The Happening | 
| Director: M. Night Shyamalan
Actors: Mark Wahlberg, Zooey Deschanel, John Leguizamo, Ashlyn Sanchez, Betty Buckley
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Buy New: $14.99
Rating:  78 reviews
Sales Rank: 4100
Genre: Drama
Rating: R (Restricted)
Media: Video On Demand
Running Time: 91 Minutes
ASIN: B001G779GY
Theatrical Release Date: June 13, 2008
Release Date: November 8, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Synopsis:
Mark Wahlberg stars as a man who takes his family on the run when a natural disaster threatens to end civilization. For years, the earth has been the victim of mankind's "progress," and the pollution has finally built to a point that causes a global backlash. An invisible neurotoxin is released into the air making the people in Philadelphia go crazy and kill themselves. The Happening is a paranoid thrill ride through this large-scale, cataclysmic environmental crisis that turns into a struggle by mankind to overcome nature. |
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| Customer Reviews: Read 73 more reviews...
 While Strolling Through the Park One Day July 1, 2008
Amanda Richards (Georgetown, Guyana)
16 out of 20 found this review helpful
Bob Dylan told it best, but if Buffalo Springfield were to put the gist of this movie into song, it might go like this:
"There's something happening here
What it is ain't exactly clear
There's some wind in the trees over there
Telling me I got to beware
It's time to stop - children, what's that sound?
Everybody look what's going down"
However, it's better that you NOT look what's going down, especially if there are children around. This apocalyptic story begins with a buzz, or rather a lack of it, and ceases to be interesting somewhere after the screaming begins. The plot stalls pretty early, resorting to increasingly imaginative ways to lose your liver during a bad air day.
Mark Wahlberg stumbles through the movie as if he can't believe he signed up for it, while Zooey Deschanel spends her screen time pretending she isn't really there. John Leguizamo plays a math teacher who really should have known that things weren't going to add up.
Short Attention Span Summary (SASS):
1. While strollin' in the park one day, the New York state of mind is seriously compromised
2. A man and his wife (zero chemistry alert!!) try to determine which way the wind is blowing in their marriage
3. Gruesome imagery, inhumanity, depressing events and very bad acting follow
4. Open ending's just not happenin'
Summary: This movie blows
Rated: 1.5 stars
Amanda Richards, June 30, 2008
 Disappointing June 14, 2008
ACSMOM (Thurmont, MD USA)
12 out of 13 found this review helpful
This film should get no stars. I've enjoyed M. Night Shyamalan other movies, yeah they can be a bit off the wall but it kept me entertain and think about the message that I would get out of the film. Yes this movie has a messeage as well, I mean natural unexplainable occurrences do happen but he should have delivered it in a different way. It's pretty bad when you are walking out the theater and people back of you and in front of you are saying what a dumb movie it was. So for date night my husband and I decided to watch this movie over the new Indy film. Since it had an R rated we expected M. Night Shyamalan to deliver a really good scary flick. At credits we sat there like this is it. He revealed the reason (I'm not going to give it away) why "the happening" was happening way too soon in the film. The only reason why this film had a R rating is because of blood (mind you some scenes like the zoo scene didn't even look real- you can tell they were fake arms). Not to mention that my husband and I like Mark Wahlberg (and since we are movie buffs we got a kick out of the idea that Mark's brother Donnie was in The Sixth Sense- kind of like a family affair type of thing), it was just a let down. I will say that in the first scene it does capture your attention (seeing people freeze and than killing themselves) but at the end it just didn't live up to our expectations. One thing I always liked about M. Night Shyamalan films is there is some kind of twist at the end. This film does not have that. We have all of M. Night Shyamalan on DVD at the moment but when The Happening gets released on DVD we will not buy this one. So disappointed. If you want to see a good M. Night Shyamalan movie watch The Sixth Sense or Signs.
Shyamalan The Schlockmeister Strikes Again! June 15, 2008
Happy Camper (Baltimore, Maryland USA)
12 out of 18 found this review helpful
I don't know about you, but seeing dozens of people on the Big Screen graphically and creatively committing suicide is not my idea of having a good time! But before I go any further, I want to strongly advise people who are severely depressed, or currently have issues with suicidal ideation (thinking/fantasies ) NOT to see this movie. The violence portrayed can be summed up in one word - harsh! The Happening is also wildly inappropriate for children and young teens! Consider this warning a Public Service announcement by someone who used to work with people in crisis!
