The Happening: Movie Review

M. Night Shyamalan is absolutely brilliant at what he does; when he's at his best, he can turn up the suspense in a way that hasn't been duplicated since the days of the immortal Hitch, the undisputed master of suspense. Shyamalan's previous successes in The Sixth Sense, and Signs was a refreshing surprise to an audience that was well used to and quite sick of the boring, and predictable slasher flicks. Unfortunately for Shyamalan, we have come to expect amazing things from him; sadly, this is not what we get in The Happening.

The Happening starts off with a promising bang. A freakish pandemic of ghastly mass suicides is occurring across the upper East Coast. Mark Wahlberg plays a science teacher who tries to outrun the threat with his wife, played by Zooey Deschanel, and the young daughter of his best friend. We are drawn into the story as we try to figure out the source of the menacing danger that constantly dogs them. The initial assumption is that the country is undergoing the first phase of a well planned and masterfully executed terrorist attack. Wahlberg's character surmises that the threat is far more ominous than terrorists, he believes that the attack is being waged upon humans...by nature, and he's probably correct. The story is sprinkled with a couple of honestly unsettling sights as our protagonist and his charges try to find their way through the disaster that they face. There are even a few funny moments thrown in for good measure. However, the film never really delivers on the bang it promises in the beginning. Halfway through the film, we are beset by an overwhelming desire to feel the punch of the movie...disappointingly though, we are left hanging.

Wahlberg and Deschanel are unsurprisingly basic in their roles, they didn't do a bad job..but they didn't set the world on fire either. John Leguizamo is cast in the role of Wahlberg's best friend, we are accustomed to above average performances from him, but we don't get that in this film. Probably the best acting to be seen in this movie comes from little Ashlyn Sanchez, Leguizamo's daughter in the film. Ashlyn's character is about the only one that we grow to actually care about in the entire film.

The story itself is intelligent, and one can plainly see that Shyamalan is an extremely imaginative and gifted writer. You should definitely add The Happening to your Netflix Queue when the time comes for its DVD release. But, if you're looking to be scared out of your wits...you can safely skip this one altogether, instead you should opt for Bryan Bertino's horror flick, The Strangers. If you're looking for a major summer blockbuster film that lives up to the hype...again, skip this one and wait for The Dark Knight. As far as The Happening goes...it isn't a bad film, it's just a major let down from a promising talent.