User reviews

After the hype created by Bird Box, it is worth revisiting The Happening which was critically mauled upon its release.

The reason might be M Night Shyamalan who wrote, produced and directed this film. His success in movies such as The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable meant that critics were just sharpening their knives and waited for him to fail.

It starts off shockingly as people kill themselves in New York, such as throwing themselves off a building. The mass suicides soon spreads and the authorities initially think it is some kind of a biological terrorist attack.

Elliot Moore (Mark Wahlberg) is a science teacher at high school in Philadelphia. When the school hears about happening in New York, it causes a mass panic.

Elliot, his wife Alma (Zooey Deschanel) fellow teacher Julian (John Leguizamo) and his young daughter Jess try to escape Philadelphia on the train. The train comes to a halt and they are stranded in the countryside.

Julian goes back to look for his wife who could not make it on the train. Elliot tries to figure out what is causing this phenomenon as they witness more disturbing suicides. He thinks there is something in nature, especially the countryside that is causing the happening.

Shyamalan was let down by Mark Wahlberg, the most unconvincing high school science teacher. Zooey Deschanel was not much better. I know she is supposed to have marriage problems but there was no chemistry here between the actors. Leguizamo would had been better as the lead.

The film itself is much better than its reputation deserves. There is an environmental subtext to it. It is eerie, disturbing and mysterious. I can understand what Shyamalan tried to do and he largely succeeded with a psychological apocalyptic horror. It would had been better with stronger actors.

Who keeps giving M. Night Shyamalan money to make these movies? Seriously, what studio executive read this script and thought that making this movie would be a good idea? After the disaster that was Lady in the Water Shyamalan comes back with a movie which unbelievably, almost impossibly, may actually be worse. Lousy acting, laughably bad dialogue and a story which is just downright stupid combine to make one terrible movie.

Anyhow the story here is that starting in New York City and then quickly spreading through the Northeast everyone is suddenly killing themselves. Everyone drops what they're doing, seemingly goes catatonic for a moment and then offs themselves anyway they can. Fling themselves off the top of a building, shoot themselves in the head...whatever. What could possibly make people do this? Obviously it must be some kind of terrorist attack or so everyone thinks. There certainly is something bad in the air and people need to flee. And here we meet our main characters, a Philadelphia high school science teacher and his wife along with his friend and his friend's daughter. They get out of the city, inevitably get stuck in the middle of nowhere, the characters begin to do and say things which make no sense whatsoever and the whole movie falls apart as we watch people try to run away from the wind.

Mark Wahlberg has the central role here and his performance is truly awful. Certainly he isn't helped by the hideous script but it really seems as if Wahlberg can do nothing right. He seems rather emotionless for a guy trying to figure out why everyone's engaging in mass suicide. As his wife, Zooey Deschanel goes through the film with a blank stare on her face. Some of the corpses show more life. Most of the other characters we meet make a bad impression if they make any impression at all. Some truly bizarre people wander in and out of this movie. And all of them are forced to spout dialogue which is so bad it often becomes unintentionally funny. Somebody wrote that? Really? Ha-ha. But as bad as the acting and dialogue are it's the story which is the biggest problem. Once the movie reveals what actually is happening it becomes impossible to take the story seriously. Stupid. So very, very stupid. The premise makes no sense, doesn't work at all, and thus the movie is doomed to failure. I really can't fathom that after reading the script anyone actually encouraged Shyamalan to go ahead and make this movie. The Sixth Sense sure was a long time ago.

It's not as bad as the Professional Critics say it is, but I can understand why they hated it. The Characterization of basically everyone in the Movie is pretty poor, although Zoey Deschanel, Mark Wahlberg and John Leguizamo does work hard with Material they have and sort of work to a certain degree.

The premise is also a bit problematic, Plants are everywhere and there is no avoiding them if they are releasing Toxins unless you wear some sort of breathing filter and almost none of them got to that in the Film.

But it is a fairly effective Thriller, certainly good enough to watch.

