The Happening (2008)

Director:

M. Night Shyamalan

Writer (WGA):

M. Night Shyamalan (written by)

Release Date:

13 June 2008 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Horror | Mystery | Sci-Fi | Thriller

Tagline:

We've Sensed It. We've Seen The Signs. Now... It's Happening.

Plot:

A strange, horrible and unprecedented crisis begins in Central Park. A high school science teacher, his wife and a young girl do what they can to survive it.

Plot Keywords:

Park | Teacher | Crisis | Strange Behavior | Disappearance

Awards:

1 win & 4 nominations

Cast

Mark Wahlberg	...	Elliot Moore
Zooey Deschanel	...	Alma Moore
John Leguizamo	...	Julian
Ashlyn Sanchez	...	Jess
Betty Buckley	...	Mrs. Jones
Spencer Breslin	...	Josh
Robert Bailey Jr.	...	Jared
Frank Collison	...	Nursery Owner
Jeremy Strong	...	Pvt. Auster - MP
Alan Ruck	...	Principal
Victoria Clark	...	Nursery Owner's Wife
M. Night Shyamalan	...	Joey (voice)
Alison Folland	...	Claire - Woman Reading on Bench with Hair Pin
Kristen Connolly	...	Woman Reading on Bench
Cornell Womack	...	Construction Foreman

Also Known As:

Green Planet (USA) (working title)
The Green Effect (USA) (working title)

MPAA:

Rated R for violent and disturbing images.

Runtime:

91 min

Country:

USA | India

Language:

English | French

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

SDDS | Dolby Digital | DTS

Certification:

South Korea:18 | Finland:K-15 | Ireland:15A | Norway:15 | Hong Kong:IIB | Singapore:PG | Australia:MA | New Zealand:R13 | Philippines:R-13 (MTRCB) | Brazil:16 | Italy:VM14 | Switzerland:14 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:14 (canton of Vaud) | Argentina:13 | Spain:13 | UK:15 | USA:R (certificate #44343) | Taiwan:R-12 | Japan:PG-12 | Germany:16 | Portugal:M/12 | Germany:16 (cut) (theatrical version) | Sweden:15 | Austria:14 | Denmark:15 | South Africa:16LV | Canada:14A | India:A (cinema release) | New Zealand:R16 (DVD re-rating) | Singapore:NC-16 (DVD rating) | Iceland:16

Filming Locations:

100 W 18th St, New York City, New York, USA

Company:

Blinding Edge Pictures

Trivia:

This is the first film by M. Night Shyamalan in which he does not physically appear for a cameo; instead he is the voice of 'Joey', who calls Alma a couple times throughout the movie but we never actually see him or learn of his fate.

Goofs:

Continuity: When the video is shown of a man at the zoo getting mauled, the video is first shown by a women holding a phone. It shows the phone and her fingers, and her fingers are perfectly still. Later, it shows the same women with the phone from a different angle, and she is constantly shaking

Quotes:

[first lines]
Woman Reading on Bench with Hair Pin: I forgot where I am.
Woman Reading on Bench: You're at the place where the killers meet to decide what to do with the crippled girl.

Movie Connections:

Features "Channel 4 News" (1982/I)

Soundtrack:

Jealous Heart

It's not happening

Who keeps giving M. Night Shyamalan money to make these movies? Seriously, what studio executive read this script and thought that making this movie would be a good idea? After the disaster that was Lady in the Water Shyamalan comes back with a movie which unbelievably, almost impossibly, may actually be worse. Lousy acting, laughably bad dialogue and a story which is just downright stupid combine to make one terrible movie.

Anyhow the story here is that starting in New York City and then quickly spreading through the Northeast everyone is suddenly killing themselves. Everyone drops what they're doing, seemingly goes catatonic for a moment and then offs themselves anyway they can. Fling themselves off the top of a building, shoot themselves in the head...whatever. What could possibly make people do this? Obviously it must be some kind of terrorist attack or so everyone thinks. There certainly is something bad in the air and people need to flee. And here we meet our main characters, a Philadelphia high school science teacher and his wife along with his friend and his friend's daughter. They get out of the city, inevitably get stuck in the middle of nowhere, the characters begin to do and say things which make no sense whatsoever and the whole movie falls apart as we watch people try to run away from the wind.

Mark Wahlberg has the central role here and his performance is truly awful. Certainly he isn't helped by the hideous script but it really seems as if Wahlberg can do nothing right. He seems rather emotionless for a guy trying to figure out why everyone's engaging in mass suicide. As his wife, Zooey Deschanel goes through the film with a blank stare on her face. Some of the corpses show more life. Most of the other characters we meet make a bad impression if they make any impression at all. Some truly bizarre people wander in and out of this movie. And all of them are forced to spout dialogue which is so bad it often becomes unintentionally funny. Somebody wrote that? Really? Ha-ha. But as bad as the acting and dialogue are it's the story which is the biggest problem. Once the movie reveals what actually is happening it becomes impossible to take the story seriously. Stupid. So very, very stupid. The premise makes no sense, doesn't work at all, and thus the movie is doomed to failure. I really can't fathom that after reading the script anyone actually encouraged Shyamalan to go ahead and make this movie. The Sixth Sense sure was a long time ago.