I LOVED THIS ATMOSPHERIC & EXCITING HORROR THRILLER!!!

Rating: 8/10 (22 December 2019)

I don't understand the silly hate for this film & i NEVER listen the boring critics that never like anything unless it's like that boring piece of crap "Citizen Kane" & i loved M.Night Shyamalan's Creepy Apocalyptic Thriller & it's my favourite of all his movies!!!
I loved Signs & The Sixth Sense & Unbreakable & The Village & Split & i even liked After Earth & The Lady in the Water but i enjoyed his "The Happening" most of all.
Now some of the acting from Mark Whailberg is very corny, silly & goofy but hey this is a fun throwback 50's or 70's style B-movie so it's fine in that regard & Whailberg is fun as science teacher Elliot Moore & really does come accross as that very 50's or 70's style smart scientist lead, i liked his character & his easy going nice guy performance, & what is really great about this fun little Thriller is the simple story that is very old school nature vs us, like the paranoid old school films like "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" & "The Birds" & many other fun B-movie survival films of those times.
"The Happening" is suspenseful & exciting apocalyptic fun & it starts with lots of unexplained suicides & those scenes are very creepy & the amazing beautiful music score by James Newton Howard is hauntingly lovely & affective, this film is full of an atmosphere of dread & fear as our small group of survivors are running from an unseen killer & that's what's really clever is the "Killer" of this sci-fi Horror Thriller is deadly toxins released from plants, trees & grass & those toxins infect humans & then theu kill others & themselves, it's actually a terrifying idea & it's executed perfectly by Shyamalan!!!
"The Happening" is definitely drenched in that 70's paranoia of a collapsing environment like "Soylent Green" & "The Omega Man" i love those movies & The Happening fits in that genre with them, man vs nature & the fears of our destroyed & polluted environment!!!
What are we doing to our world?
It's all here in the tense Atmosphere.
The cast is solid with Elliott Moore's troubled girlfriend "Alma Moore" played by Zooey Deschanel, she comes accross abit weird really & kinda detached but she's ok nothing special here but Elliott's best friend & fellow teacher "Julian" played by the always great John Leguizamo is a great character & an intense & panicking performance by John & another standout & very creepy performance is from Veteran actor Betty Buckley as Mrs. Jones & she's great in her small but very sinister role!!!
All in all "The Happening" is a fun, fast paced & exciting atmospheric paranoid Horror Thriller & one that i can watch over & over again, it's just so entertaining & good fun.