Allow me to provide some background information on my relationship with the films of M. Night Shyamalan: I adored "The Sixth Sense" and still think of it as one of the best films of 1999 and one of the best supernatural thrillers in ages. "Unbreakable" was a fascinating take on the superhero genre. I loved parts of "Signs" to bits and consider the sequence in the basement towards the end of the film one of the finest examples of suspenseful build-up in recent film history. I even liked "The Village" and could easily dismiss "Lady in the Water" as a mere misfire. I was greatly anticipating "The Happening", especially as it seemed to be echoing one of my favorite guilty pleasures- the paranoid 70's sci-fi thriller.

Let's get one thing out of the way- "The Happening" is unbelievably, impossibly, ridiculously, hilariously, inconceivably bad. Normally I would refuse to rate any film that had any good scenes or that was well-directed less than four out of ten, but "The Happening" has to have one of the worst scripts among recent big-budget Hollywood films. It's absolutely shocking how retarded the logic behind this is and how poor so much of the dialogue is. This script began as "The Green Effect", a tremendously poor (trust me, I read parts of it) script by Shyamalan that was soundly rejected and eventually reworked into "The Happening". Having seen the critical reaction to "The Happening" prior to going into the film I found myself pleasantly surprised by basically the first thirty, forty minutes of the film. It was nothing special but it had something going for it, Shyamalan's direction was top-notch, and Wahlberg was playing the sort of goofy science teacher I'd loved (and loved to hate on occasion) in high school.

Then the descent began. The bulk of this film is some of the most hilariously awful crap produced by a talented filmmaker since Schaffner's "Sphinx". Shyamalan, who was using close-ups and steadicam shots to frankly brilliant effect early on, begins to use the same shots to comical effect. There is one painfully, painfully long close-up of Mark Wahlberg pleading for time to think and then calling for his group to 'keep ahead of the wind' that is up there with Nicolas Cage in "The Wicker Man" in terms of hilariously awful acting. That scene may very well be the turning point in the film, with Wahlberg's acting becoming more ridiculous by the second, culminating in a performance that essentially wipes from memory all his tremendous recent achievements as an actor. I don't blame Wahlberg for this, I blame Shyamalan. Wahlberg claims Shyamalan tried to force him into real paranoia so his performance would work better. What happens here (no pun intended) is that Wahlberg ends up looking amazingly uncomfortable for the last hour of this thing and struggles to deliver any reasonable line deliveries.

Okay, I do have to credit Zooey Deschanel for making this movie watchable. Besides being amazingly, ridiculously gorgeous she is a fine actress and creates a sympathetic character (and a fairly well-drawn one at that- one of the few pros in Shyamalan's script). There's also the score: oh my it's gorgeous. Seriously, ignore this film and just buy the score CD by James Newton Howard- it's brilliant.

"The Happening" starts out well but ends up being an absolute embarrassment. I was prepared for a mediocre offering- perhaps a misguided effort such as "Lady in the Water". I was not expecting a disaster on the level of "The Happening". Its last forty minutes and especially its last ten minutes or so are among the worst I have seen in a long time.

Have you ever wondered if it was possible for a film to go from enjoyable to absolutely horrendous in the space of ten or fifteen minutes? "The Happening" is proof that it can, pardon the (intentional) pun, happen.

3/10

I hate this. I want to tell you guys that this was Shyamalan's comeback and that this film is just as terrifying as you've been promised. But, I cannot.

The film starts off actually quite well. Minus some less than stellar acting (in fact, its horrible) and some just as bad dialogue, I really thought that maybe this film could pull it off. Disturbing death scenes ensue.

Then, bring in Mark Wahlberg. What happened to this guy? Nominated for an Oscar for his turn in The Departed, Wahlberg seems like a safe bet, but in actuality, he's playing a role that just isn't made for him. This role was made for someone nicer. Walhberg has been typecast time and time again as the angry and bad-ass guy, and now I see why. He's good at that and god awful at being nice.

No one else is particularly good either. Zoey Deschanel disappoints, John Leguizamo (Everyone in this movie has a name that's difficult to spell), and all of the extras are just as bad. There is not a single moment of good acting in this movie.

