If you are unfamiliar with Shyamalan and his work, he has written, directed, and produced 6 major motion pictures beginning with his most famous and probably best work being the Sixth Sense. It was a world wide success and because of it, Shyamalan quickly became one of the most famous and talked about film directors in recent memory. He became so iconic and sought after that he refused to film any of his films in any other place but his home town of Philadelphia and was able to make any film of his choosing without even a peep from the studio who financed them. Many people feel however that his films have been on a steady decline ever since that first breakout smash and ending with the worst of them all being Lady in the Water. It was a commercial flop and received negative reviews from almost anyone who saw it ( I believe the film was actually good, but Ill get into that later).
So, with a change in studio and a need for a hit film, Shyamalan returns to what made his previous films a success, and produced The Happening, a suspenseful and at times horrific thriller. The film stars Mark Wahlberg as a high school biology teacher along with his wife, played by Zooey Deschanel, friend and math teacher played by John Leguizamo, and Leguizamo's daugther, newcomer Ashlyn Sanchez. The film starts out with dozens of people in the Central Park area of New York city committing suicide for unknown reasons. Word quickly spreads across the nation as no one knows what is causing people to do themselves in. Is it a terrorist attack? Is it a viral epidemic? No one quite knows and thats what sets a very surreal and menacing tone to the film. Shyamalan has always been a master suspense builder and he hasnt lost his footing with The Happening. There are many dialogue-free scenes with nothing more than gusting wind, which he makes the antagonist of the film, that some how make you sit on the edge of your seat as you watch people actually try to outrun wind. Yes it sounds ridiculous, but then again if you have seen his past work, you should know that most of the stories are implausible. Isnt going to the movies all about leaving reality outside the theater doors anyways? The Happening works for me because it is an entertaining and actually pretty scary film. There are many scenes showing the suicides that make you cringe because of the authenticity and atrocity of actually committing such an act. There are even "BOO" scenes when someone jumps out and basically says BOO, which usually dont have me screaming, but Shyamalan managed to make those work too.I dont want this to be like other reviews of films that basically tell you the story before you see it, so ill just say whats good about the film and what isnt. Whats good is that it is a breezy (barely reaching the hour and thirty minute mark) and scary film that captures your attention throughout. What doesnt work is the acting, which I can easily say is the worst that all three of the films stars have ever done. There are many scenes which are down right awful only because of the acting, which may be blamed on the films director, but Ill just blame it on the actors. So to sum it up Id say dont run out to see The Happening but definitely rent it if you just want to scare yourself on a rainy or windy night.
I feel that most people already have their minds made up about whether or not they will like the The Happening before they see it and that is because of the directors previous work. Many people were so turned off by Shyamalan's last few films that they already believe that they wont like this one either. As I said earlier, Shyamalan is a very polarizing director and comes off as very arrogant. When he made Lady in the Water, he said that the film was actually bed time story that he would tell to his children and decided to make a film out of it for them. In that sense, the film make more sense than if you were to watch it without knowing such a fact. He made the film, not for you, but for his children, and I'm sure they loved it. Shyamalan also said that when he made The Happening he wanted people to leave saying that was a really fun B-movie. I believe he did just that, The Happening does seem like a B-movie although much more engaging and interesting than most others. What it boils down to is Shyamalan is a very egotistical director who makes the films that he wants, films them where he wants and doesnt follow normal Hollywood standards. He even makes cameos in all of his films (although I didnt catch him in this one, but it may be because I was sitting in the second row of the theater) and his name is actually on all the movie posters instead of the actors (which arent no names....Bruce Willis, Sam Jackson, Mel Gibson, Mark Wahlberg just to name a few). Either way his name is what sells his movies whether you hate him or love him and if you think that his ego is a problem, he isnt doing anything that Alfred Hitchcock didnt do in his day.
The Happening -2008
Runtime- 1hr 31mins
Rating- R
Run To/Run Away- ...walk to but you dont need to rush...
--Tim Young
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