ending.

The Theory Claims Mrs. Carmody Was Right All Along & They Needed A Human Sacrifice

Mrs. Carmody's Prophetic Vision Spoke True

Mrs. Carmody and her cult in the grocery store in The Mist

In both the book and movie versions of The Mist, Mrs. Carmody, one of Stephen King's best human villains, is a religious zealot who becomes increasingly unhinged in her cult leader-like fervor. Also in both, she claims to have had a prophecy that the group will require a human sacrifice in order to stop the mist and the monsters therein, with a particular focus on David's son, Billy. Of course, everyone writes her off as being dangerously unstable, as they should. In this context, the theory is simple: Mrs. Carmody was right. It's a theory that works for both the book ending and the movie ending.

The Theory Works For Both The Mist Book & Movie Endings

It Adds New Meaning To Both Endings

Those familiar know that the book ending is left ambiguous, as David and the band of survivors drive through the night hoping to find an end to the mist and a safe refuge. Just at the end, David thinks he hears the word "Hartford" coming through on the car radio, hinting that while the ending is murky, there is still a spot of hope in the future. Everyone survives, but there's also not a definitive end to the nightmare. In the context of Mrs. Carmody's prophecy, it's fair to wonder if, had they sacrificed one of the survivors in the car, the mist would have cleared.

In the context of the movie, however, the theory that Mrs. Carmody was right grows even darker. The dark ending of The Mist is one of the most infamous endings in movies, a brutal and devastating twist leading to a horrifying revelation. When their car breaks down and they are out of gas, David kills all the occupants in the car, including his young son, Billy, in order to save them from a gruesome death at the hands of the monsters closing in. It's an act of mercy meant to spare them from an even worse fate, but still a terrible act, nonetheless.

Of course, right after David kills his son and screams in grief and rage, the mist clears and the military shows up to save them. It makes the already devastating ending even more devastating: had David just waited a few minutes longer, his family would still be alive. His sacrifice was ultimately futile as they were about to be saved, anyway. However, if Mrs. Carmody is right, it's not that the military coincidentally showed up after he killed his son, but they showed up only because he killed his son - theoretically, he had offered a human sacrifice, and it led to their salvation.

Giving Power To A Violent Religious Zealot Like Mrs. Carmody Is Horrifying In A Different Way

It Undermines Stephen King's Generally Hopeful Ethos

If the theory about Mrs. Carmody being right is true, it's horrifying in a completely different way, whether the troubling ending of the book or the gut-wrenching ending of the movie. The idea of a dangerous religious zealot being in the right is already unpleasant enough, but the deeper meaning - that it's the most brutal and vicious manifestation of that religious zealotry that is the way to being saved - is awful.

Ultimately, King is a hopeful writer, and the valley of the shadow of death his characters walk through is a necessary journey to vanquish the monster and a happier, if sober, resolution.

It would also be an incredibly nihilistic way of interpreting Stephen King. While he has certainly had bleak endings, such as "The Jaunt" or Revival, even the losses in King's sadder endings are necessary losses or ones that lead to resolution. And his ambiguous endings, such as in the book version of The Mist, offer a thread of light and hope at the end. Ultimately, King is a hopeful writer, and the valley of the shadow of death his characters walk through is a necessary journey to vanquish the monster and a happier, if sober, resolution.

However, King's stories have almost always been rooted firmly in human ingenuity, resilience, and bravery. Occasionally, there has been a higher power guiding the fate of the protagonists, most notably God in The Stand or ka in The Dark Tower series, but it's generally been a benevolent force for good, or, at the very least, neutral. The pure evil of Mrs. Carmody - and whatever dark, malevolent force is clearly working through her - being the answer that leads to salvation upends Stephen King's traditional ethos of hope and human goodness winning out in the end.

The Theory That Randall Flagg Is Responsible For The Mist Is Recontextualized By The Mrs. Carmody Theory

It Makes Sense, In A Dark Way

Randall Flagg wearing a hood in The Dark Tower VII

There's another longstanding theory behind The Mist, and it works for both the book version and the movie version: King's ultimate villain, Randall Flagg, is responsible for the Mist and the monsters therein. Part of that theory hinges on the speculation that the monsters that come through in the mist are from todash space, and it was Flagg who opened up a rip in that space and allowed the monsters to come through. That would be right in line with his role in the Dark Tower series and Stephen King's universe as a whole.

It's not hard to imagine that Flagg, who once tried to install himself at the top of the Dark Tower and become the God of All, would love a human being sacrificed to him.

Combining the theory of Randall Flagg being behind the mist with the theory that Mrs. Carmody's prophecy about needing a human sacrifice being right creates a whole new twist. If that's the case, it suggests that Flagg demanded a human - in this case, David - to perform the most horrific act before he would fix things in The Mist. It's not hard to imagine that Flagg, who once tried to install himself at the top of the Dark Tower and become the God of All, would love a human being sacrificed to him. His malevolent, demonic form would also love the idea of forcing a human to make an impossible choice that destroys their soul. Of course, it's all theory, but seeing as how there are so many different ways to interpret Stephen King, it's a fun one.