And all of that is because of how rushed this film feels. This is one of those movies that it seriously felt like the director was working on a very limited budget and then took the first take for every actor, none of them had a chance to get into their roles (or so I hope).

It's obvious who will get all of the blame for this (M. Night Shyamalan) and it's really too bad. I can't say that the plot is necessarily bad, it isn't, and with maybe one more draft the script would've been good. The faults of this film all land on Night's shoulders though. I hate to say it because I am very much not a hater of his (I love The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, and Signs) but I'm forced to say I hate this movie. Not so much for how bad it actually is (it's very bad) but because I really had faith in the director. The trailers almost felt promising and Shyamalan (am I even spelling this right?) promised me that I'd walk out shaking. Instead, I was shaking my head in disappointment.

One thing I'd like to add on though, I can tell that they were going for a Hitchcock vibe and the best way I feel that I can describe this is "a very bad version of The Birds." That is all.

Yes, there are of course bad things about this movie, don't get me wrong. Specifically, the line delivery and script were pretty dumb and much of the acting was wooden and unconvincing. There was only one good performance (Mrs. Jones). Some directing choices weren't that good either, but other than that I thought the tension built well and the premise of the story was interesting and original, and the beginning of the movie for the most part was captivating. There were some well-executed emotional and scary scenes as well! I don't believe that this is a bad movie and I was surprised to not be completely dissatisfied!

Shyamalan has proved to us earlier that he can be as good as the best with masterpieces of cinema with The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable. Yet, since then, he has declined steadily. Signs and Village were good movies, but with Lady in the Water and now The Happening, he has touched a level of incompetence that could never have been expected of him.

The Happening is about a pandemic that is gripping north-eastern USA. It starts with a stunning sequence of events that show people succumb to an unspecified threat – the brilliance of this opening repeated only once more for a five-minute sequence towards the end of the movie. Unfortunately, Shyamalan's writing is a big let-down for the rest. As the focus moves from metropolitans to towns and from crowds to smaller groups, the sense of fear is lost – the biggest sin a horror movie can commit. In the oft repeated criticism for its director, this movie would have been best served as a half-hour episode of Twilight Zone to make it really work.

And to add woe, the actors do not do much to better the experience – Mark Wahlberg and Zooey Deschanel are grossly miscast as the protagonists. Any of his previous leading men (Bruce Willis, Mel Gibson, Joaquin Phoenix and Paul Giamatti) can be imagined to have done a better job for the Science teacher that Wahlberg plays. The camera scrutinizes the performance to a degree that requires an actor with strength in emotions – Wahlberg instead brings a physical presence that the role does not need. Zooey, on the other hand, struts around like in a Disney movie, not for once threatened by the pandemonium.

This time, though Shyamalan humbles his vanity – you don't see him on screen. He now should swallow his pride and leave the writing to the writers. Armed with a better script, we can still expect Shyamalan to make his future movies worth waiting for. For now it is only the memory of the opening sequence, which can be proclaimed as mind-numbing greatness, which is really worth taking away from this movie.

I'm not sure exactly why this movie has been bashed and low rated so much, maybe it's just a bandwagon thing? I'll admit it's no movie of the year and was a little cheese at parts. However overall it was actually quite entertaining, the plot moves along steadily and it was a standard 90 minutes. Anyway long story short my last point is that I believe M.Night was attempting to do a sort of throwback to the 50's and 60's era of film making. I see many Hitchcock styling within this film and I think he actually did an excellent job of creating a modern version of "The Birds" I mean let's face it this is the birds re-done. and re-done fairly well. The color, the music, the overall atmosphere, quite similar and well done. Maybe kids these days just can't appreciate this type of film, maybe they would low rank The Birds as well. As for the claims on "confusion" or not being realistic enough I don't understand that either. I think it is fairly clear that the cause is not going to be understood but likely has something to do with the plants and some sort of biologically active chemicals they emit. This is actually completely within the realm of possible. Trees and shrubs release chemicals into the air that can have subtle and sometimes overwhelming affects on human emotion and behaviour. Example is essential oils (the oils in plants that give them their smells).

