It's going to kill Shyamalan's career for good!

Rating: 1/10 (10 June 2008)

I had such high hopes for this one since I like those Stephen King like horror-mystery-sci fi-pieces. Unfortunately Shyamalan hasn't learned from his previous super-flop "Girl in the water" and again delivers us a mildly suspenseful thriller about something attacking people on the US east coast, turning them into suicide candidates all around. Mark Wahlberg plays a teacher in the middle of it all fleeing the town to the countryside in the hope that the evil something has not reached the boonies yet. So far so good, the plot is nothing super impressive but promising enough to entertain genre-fans like me. And the trailer looked promising, too. But Shyamalan still is in preaching mode, something he took up with "Signs". He loads up his picture up with meaningful nonsense dialogue (unfortunately he again wrote the thing as well as directing and producing it). That is something which takes you out of the suspense again and again. And that is NOT good since one realizes the major shocking scenes already were in the trailers... In the second act he not only loads "The Happening" up with more meaningful, clunky dialogue but even more weird, meaningful characters who simple DO NOT work. As the movie goes on and on it becomes more and more ridiculous with sloppy mistakes in simple logic: Everybody is infected and dies, but TV stations and radio keep broadcasting, Wahlberg asks his female companion if she has cellphone service in the middle of it all - surprise! The world is in chaos, or so I thought! No wonder the cells don't work! DAAA! With the third act introducing a granny from hell in some remote farmhouse "The Happening" finally collapses. It's a true shame since we so far could accept it as a b-level horror-thriller with little blood but at least some honest attempts for suspense. But granny doesn't make sense, the way our heroes behave towards her makes even less sense and is totally unbelievable... And by that time one just wants to grab the director by the throat and scream into his face: "Leave me alone with your somewhat strange and condescending philosophy of life and the world! You're the only one who believes in it! Spare your audience!" One last thing about the score by James Newton Howard, a great talent in terms of movie scores. This time he's so over the top with his music it's just annoying. He pumps emotions into every scene maybe because he knew the movie itself couldn't deliver them...it's just unbearable. "The Happening" unfortunately could end Shyamalans career. After this one couldn't blame any studio for rejecting working with him.