As someone whose brain was heavily influenced by the original - I even have a cassette tape audioplay of it which was absolutely ridiculous because someone has to breathlessly describe each monster as it comes at people - I adore this change to the ending. Both are just great
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I did like the movie overall but man, I think I seriously could've used the backbone of the original to really feel it.
IMO really the best way to go with King is those first two short story collections, which include The Mist. Approximately a million of them became bad movies.