Let me preface these comments by saying that I am a major Night fan. I look forward to news of his next project and love the stories of his supposed total control over his movies and carte blanche from the studios. If those stories are true, I have a feeling that era will be ending for Night with the release of The Happening. I ignored all the pre-release press I could before going to see this movie. I read none of the reviews, but one word I did catch was "uninspired." Unfortunately, that one word describes this movie perfectly. In the first ten minutes of the movie, I thought it was due to the acting and that maybe Mark Wahlberg was miscast. However, after another ten minutes I realized it wasn't the actors; it was the extremely lame script. Without giving away any details, this is a disaster film where the disaster "happening" starts with the first scene of the movie. Unfortunately, no suspense builds and there is absolutely no sense of dread or panic on screen and so none translates to the audience. Surprising, since the 21st century has provided us with too many occasions to study how we react in times of disaster, whether by nature or terrorism. It's as if Night ignored all this when writing the story. The characters sleepwalk through the scenes (and, no, it's not a symptom of "the happening") with no believable sense of the horrible events taking place. Granted, we don't need to see people running around in circles screaming and crying, but people do not stand in small groups after a disaster calmly taking turns talking one at a time. Without sharing in any of the horror that the characters are suppose to be experiencing, the film is a total bore for the audience and the source of "the happening" is laughable when revealed. I found myself repeatedly checking my watch, saying, "I can't believe how bad this is" – not something I'd expect to do in a Night movie. Looking around the theater, I could tell others were sharing the same feelings. Most were scrolling through emails or texting on their phones.

During the movie, since I wasn't paying much attention to the screen, I started thinking that there might be a good reason why most filmmakers do not have total control over their films. When they do, they can reach a point that it seems Night may have reached, where they say, "I'm going to make people scared when the wind blows" and actually believe themselves. Maybe other producers or execs can step in at that point and bring the filmmaker back to reality. I'm not giving up on Night, but I'll feel better if his next film is not "Written, Produced and Directed by M. Night Shyamalan."

I have watched this movie probably 15 times since it was released. I know I'm probably one of only few dozen people that enjoy this movie, but I don't understand all the hate that it receives. I truly thought that it had a good storyline (something different at least). I can agree with some people where the acting is kinda bad throughout the movie but I still found it enjoyable. If you haven't seen this movie before, I would recommend it. Its worth a shot, and I believe that the movie is actually pretty fast-paced. I'm one of those people that still hope someday they make "The Happening 2".

What can I say. This movie sucked. Not even Mark Wahlberg, whom I rate as a great actor, could save this turkey.

I don't intend to include any spoilers, unless you include the fact that nothing of any note goes on in this picture. Equally the script seems to be written from the perspective of a naive 10 year old for a U-rated audience. The details concerning the relationship friction between the central characters seem so childlike as to be pointless.

Zooey Deschanel, who I enjoyed in Failure to Launch, seems completely miscast or just terrible. Her principle role seems to be to appear as a giant doe-eyed girl stumbling from scene to scene as though awakening from a drug-induced coma.

Shyamalan made a great first movie and I also enjoyed Unbreakable. Other than that he's been sliding into an abyss of drivel and somebody needs to stop funding his crap so I can stop kidding myself into sitting through it with the idea that surely this time it'll be worth it.

I suggested that my friends and I go to see this film in the cinema when it was released. As a result, I have never since been allowed to choose the film.

The Happening concerns a mysterious phenomenon which is leading to mass death and causing wide-spread panic around the world. Mark Wahlberg plays a high-school teacher thrust into the middle of this emergency situation with his girlfriend, played by Zooey Deschanel. They are journeying across the country to escape "the happening".