Personally, it's sad to see Director Shyamalan stoop so low. His masterpiece, "The Sixth Sense," is one of the greatest supernatural fantasy films of all time! He obviously likes to work in this genre, and there are plenty of stories written along these lines over the past hundred years to tap into for ideas! But no, he most follow the majority of Hollywood and dumb down his films, too! The Happening will certainly make Director Shyamalan a quick buck, but it will also damage his brand. He's slowing and steadily becoming the "Roger Coreman" of schlock film making. I, for one, will certainly think twice before paying my hard earned money to see another one of his films in the future!
The story is also so preposterous it comes across ultimately as campy. Intelligent plants are so smart they only wipe out people from Maryland to Massachusetts, as a "warning" against Mankind's abuse of the environment! The plant kingdom is only defending it's self from our wanton destruction of the environment. But they can't be all that smart if they attack one of our nation's most environmentally friendly regions in the United States! For example, the LARGEST park in the entire United States, outside of Alaska, is in New York State and it's a STATE park, called the Adirondacks. It's even in the State Constitution to remain forever wild! New York City and the surrounding environs, has some of the cleanest drinking water in the United States. One of the greatest zoos in the entire world, which works tirelessly to save endangered species, and to educate the rest of us is the BRONX Zoo! New York State dismantled its last built Nuclear Power plant before it was even turned on! So my dear, Shyamalan, The Schlockmeister, you had your pathetic plant kingdom army attack the wrong part of the country! Duh!
No one is denying that there's an audience for this kind of intense violence and stupidity, but there's a much larger audience for intelligent story making. Hopefully, The Happening will take a drubbing at the box office and teach this formerly bright filmmaker a valuable lesson!
The Adirondack Atlas: A Geographic Portrait of the Adirondack Park, and Wild Lives: A History of People & Animals of the Bronx Zoo, and The Politics of Nuclear Power: A History of the Shoreham Nuclear Power Plant (Risk, Governance and Society), and Water-Works: The Architecture and Engineering of the New York City Water Supply and last, but not least - Your Movie Sucks
 3 + Stars: Deals with the Unexplained and the Unknown...(may contain mild spoilers) June 16, 2008
Woopak (Where Dark Asian Knights Dwell)
12 out of 18 found this review helpful
Act of God- A direct and sudden event or action of certain unexplainable forces that could not be reasonably foreseen; it compromises all evidence and defies all attempts at explanation by Science.
THE HAPPENING is writer/director M. Night Shyamalan's latest outing after his somewhat disappointing "Lady in the Water". This director's films are lyrical in tone but often has a darkness in their proceedings; Shyamalan`s films are also thematic in their execution and "The Happening" is no different. Pronounced as his first "R-Rated" film, this latest offering is as imaginative as "The Sixth Sense" and "Signs". His films are a "hit" or a "miss", I'm not a solid fan but his films are certainly original. Certain viewers will probably feel a bit alienated because of its main premise, but no one can deny that the film does explore humanity`s greatest threat: the unknown and the unexplainable.
One morning, in a major city in the U.S., everyone seems to be minding their own business, doing their chores, working their shifts, until suddenly, a barrage of unexplainable suicides happen one after the other. Citizens commit violence against themselves and the only explanation the media can offer is a terrorist attack or a deadly toxin released by either terrorists and then plants. Elliot (Mark Wahlberg) is a science teacher who bases most things on deductive reasoning and logical explanations; has to flee the city for the countryside with his wife, Alma (Zooey Deschanel) together with a small group of survivors to try to escape the invisible threat. However, what they come across with may defy all semblances of logical human explanation.
Shyamalan may have summoned the bleakest array of disturbing images in the film's beginning. The nightmare and mayhem by eventual suicides are thoroughly visible; hairpins are driven to jugulars, construction workers jumping off buildings, cops shooting themselves, people crawling under their own lawnmowers, zoo keepers offering themselves as a the main course to lions. The director offers a lot of truly bleak hysteria and will definitely make your skin crawl. The images are full of intense sequences of mass suicide especially in the first act, which is worthy of the price of a movie ticket by itself. It is dark, moody and bleak that will definitely leave some viewers very affected as it dishes out all the lurid details.
The film emulates a very strong feeling of the unknown and further accentuated by the confused media broadcasts which attempt to explain the phenomena. Elliot has his own theories as well as a kindly farmer which he has crossed paths with. There is also a feeling of helplessness as our cast finds themselves fleeing from one path to another, avoiding heavily populated places with large amounts of deaths. Human panic and fear is also explored with a very bleak execution. Some may say that Shyamalan missed some opportunities as the film seems like a rethread of his film, "Signs", with a family caught in all the chaos. While this may be so in a way, I do think that "The Happening" is a lot more intense with its premise and its ability to unnerve is more omnipresent.
