The Happening
written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan


What starts out as a beautiful day in Central Park, and most of New England, quickly enters The Twilight Zone. People are standing still, acting irrational and uncoordinated, and then kill themselves. The authorities believe it to be a terrorist attack, a biological agent released into the air, and having warned people to stay indoors, schools are let out and citizens are migrating in vast numbers to their homes or whatever towns seem to be safe.

The Happening is a perplexing movie. Not to mention a major let down. But as preposterous and silly as this movie becomes, it still hold me in sway and made me want to watch, if only in hopes that it would turn around and become a better, decent, viewing experience. It’s not a complete steaming pile of crap; Shyamalan is fast becoming the new millennium’s Wes Craven: a good director who has made some bad movies. Shyamalan’s previous film, Lady In the Water, which was laughable and disjointed, and maybe too earnest for its own good, wasn’t that great, but still better than The Happening.

There are scenes in The Happening that hold the viewer in rapt attention. Shyamalan can build suspense, but with little to no pay-off. It worked in Signs, but falls flat here. The main leads of Mark Wahlberg and Zooey Deschanel do what they can, but the dialogue they are given is silly, and you can see the effort they are making, thus you see the performance which is a big no-no. The best performance, and the most interesting character, is John Leguizamo’s math teacher; but Leguizamo is so short-changed in The Happening, and so underutilized, it’s a crime against nature.

The Happening is a B-movie with all the wind, and fun, sucked out of it.

My score: 2 out of 5

the_novacula