The Happening

As much as I'm a fan of M. Night Shyamalan, there's nothing I could [possibly] say to defend his latest experimental horror flick--The Happening. Following the release of Lady in the Water, critics lamented him as a "one trick pony" and unjustly, I felt the negative criticism was undeserved; but now, my opinion is starting to conform with the majority. Not only is The Happening a bad movie but, also, it creates doubt in one's mind that questions the genius (or ingenious) of a once heralded director. In all fairness, Shyamalan's wonderment is the most likable aspect of his work but potential can only go so far. People, more specifically his fans, expect more from him than any other director and being a fan, myself, The Happening is [unfortunately] nothing more than a disastrous disappointment.

I'm not the biggest environmentalist (far from it to be honest), but The Happening is nothing more than Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth with a little bit of the horror element thrown into it. Basically, "The Happening" is an environmental crisis that starts along the northeast, spreads, and results in a mass amount of suicide. Strangely enough, the premise isn't all that bad but, trust me, not even that could save this pathetic excuse for a movie. Mark Whalberg is not convincing at all as Elliott, the protagonist of the film, and Zooey Deschanel isn't given very much to work with. Her character seems distant, egoistic and somewhat lost at times but, overall, the acting leaves a lot to be desired. For that, I shoulder the blame on Shyamalan and justly he deserves it in my opinion. His undeveloped characters have no real arc to them and in helplessly watching this movie, I fully understand why studio after studio passed up this project. Don't get me wrong, I respect M. Night for his creativity, persistence, and passion but [even] I, too, can smell bullshit when I see it.

I guess my biggest complaint about this movie was with how it was marketed. Believe it or not, Friday the 13th is a holy grail for movies with a horror element and for The Happening to be marketed to the public as such was very underlying in my opinion. While The Happening, for what's worth, is classifiable as part of the horror genre; I don't think the prospect of plants killing people went over too well with those who went out to see this. I, for one, was not pleased and expressed disinterest about 15 minutes in, but stayed in regards to see how progressively worse this train wreck was going to be. Save from the countless times the boom mic's were clearly visible and the inept portrayals of people committing suicide, this movie is more laughable than it is scary.

Yes, we get the fact that we're slowly killing the environment and that their will be consequences one day, but to make a movie about it is a waste of time. I hate to borrow a South Park reference but, Al Gore already did it. From that aspect, The Happening fails in all facets but the silver lining would not only suggest a moral responsibility but acceptability as well. Therefore, M. Night should take a long hard look in the mirror and face facts for what they are because his career is being defined right before our very eyes. As much as he may not want to admit it, his unique style of storytelling/film making has gotten progressively worse since The Sixth Sense; and being the longtime fan that I am, I'm finding it harder and harder to defend his work.

As a fan, I shouldn't have to do that but Shyamalan is unique in that way. His ambiguous reliance of self-interpretation serves more as a proverbial crutch and now it would seem that ambiguity has gotten the best of him. There's no telling what he was thinking when he sat down and decided to write The Happening but I have a better idea for a movie. The rise and fall of his career. Now, that's a horror movie.

Rating: 0 inkblots out of 5