The premise is interesting to begin with, a message lying at the heart of the film. It is, however, taken beyond the point of redemption by Shyamalan. The script is simple, generic, unimaginative, boorish rubbish. Stupid, emotionless, and inhuman lines spoken by characters which might, with a degree of kindness, be described as two-dimensional. The relationships between them are entirely unbelievable and insincere. And the acting? Oh the acting... Wahlberg deserves a slap as the blandly irritating and vapid "hero" who appears to have only a single tone of mundanity available to him as a voice, and Zooey Deschanel is... well, simply, Zooey Deschanel isn't. Having Wahlberg speak to himself would have been less painful (oh wait, he does try that). The "expressions" of joy, fear, shock, and sadness upon Deschanel's face are entirely indistinguishable from each other, and indeed from emotion at all. Possibly the single worst "performance" I have ever seen. To make matters worse, both characters seem more attached to turning their heads to the side than they are to each other. You'll think they're trying to get something out of their ears. Perhaps its the sound of the dialogue, clunky and tacky as it comes.

Woefully acted, barely written, and just absurd, the only thing happening with The Happening is the steady flow of people leaving. Shyamalan continues his recent trend of awfulness, digging ever deeper his cinematic grave.

I'm a Shyamalan fan. He's not afraid to take chances. And he believes in himself and his story. Most of the time, that helps. Gems like Unbreakable en The Village would never have seen the light of day if someone other than Shyamalan came up with it. His direction always makes sure his story gets the maximum effect. I like his screenplays because they always consist of two things: originality and well written characters. His new feature has neither. It's that simple. As a Shyamalan fan, I felt this disappointment a little with Lady in the Water. But now, it's twice in a row.

In a nutshell: Beginning in Central Park NYC, people are effected what is first believed to be a neurotoxine causing people to behave irrational, even to the point of suicide. But then the survivors start to uncover signs that it's not terrorists, but nature itself spreading this virus: yes, it's nature against men. And nature is winning.

I thought Wahlberg was a very poor choice. His range as an actor is far too narrow to play in any production that needs a little nuance. In other words: he shouldn't be in anything else than a movie about cops or (ex-)marines. Also the rest of the cast is surprisingly aloof. This includes Zooey Deschanel, who looks like she's a live-action version of a Manga character. Can those eyes be any wider?

The way the information is brought to the viewer is simple. There is a hinge of a critical message about massmedia, how we get our information and how we as a society are depended on TV, mobiles phones etc. to get in touch with each other. But it's nothing major. Because there really isn't much to tell. The first 15 minutes are the most interesting. Although the very first scene with the two women on a bench in the park (in hindsight) is telling. I really had my doubts about everything: the acting, the actions taken by the characters, the total mood and feel of the film. Once it goes into the 2nd act, the movie becomes more and more (non intentional) laughable and silly.

After seeing this I read that Shyamalan intended this to be an expensive B-movie, in the tradition of Romero etc. If that's the case, then my original rating of 5 (outta 10) should be a 3. Because nowhere in the movie does this become apparent. If you want a good homage, take a look at Zach Snyder's Dawn of the Dead (although that's really a remake.) I don't like a these talented filmmakers who want to take $100 million budgets, to make movies who look like they've been made for $10.000. But at least someone like Tarantino or Rodriquez adds originality and a real love for the genre.

The Happening is really bad as a serious film. As an homage it's boring and without heart. Take your pick. But you will be disappointed either way.

This movie can be summed up very easily, interesting but lacking plot. M Night spent too much of his budget on casting Wahlberg to afford sufficient special effects to give this movie a cleaner look. With as poor as the effects in this movie are it makes you wonder what they spent the 60 million dollar budget on, they clearly could not have spent anywhere near that The Matrix had a 63 million dollar budget...

This is a suspenseful thriller with a mediocre plot. By far it is M Night's worst movie. There is a reason why this movie was written, directed, and produced by him, because no one else was willing to take a chance with it and after seeing the film you will understand why.

When I first saw the trailer for 'The Happening', I was quite excited at the prospect of another film by M. Night Shyamalan. After all, I enjoyed all his previous films, save 'Lady in the Lake', and was sure he would deliver another breath-taking blockbuster. Sadly, I was wrong and while the film was not a turkey, it was not of the excellence I had expected.