Elliot offers some theories of the `event' as Wahlberg makes his best expressions of being puzzled, flabbergasted and confused. This man has been on a roll lately, I liked him in "Shooter" and "The Departed"; Markie-mark pulls off a very decent performance. His supporting cast isn't so bad either. The dialogue still has the usual "quippy" remarks as is reminiscent in Shyamalan's "Signs" that are also an acceptable practice to tone down its bleakness somehow and to express different personalities in a certain situation. I liked the nice touches by the director as he shows the blowing wind as a harbinger of doom, as if a mighty hand envelopes the surroundings with an irresistible force. The only fault the film may have is that it seemed to run a little out of gas near the final act, as he somehow exhausts his ideas. Don't get me wrong, it's just that it may be near-impossible to keep up such a powerful start.
It's impossible for me to say anything more without spoiling the film, the film is a cannon of a horror film in its first act. Complemented with a very bleak tone that stays within a lyrical execution and a good soundtrack, with Wahlberg's confused looks, "The Happening" is a satisfying diversion. Its main theme of the unknown promises a change of pace and some viewers may argue that it still followed the same formulas. The film may be somewhat hampered with familiar rethreads of a chase film but it`s overshadowed by what its trying to say. If you're familiar with this director's films; you'll know that he has certain motifs and themes, it's not so much with dealing with answers but asking the answers.
The film's climax may disappoint some viewers as the film never does offer any solid answers; which is the whole point. I can just hear them now; so what was the cause? I thought it was quite good for Shyamalan to encourage these questions, but those who like being spoon-fed the details should just stay away. After all, how do you explain an "ACT OF GOD"?
Recommended! [3 + Stars]
The Day the 'Night' Stood Still June 15, 2008
Steven Reynolds (Sydney, Australia)
11 out of 11 found this review helpful
American cities of the northeast are plagued by an apparent terrorist attack in which people become confused then suicidal - leaping off skyscrapers, shooting themselves, impaling themselves with hairpins. As high-school science teacher Elliot Moore (Mark Wahlberg) and his unhappy wife and colleague flee to the country, it becomes evident the threat is more likely environmental. Nature is fighting back, with plants releasing some kind of toxin to defend themselves against the human industrial onslaught...
M. Night Shyamalan executes on this charming premise with a deliberate eye to the sci-fi B-movie, both in style and theme, with lashings of gore, a cheesy score, and expository dialogue that at times sounds more like a textbook. Sadly, however, it doesn't entirely work. Shyamalan's no fool. He wouldn't make a B-movie without a specific intention. So what's going on here? Is the substance connected to the style? Does Shyamalan want us to go back to the 1950s? Is he trying to tell us that cities are bad? Is he echoing E. F. Schumacher's cry that "small is beautiful"? Or is this a response to misplaced moral hysteria around 9/11? Falling bodies around 9.00am on a New York Tuesday certainly stir the echoes. Is he saying there are bigger threats to worry about than a few ideologues in planes; that 9/11, though a tragic event for those involved, is ultimately a miniscule blip compared to our disastrous global environmental trajectory? Or is it simply a musing on the fragility of humankind and the paucity of our knowledge? He'd be right on all counts, of course. But his intention is never clear.
As an argument the film isn't very convincing, and as a piece of entertainment it's worse. Shyamalan's core skills as a writer-director seem to have deserted him - there is no suspense, no real drama, no trademark twist, not even any really nice shots (except the chilling iconic beauty of the falling workmen). It offers just a vague kind of discomfort that's regularly undermined by the near-comic suicide scenes. Shyamalan seems creatively paralysed himself. Still, the film's not entirely without merit. Its difference to standard summer fare makes it reasonably engaging for much of its short duration, and the wheels only really fall off when Moore and family let the power of love trump the power of self-preservation with a very convenient outcome.
I think Shyamalan's also a victim of his own success - expectations are incredibly high for anything he does. From a young, first-time writer-director, this might be seen as competent Hollywood fare with an eye to tradition. From Shyamalan, it's well below par. Wahlberg is probably the strongest element here. He's regularly undermined by appalling dialogue, but his earnestness is endearing. Knowing where he's come from, as an actor and a person, to see him playing this kind of character in this kind of movie is nice.
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