I'm probably in the minority here, but I don't like Darabont's ending to The Mist. It transforms the entire genre of the story from a fine example of cosmic horror, to just another, well-done, BEM flick. Because, after all, the convention of BEM is that the monsters are ultimately defeated. Whereas in King's ending, for all we know, the mist continues indefinitely. Hence, cosmic horror. (There's also the niggling issues of why couldn't they find a way to gas the car, etc..)

I'm even a little suspicious of King defending Darabont. He's always been loyal to filmmakers, even, if memory serves, defending Kubrick's adaptation in Danse Macabre.

I leave it to Peter Jackson to take a very long, detailed epoch ... & make it longer still. Because I found his rendition of the Elves a bit weak it annoyed me to have them given even more screen time, with the romance of Aragorn & Arwen thrown in.

Otherwise, it was quite excellent.

One other point of disagreement is another King adaptation, Shawshank. I also liked King's ending better. [SPOILER!!!!] After Red is finally paroled he falls into that convict ennui that tempts him to commit another crime just to get sent back. He was only told about the rock, not that there would be anything left for him. He searches for it out of desperation, not expecting anything. When he does find the note & the money it's a great passage of salvation. We half-expect it, but unlike in the film, we don't know....

I think that's the issue with King's work. Love him or hate him, he's a very literary author, unlike say Michael Chrichton, whose stories were far easier to adapt to the big screen.