The film sees some sort of mysterious ecological event leading to people committing mass suicide, the phenomenon spreading first from large cities then to smaller towns until it is clear a huge chunk of the East Coast is affected. At first, it is assumed to be a terrorist attack but, as more and more people are spontaneously kill themselves, it is clear the cause may be something else entirely...

One of the problems with the film was the quality of the acting and the characters themselves. Mark Wahlberg stars as Elliot, the science teacher who is our main protagonist, and he does flounder in many scenes as if he forgets he's playing an intelligent but ordinary everyday guy, not a gung-ho military hero who is cool in all situations. He could have injected more emotion into his performance. Zooey Deschanel plays Elliot's girlfriend Alma and she too fails to make the audience care for her with the way she depicts the character to be some sort of an escapee from a teeny-booper romance flick. To be fair, it is not entirely Deschanel's fault as Alma is a weak, self-centred character with the emotional capacity of a young adolescent (for example, she puts Elliot and a child at risk a couple of times with her stupid decisions and, at the start, when it's clear people are dying, she is in a huff because Elliot and his friend 'hurt' her feelings).

When it comes to the actual storyline, the plot does start off intriguingly and there are many chilling moments when we see people are coolly committing suicide like mindless zombies. However, the finale doesn't deliver what the build-up promised. There are no real explanations or solid end result. In many ways, this film is similar to Shyamalan's previous project 'Signs' both in terms of a mass disaster and no real end resolution to the events but 'Signs' worked better because the characters were more effectively portrayed and their personal storyline was enough of a finale to compensate. This is not the case in 'The Happening' where the storyline fizzles out.

Overall, this is by no means a terrible film. It is enjoyable and fits nicely into the apocalyptic genre but 'Signs' has done this sort of idea before and did it better. That said, there was not only moments that had me on the edge of my seat but also lines which were quite humorous. And certainly, it does make one think about the state of the planet in regards to whether humanity does have it coming to them and how we would cope in such an event. It is worth a look, especially in a week when the other premiere is 'The Hulk, a film aimed at keeping twelve-year-olds' entertained.

"The Happening" is arguably one of the most critically slammed blockbusters of the past 10 years. Beloved as "so bad, it's good" cinema at best and regarded as an abysmal failure at worst, it's regarded by many as the film that began M. Night Shyamalan's descent from beloved visionary to embarrassment of the industry. However, when one looks at the movie from the perspective Shyamalan intended (As a cheesy tribute to 50s Sci-Fi a la "The Day The Earth Stood Still") it's not half bad. Don't get me wrong, "The Happening" isn't a film like "The Wolfman" or "Attack of the Clones" where I genuinely can't understand why people think it's terrible; it has problems. BIG ones. But for what it was trying to do, the film succeeds more often than it fails.

One thing I loved was how "The Happening" never took itself 100% seriously. Clever themes on the dangers of uncontrolled fear, emotion overpowering reason, environmentalism and strength of community aside, the story is somewhat silly; plants releasing toxins in the air making people kill themselves. However, unlike insipid films like "Winter's Tale" or "It Follows" that seem to be under the impression that "seriousness + themes=intelligence", "The Happening" KNOWS that the concept is BS. I know this because of the film's frequent use of bonkers dialogue ("You know hot dogs get a bad rap? They got a cool shape, they got protein. You like hot dogs right?") and intentionally campy (But not at all "bad." John Leguizamo in particular is outstanding as Elliot's terrified friend Julian, a character EXTREMELY out of his element in such a horrific and catastrophic event) acting reminiscent of B-Movie classics like "The Blob" and "The Body Snatchers." It's in the smart execution of an inherently stupid premise that "The Happening" shines.

