The Happening

Rating: 6/10 (6 January 2019)

Netflix produced movies always seem to have a touch of not quiet being the final product about them. A star vehicle of a slightly over the hill star with a third rate script, an expensive bomb sold to Netflix or something low key that might had done well in the independent film circuit.
Bird Box has provided them with hype and an Oscar winning star in Sandra Bullock.
Malorie (Sandra Bullock) is a pregnant woman in a society that has fallen apart as people inexplicably commit suicide.
It seems something the victims see causes them to harm themselves.
Malorie hooks up with other survivors and shut themselves off from the world.
The film goes forward and back in time. In the future, Malorie and two young children, all blindfolded try to find a safe haven. They have a bird box as birds chirp when an alien danger is nearby.
You get a sense that in this society that the blind man is king. Like the film A Quiet Place, you sense there is an alien presence. Instead of not making a noise, you need to avoid seeing them.
The initial scenes are shocking, horrifying and mesmerising. Then it has all the tropes of a zombie movie as the survivors are holed up and one of the character's is played by John Malkovich and he dislikes everyone.
The bits with Malorie and the blindfolded kids did not work for me, it takes a serious leap of logic as to how they got to the river and go whitewater rafting while blindfolded. It is hairraising to do the rapids while you have your eyes open.
'If you look, you will die' Mallory sternly tells the two children. It reminded me of David Tennant's tenth Doctor telling people not to blink.
Elements of the film is clunky, silly, it does not always add up. Why do some people see the monsters and not top themselves? Instead force others to open their eyes. Surely not all of them can be insane. Madness in people have different layers, here they become the alien entity fan club.
Susanne Bier showed she is an interesting and effective director in the BBC television series, The Night Manager. Here she does well with a script that is rather cumbrous and derivative of similar themed films.