The Happening

My theory, though I don't like to pontificate about people's state of mind if I can help it, is that Night wanted to crank out a quick, audience-pleasing hit to reestablish himself, and thought that this sort of film demanded a short runtime. I can see the rationale, but I think Night severely misjudged the importance of his characters this time out.

Put it this way: you know how all throughout Signs, Shyamalan kept the focus on the family, and resisted the temptation to abandon their point of view and turn it into a global disaster flick? Well, The Happening is the exact opposite. It keeps trying to inflate itself with a scope that isn't there. Some of the film's best scenes come near the end, when the film's focus is narrowed to an isolated old house in the country. That is where Night excels...at writing little cinematic dissertations on a very small segments of the worlds he creates. He runs into trouble when he tries to go all Grand Unified Theory on us, showing and explaining everything.

The things he shows us can never be as scary or as interesting as the things we imagine when he points the camera somewhere else. There's a great G.K. Chesterton quote that sums the principle up perfectly:

"Art consists of limitation. The most beautiful part of every picture is the frame."

Night is, to my mind, one hell of a framemaker. I love it when he gets going, but I love it a lot more if he knows when to stop. Here's hoping he relearns the restraint that made him famous in the first place, and starts letting us paint more of the picture ourselves.

Good review Chris, i would agree with more or less everything you have said about it. I think my whole experience of the film was tarnished by my annoying cinema expereince, and becuase of this im gonna try see it again. There seemed to be alot of instances where there was meant to be tension, but due to Wahlberg's suprememly dodgy dialogue and the overactive score, it just came out comical. And with a bunch of cackling troll women sitting behind you i found it hard to see what was really meant to be going on. So im gonna give this a second shot. I'm not expecting to like it, but myabe i'll enjoy it a bit more. Such a shame though.What parts did you think were good and what parts did you think were especially awful?

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I've heard that M. Night was going for a 60's b-movie feel, hence the short running time (his running time goal was actually quite below 90 mins) and poor acting...

...but Chris hit the nail right on the head, and I didn't realize it until he revealed it...it completely lacks fear...the "infected" kill themselves and are no threat to ones around them (unless in certain circumstances) and once you're "infected" you don't even realize it...I wouldn't call these spoilers as they are very much obvious in the trailer

...so how can a horror movie survive without fear? it can't, and that was the biggest problem with The Happening

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It wasn't thrilling.

It wasn't Scary

There was no tension

No characters I cared about

It wasn't that good of a movie.

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Suspect's Reviews

Thank you,Shyamalan,in first place.
You are the master of modern terror,the best director,productor and writter of the actuality in Terror movies.
**** critics that have criticised this movie "The Happening".
I hope that you always put your fans in first place by making movies like this one.
Your terror really scares!,and have such a essence and mistic that i can't explain,well it´s a Shyamalan movie,already a trademark.
Thank you.
(p.s-sorry,my English,i'm Portuguese)

^^ he won't read this you know

i found my biggest problem with this film was I just didn't believe in the world he created. It didnt feel like any of it was real in a diegetic sense. And i certainly didn't believe Mark Whalberg as a sensitive science teacher. Most of the dialogue was poor and a lot of the shots of wind blowing through the trees were pointless - wind in trees is not scary. The only even mildly threatening wind shot was when the wind was rolling through the field chasing them.

As with other Night films I was kinda watching for little pieces of information that would somehow give the twist away but there didn't seem to be any, which made it feel a little 2 dimensional. But there were some disturbing shots, the kind where you think the camera is going to cut away at the last minute and just doesn't - the lawnmower scene for instance.

I found myself comparing this to The War of the Worlds because that felt real; the terror and suspense felt genuine, perhaps because the enemy was physical and slightly more plausible - it felt like kind of a cop out or I had been jipped.

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Undercoverlovers 100 REDUX

I for one am extremely disappointed. Looking back I couldn't even tell you what this damn movie was about. There was no underlying theme, there was nothing to tie us to the story..hell there wasn't even a story. What this movie was, was an idea that was prematurely released..this could have been a much deeper film but instead it turned into utter crap simply because it made no sense, not even in the world its set in. There were so many contradictions in the story and as yoda points out, the best parts of the film have little or nothing to do with the actual story and more to do with the intricate interactions between the characters. Signs capitalized on this, while he Happening failed to even be entertaining. Basically, I felt like this move was warming up the entire time...and when the credits started rolling i realized that it never really got on its feet.

My sister and I have also decided we are giving up on M. Night. He should have taken a break after "The Village" because though it wasn't terrible it wasn't the grade A material we wished from him. Lady in the Water sucked and the Happening sucked even more. So, he really needs to stop..and focus on some other things and get back to what made the name 'M. Night' so revered in the first place.

/rant

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Hey, Stella got HER groove back, so can M.N.

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My review: (Originally posted HERE)



The Happening (2.5/5 Stars)

The Happening is the latest from director M. Night Shyamalan (The Sixth Sense). I’ve enjoyed most of his past work (including Lady in the Water). I wanted to see this without knowing too much about the film. So on Thursday afternoon I turned off my RSS feeder and pretty much avoided the Internet like a plague. Armed only with the knowledge of the previews, I watched The Happening Saturday afternoon.

