Time: 90 Minutes
Age Rating: R13 – Contains violence & horror scenes
Cast:
Mark Wahlberg as Elliot Moore
Zooey Deschanel as Alma Moore
John Leguizamo as Julian
Betty Buckley as Mrs. Jones
Director: M. Night Shyamalan

I have been revisiting a number of M. Night Shyamalan movies, and I was curious about going back to The Happening. I really didn’t consider it a good film when I first watched it, even if I got a lot of enjoyment out of it. Still, I wanted to watch it again; people have been re-evaluating Shyamalan’s past maligned work, including The Happening. I still consider it one of his worst films, and I don’t think it entirely works. That said, I still enjoyed it, and I think that it’s better than when I first watched it.

I think that The Happening had potential with its concept. It’s essentially a post 9/11 horror thriller about people reacting to a nationwide crisis, which takes the form of plants emitting toxins that make people kill themselves. It had the potential to be thematically and conceptually one of Shyamalan’s darkest films, the way that death is seemingly inescapable and surrounding you, no one knows what’s going on, and how it feels like Earth is actively trying to kill humanity. However, that isn’t what audiences usually get out of it; the takeaway is more about how strange and funny it is, and it isn’t difficult to see why. There have been plenty of debates as to whether The Happening is intentionally goofy and silly, and having rewatched it, I do think that at least most of it is intentional. When you look at the concept and execution of certain scenes, like Mark Wahlberg cautiously reassuring a plant that he’s only going to use the bathroom (only to realise that it’s plastic), or when a random character talks about how great hot dogs are, it’s hard to see them as being accidentally funny. Even some of the deadpan and awkward line deliveries from the actors seem largely on purpose.

Watching The Happening again, I was reminded of one of Shyamalan’s more recent movies, Old, which I personally liked despite the mixed reactions. Old had a lot of silliness and campiness, while being gnarly, tense, and having genuine emotion and sadness to it. I think Shyamalan was taking a similar approach to The Happening: a mix of off-kilter campiness and thrills (and a mashup of genres, which he’s done before). I’ve also seen the argument that he was aiming for a satire of disaster B-movies from the 1950s, and I can see that as a possibility too. There’s a world in which this tone is pulled off, and unfortunately I don’t think he did that with The Happening. The problem is that the film doesn’t really land the dramatic, thriller or horror aspects. As amusing as the movie is, the satirical aspects are kind of lost due to the confused tone. Despite The Happening’s best attempts, none of the thrills or moments of tension hit, so it doesn’t succeed as a horror film. The big death scenes are definitely trying to be shocking to the audience, but come across as unintentionally amusing more than anything. Perhaps the idea of a guy letting a lawn mower ride over him or letting CGI lions tear off his limbs might sound disturbing on paper, but The Happening finds a way to make those scenes anything but. There were a few moments of genuine emotion, which indicate that Shyamalan was trying to make this story somewhat impactful, but it was virtually impossible to be engaged with its characters so they don’t really land.

Mark Wahlberg’s performance is one of the highlights of the film, but it’s really at the expense of him and the movie. He is so odd and awkward, from his line deliveries to his reactions, so he is hilarious and entertaining to watch. At the same time, you can’t help but feel that he was miscast in the part, as it’s incredibly difficult to take him seriously here. Zooey Deschanel is equally strange here, her performance is so unnatural and alien-like that I’m unsure what direction she was given. Like with Wahlberg, her acting can lead to some funny moments. However, both performances really don’t do the movie any favours when it comes to the tonal confusion, they’re so out of place and render most intended serious and dramatic moments into being silly. It doesn’t help that they don’t share any kind of chemistry, and they aren’t engaging enough as characters, making it hard to care about their storyline here. While the rest of the cast also have to work with awkward material, I think they fared a little better than the leads, with a supporting cast which includes John Leguizamo, Betty Buckley, Ashlyn Sanchez, and even Jeremy Strong in a small role here.

M. Night Shyamalan’s direction is a bit of a mixed bag. It is largely well shot, but fails to generate any kind of atmosphere or tension. There are plenty of shots of trees blowing in the wind, which are meant to instil fear of the main characters being affected by the suicidal toxins next, but don’t really succeed at all. This is also Shyamalan’s first R rated film and he definitely puts that on display, largely through sequences of affected people committing suicide. These scenes should be disturbing or unnerving, but something about the bluntness of these moments just make them difficult to take seriously. Some of the earlier scenes, such as one shot in which bodies are falling from a high building, are effective enough. But for the most part, they don’t have nearly the effect that Shyamalan was going for. One aspect I can confidently praise is James Newton Howard’s score, which is reliably solid as always.

The Happening doesn’t succeed at being a suspenseful horror thriller, but it is entertaining as a B-movie, with awkward and hilarious (intentional or not) performances and writing. It’s difficult to determine whether you’d like it on any level, but I do think it is worth checking out at the very least.