The Happening
“There appears to be an event happening.” Right when I heard this line in the trailer, I should have know to stay away from this film. But my respect for Shyamalan kept hope alive. What a disappointment. The Happening is, by a significant margin, the worst movie I have seen all year.
M. Night first came to fame with his third film, the classic The Sixth Sense. In that film, he displayed a mastery of suspenseful filmmaking and his trademark twist ending. He followed that up with two enjoyable films, Unbreakable and Signs. Despite being diminishing returns, I still enjoyed The Village and Lady in the Water. But this latest film is impossible to defend.
The film starts with a bunch of New Yorkers deciding to off themselves. Mark E Mark is a high school science teacher in Pennsylvania. His wife may have had a meal with an unidentified man, the ultimate form of infidelity. When news of the event in New York reaches the school, they decide to evacuate. There are some disappointing suicide scenes, some running, and then the movie ends.
Nothing works in this movie. There is almost no sense of terror. The dialogue is horrible. The most interesting characters are quickly removed from the film. The performances are not very strong at all. The event is not clearly explained and hard to believe. Blah, blah, blah. Just thinking about this movie makes me mad.
As I already said, I liked every Shyamalan movie up until this point. But there is nothing redeeming about this film. You’ve read the reviews, and for once, they’re telling the truth. The few unintentionally funny scenes do not make this worth seeing. Stay away from this movie. It deserves a full star merely because the cinematography was interesting and the plot, while as simplistic as possible, at least pretty much makes sense. Do not waste your money here.