"The Happening"- This is a great unintentional-comedy in the vein of Ed Wood, "Troll 2" and "The Room", but it fails as a serious film

Rating: 5/10 (6 March 2012)

Whatever happened to M. Night Shyamalan? His first break-out hit, "The Sixth Sense", redefined the horror genre for its time, and it still holds up as one of the finest ghost stories to hit the screen arguably of all time. His next two films, the surreal and low-beat superhero fantasy "Unbreakable", and his emotional and contained alien-invasion neo-classic "Signs" were further examples of a brilliant director and a first-class writer. These three films remain, in my mind, modern classics, and I continue to watch them from time to time.
However, starting with his fourth film ("The Village"), each film he has made after has gotten progressively more convoluted, more messy and more pretentious. This all lead to his 2008 release, a nature-based 'thriller' entitled "The Happening." The film where M. Night's subtle visions and Hitchcock like twists and turns degenerate into a series of goofy jokes revolving around Mark Wahlberg making a fool of himself, and scenes where characters have to hold their breath to avoid breathing in poison wind that will make them go crazy and kill themselves. Uh huh. Sure.
Yes, unfortunately Shyamalan falls victim to the pretentious "save the rain-forest" genre, with a lame eco-based horror story about plants releasing a deadly toxin that drives people mad and makes them kill themselves, in order to lash back at people for hurting the Earth too much.
Wahlberg plays Elliot Moore, a teacher in New York City, whom has been having relationship trouble with his girlfriend. (Played by Zooey Deschanel, who I must say, has the most gorgeous eyes I have ever seen. But I digress) Moore is a sort-of optimist, goofy (even borderline "imbecile"), nice guy who you will both love and hate at the same time. He's borderline stupid, which makes him a lot of fun to watch, as he is constantly in over his head. Wahlberg is either giving his best performance ever, or his worst, depending on your take. John Leguizamo plays a supporting character as Elliot's friend, whom actually gives the films best performance in my mind. Whereas Wahlberg is extremely goofy (he reminded me of a Muppet, to be perfectly honest) and Deschanel is under-used, Leguizamo plays his role seriously and with a lot of heart.
After people inexplicably start to murder themselves in heinous ways all around the city (from leaping off of buildings, to stabbing themselves in the neck with needles, this film does have quite a bit of blood), Moore and the rest of the school is sent home, as city officials fear the suicides are being caused by a terrorist chemical weapon that turns off the brain's natural survival instinct. Moore and his friends try to flee the city, but are stranded in the middle of nowhere with a group of survivors, and must fend for themselves when they realize that plants are the most likely candidate for what is causing these events.
From there on, the film is a bizarre cat-and-mouse game where Elliot, his girlfriend and a few other survivors try to figure out a way to survive nature, which is hell-bent on killing them. There is more than one hilariously over-the-top scene where they must outrun the wind (which is laced with the plant-made poison), and there are plenty of gory deaths to satisfy gore hounds.
This film had a good intention- to be a creepy fun movie that also taught a lesson about respecting the planet, but M. Night seems in over his head, accidentally transforming the film into what feels like a parody and satire of his earlier films. I'm convinced, if M. Night had marketed this movie as a comedy parody of his own films, it would have been hailed as genius, because it honestly feels like he's making fun of himself. All of his trademarks- from his style of camera-work, to his odd and awkward dialog, to his silly jokes, to his trademark twists and turns, and his great use of eerie music they are all here, but they're just so goody and over-the-top, and none of it works. This is a hilarious film, for all of the wrong reasons- it's funny because its so incompetent and at times poorly written and made. I haven't even mentioned the "hot-dog guy", the "lemon drink" lady or the "cheese and crackers" soldier, but they are so insanely written and ridiculously directed, they will leave you howling with laughter.
Thankfully, this movie is not a total loss. It's blatant "bad-ness" has turned it into a prime example of a "so-bad, it's good" film for its unintentional camp factor. And as an unintentional comedy in the same vein as "Plan 9 from Outer Space" or "The Room", this works very well. I'm giving this a 5 out of 10 for it's unintentional camp factor. See it, laugh, and forget it.