The story follows Elliot and Alma Moore (played by Mark Wahlberg and Zooey Deschanel), a couple living in Philadelphia, the setting of most of Shyamalan’s films. A catastrophe strikes in New York, causing large numbers of people to commit suicide. Fearing the growing threat, Elliot and Alma flee Philadelphia in an attempt to escape the attack.

The Happening has a peculiar balance between humor, seriousness, and the morbid. The film was advertised as M. Night Shyamalan’s first film with an R-rating (”for violent and disturbing images”), which I think ended up being a problem for the film. Many people have compared him to Alfred Hitchcock (”the master of suspense”), and rightly so. In previous films, Shyamalan has worked well in the PG-13-rating. He’s great at introducing suspense and startling the audience. Think of the sprinklers in Lady in the Water. With his latest film, however, the horror is just…there. There were suspensful moments that I liked (the trees, he tracking shot with the policeman and the cars, etc.), but a good deal of it seemed there just to justify the rating than advance the story.

The acting in the film didn’t do it for me, either. Mark Wahlberg and Zooey Deschanel, two good actors I might add (Think The Depareted and All the Real Girls), just didn’t seem to fit. Should we blame the acting or the script? I don’t know. Coupled with that is the on-the-nose dialgue.


I liked the relationship between their characters. The change in Zooey’s character from the beginning to the end is especially intriging to me. I would have loved to see more development between their characters.

Now I loved the concept of the film. The idea behind the film. It’s so fantastic, but it’s also somewhat believable, which is a feat in itself. As far as the story is concerned, I also loved the way it ended. A really nice touch.

I guess it boils down to how much M. Night Shyamalan was trying to make The Happening feel like a classic “B” disaster flick and how much of it just didn’t work. Maybe I need to watch more movies like Invasion of the Body Snatchers and The Thing.

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The sad thing for me is that Night came along and looked to be a very decent director full of promise, ideas and know-how.
Unfortunately I think he has been pulled into the Hollywood Hype machine and has never been able to deliver since.
There was huge pressure on him to deliver " Signs " having received the biggest up front payment in Hollywood history for a script that wasn't even complete, and for me this is where the problems began.
The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable were his calling cards, the pressure wasn't as great on him during these two movies, and as such he was more able to concentrate on being a director and getting the best performances out of his actors and his scripts.
With the mamoth payday for Signs came increased pressure, responsability and demands from his pay-masters.
Perhaps Night is also suffering from increased expectation, you go to one of his films expecting a great story that will keep you involved and then deliver a killer twist at the end that will leave you equally baffled and amazed.
Maybe it's time for him to take a departure from the norm and try his hand at a different genre, or style of filmmaking.

Signs was a decent enough film, bad CGI aliens apart, the Village kept me interested to a degree although the twist was predictable, lazy and poorly handled, but with each of his subsequent films my interest in him as a filmmaker has dwindled, and whilst I'm not quite willing to totally write him off, he will have to deliver something creditable soon.

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Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbour?

I think you all just follow what the pseudo-top-u.s.a-critics say...
What you expected about The Happening?
What you expect when you buyed the ticket?
Dialogues,history and something more to be nominee for an oscar?
This is a movie with everything i could expect from Shyamalan.
He gave me his typical Terror and a lot,a lot of entertainment..
That was the reason why i wanted to see his movie.

a 'typical' terror does not make for a good terror necessarily

I was expecting something typically Shyamalan: not so great dialogue, suspense, and a family unit centered story. And that's what I got. Doesn't mean it was good though. He ended up confusing what it is to make something terrifying. The rule of thumb for horror and terror films is Horror is of the body and terror is of the mind. Considering he had nowhere to put the force of the terror but the wind rustling in the trees because the suicides are not terrifying but horrific. Master of terror, i think not.

Do not blame them, they had to both listen to Al Gore before filming, he kind of rubbed off on them I think.

I think you'll find the people on this forum have very wide and varied tastes in movies and are more than capable of making up their own opinions.

It's ok to love M Night, but you shouldn't take criticism of his work so personally.

Also, a lot of the members on this forum are not from America, so they wouldn't be aware of said American critics reviews.

Anyhow, welcome to the forum, stick around and join the party, but remember, we are all entitled to our opinions, one man's art is another's trash!

What a load of crap. Seriously.

Regardless, Roger Eber, Kevin Carr, James Rocchi, Manohla Dargis, and others have given it positive reviews.

Sorry, I guess I never responded to this.

I thought the scene near the beginning at the construction site was basically perfect. And I thought the scenes at Mrs. Jones' house were, while a little odd at times, still tense and interesting. And the "who's chasing who?" thing was actually really well written, I thought.

I also though the crossroads scene where they realize they're basically surrounded by the event was great. Good sense of claustrophobia there, even though they're basically in the middle of a field. And, though it was mainly just a gross-out moment, I thought the thing with the lions was inventive.

As for especially bad: lots of the in-between scenes where Elliot's talking to Julian about his wife. The dialogue is just so...plain (and yet it's still not delivered properly). I also thought Elliot rolling through his list of scientific principles in the field was kind of weird. I suppose it was supposed to be tense, what with the gunshots going off in the background, but I found it incredibly boring.

Well, you thought wrong. I would try to answer some of your other questions, but your post is poorly written and I can't really tell what you are on about.

Also, this a global site, genius. That is, we have members from all over the world.

Thanks for stopping in, though.

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I have a feeling I'm going to like this... I'm kooky like that.

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