And the execution is smart indeed. Hokiness aside, "The Happening" is extremely subtle in the delivery of its themes and certainly worthy of post-viewing analysis. Shyamalan's use of color to convey emotion (Blue representing calmness and yellow representing hope for example) is brilliant, and refreshing in an age where too many directors merely use a particular color scheme cause "it looks cool." Whatever issues one may have with the writing, visually it's an undeniably well directed film. Major props must also be given to Shyamalan for not being "on the nose" with the delivery of its themes or giving easy answers to questioning viewers. For example, while the film says that plants are responsible for the outbreak, there are several background visuals that many audience members may not even notice that imply that the film may not be talking about literal botanical plants, but by polluting, power plants (An idea that is also supported by easy to miss visual cues such as Elliot and his party hurrying past a real estate billboard subtitled "You Deserve This!") The film also toys with the possibility that the virus was released in the air long before the start of the movie, but only triggered/activated by negative emotion; that said, we never get a clear "yes" or "no" to said possibility.

The musical score is positively chilling, certainly among my personal favorites. There is an almost delicate beauty to it that slowly transitions into a much darker and more ominous tone. The music fits in perfectly with "The Happening"'s truly horrific and disturbing kills. M. Night really makes the most of his first R-Rated movie, making the suicide scenes as graphic and uncomfortable as possible (One particular scene involving a zookeeper is downright cringe worthy, and I mean that in the best possible way)

As I stated earlier, "The Happening" is not perfect, and I recognize that it has some major problems. Zooey Deschanel is positively DREADFUL as Elliot's cheating partner Alma, almost unbearably so. Her delivery barely resembles anything even REMOTELY humanoid, and every time she opens her mouth, my immersion in the film is shattered. Also, while I can enjoy most of the dialogue as part of the 50s Sci-Fi B movie thing the film was going for, some of the characters can occasionally speak in lines so over dramatic I could have sworn they were written exclusively for the trailer.

That said, I don't think that these problems are enough to wreck the mostly enjoyable experience I had with "The Happening." It's no masterpiece, but it's a damn impressive tribute to a long forgotten age. Distracting flaws aside, "The Happening" is a refreshingly self aware but surprisingly clever B-movie directed with the skill of a true artist.

Love him or hate him, Shama has a quirky vision and some very interesting ideas in his films. He also works with some paltry budgets by Hollywood standards, and cares more about story than effects. Does it always work? No. But considering just how effective his best work is - - 6th Sense, Unbreakable, Signs, The Visit--it's a pretty great body of work. I predict there will be a reappraisal of his work in the future, and with some bigger budgets and some careful rewrites, his remakes will reveal what a brilliant guy he is.

The Happening is a small movie - - simple concept, low budget - - that doesn't try to be anything other than what it is, a cool spooky flick about a mysterious pandemic of suicide gripping the Northeast. Sign me up! Even if it comes across as lightweight by the end, like The Village, these armchair auteurs who trash MNS should try making even half an effective film as those two.

Good for a rainy afternoon, probably not much else. But that's fine with me.

M. Night Shyamalan's "The Happening" is an extraordinarily bad film. It's the kind of movie which begins with some small promise - in a couple of bizarre scenes of mass-suicide that might make John Carpenter proud - and then drops the ball with one hilariously discordant tonal-shift after another, leaving us to wonder: "What was the purpose here? What kind of film did Shyamalan think he was making? Has he really been this BAD all along? How did this movie HAPPEN? And why is it still HAPPENING?"

Well, with the push of a button, you may opt out of your film-watching experience.

But I must confess: I have watched this movie twice, and both times I found it so hilarious that my sides ached with laughter.

No, I don't think this film is "supposed" to be particularly funny. It is purportedly an apocalyptic thriller. And it does seem to try to live up to that promise - even earning Shyamalan's first R-rating by way of some gory moments, as if to indicate its serious intent.

But the script is so silly, the dialogue so inexplicably bizarre, the acting so hilariously bad, and the concept so misguided, that the overall effect is one of unintended comedy.

We sometimes say that a film is "so bad it's good." I think "The Happening" is a prime example of that kind of film. It is truly, truly bad, and all the better for it - regardless of the filmmakers' intent.

If you can enjoy laughing at a film as ridiculous as this one, then I invite you to appreciate - for starters - how Mark Wahlberg spends the entire film making confused puppy-dog faces, and speaking like he's a frightened father trying not to scare his kids. (His character does not have children, but every character in every Shyamalan film behaves like a child, so I guess this is par for the course.) Also: Is there any reason why his every line-reading must sound like he's asking a question?

