** spoiler alert ** I read this quite a while ago, and way before the film came out. It was perhaps my favorite Stephen King story until I got into The Gunslinger and the Dark Tower series. There are three factors to this story that make it amazing: 1) the gruesomeness of the creatures they go up against, 2) how you don't know what's really out there until the end, 3) and the social paradigms that get fully explored.

The fact that the vast majority of the storyline takes place in a small local grocery store only makes it more intense. The people you soon find out are just as deadly as the dangerous creatures outside. Some of the most memorable scenes are when it's nighttime and the fog is looming in close to the large glass windows of the grocery. The folks don't realize the light draws in the insects, and so they're completely shocked when they start trying to break through the glass. And trust me, the creatures get much worse from there.

My favorite creature in this has to be the monstrosity that has the octopus tentacles. You only see parts and pieces of it at the beginning, but later on when you find out what it's attached to, it's far worse than what you at first imagined.

As far as the film is concerned, I definitely like it as much as the story. The ending is more fleshed out, and has both a depressing/hopeful ending at the same time. The book on the other hand ends on a dismal perspective for *all* mankind. The book doesn't give a chance to the handful of survivors, or the rest of the world. I suppose in this respect the film could be considered more of a hopeful perspective than Stephen King's ending.