Just when you think a performance can't seem more lost or clueless than Wahlberg's, Zooey Deschanel shows up as his wife, to match him. She is the "Huh?" to Wahlberg's "What?," and it is that dramatic continuum which carries, and encompasses, the entire film.

It really doesn't seem like anyone involved in this film understood what was going on here, and it's not hard to imagine Wahlberg and Deschanel having frantic but hushed conversations between takes:

"Surely this movie isn't really this bad, right?"

"Huh?"

"I mean, who would've thought that 'The Sixth Sense' was a fluke?"

"What?"

"I think I hear the sound of a toilet flushing. That's not our careers, is it?"

"I don't know?"

But perhaps their cluelessness is understandable, given some of the bizarre dialogue Shyamalan provides the supporting characters. In one scene, as everyone is in a frantic life-or-death rush to get out of town, the entire film screeches to a halt so that one supporting character can pontificate at length upon the pleasing qualities of the hot-dog.

"I'll bring some hot-dogs!" he says, as if excited to be packing for a weekend campout. "Do you like hot-dogs? I love hot-dogs! They've got a pleasing shape, they're packed with protein. I think hot-dogs get a bad rap."

There's no evidence that this character is supposed to be brain-damaged. He's merely as ridiculous as every other character in this bizarre film.

Oh, the delirious joys of this film. I would love to spoil them for you, but then you wouldn't be able to discover for yourself Wahlberg's heartfelt plea for a potted plant not to kill his family (I'm not joking), or the multiple shots of characters "running from the wind," (still not joking), or the film's ridiculous answer to its central mystery.

I'd say that you can't make this stuff up - but hey, somebody actually did! These were choices. Choices that somebody actually made. Choices that somebody put into a movie, and released.

Anyway, M. Night Shyamalan's "The Happening" is an uncommonly bad movie, full of so many bizarre and inexplicable decisions that it's hard to comprehend how anyone ever greenlighted it. Nevertheless, if you enjoy watching a movie that's so bad it's good, you might find that this one is both a 1 and a 10, simultaneously!

As I have said before, I am not a M Night Shyamalan detractor, I just feel saddened that somebody responsible for a masterpiece such as The Sixth Sense and a great movie like Unbreakable could fall to lows by being responsible for a movie as strange as Lady in the Water and as horrible as this. For me, Shyamalan's worst film is between this and The Last Airbender.

The Happening did have a brilliant idea, but sadly this is living proof that a great concept could fall victim to such poor execution. The only redeeming values were the score that brims with beauty and intensity and Zooey Deschannel's sympathetic performance.

Everything else however is a failure. The film doesn't look so bad actually in the scenery and effects, but because there is no life to the film I could never properly enjoy it. Plus there is some camera work annoyances that were one of many flaws for Lady in the Water, such as the focusing on nothing and half-faces, not to mention the ridiculously long keep ahead of the wind close-up.

I wish I had better news about the story, script and characters, but I can't. The script is incredibly contrived and ham-fisted especially Mark Wahlberg's lunatic conversation with a plastic pot plant which is a contender for Wahlberg's worst ever acting moment, and Shyamalan's direction is either unfocused with the uneasy mix of disaster thriller or 1970s eco-horror or over-ambitious with again the trying to cram in too much notion that eluded a vast majority of his resume after Signs.

The characters are stereotyped, with Deschannel's the only one I had any sense of care or sympathy for. The story is a mess, it may have started off intriguingly but suffered from a lack of suspense, dull pacing, the sense that the film doesn't know whether it wants to be disaster thriller or eco-horror and one of the most hysterically awful last forty minutes I have seen of any film.

Mark Wahlberg I am not a fan of, but he has been capable of some good, even great, performances namely in The Fighter and especially Boogie Nights. But he is awful in this, one minute he is dull and the other minute he is overacting embarrassingly, it is painful to watch really. In conclusion, a mess of a film and considering the potential it should have been so much more than it was. 2/10 Bethany Cox