Fine fantasy...

Rating: 10/10 (11 July 2008)

The impression I got sitting through THE HAPPENING was akin to the feeling one gets sitting through a good fantasy novel (of the T.M. Wright variety, say, or Stephen King at his very best). The cinematic craftsmanship speaks for itself: it's superb, on all fronts. Like LADY IN THE WATER, THE HAPPENING was (for me) a fully realized fantasy- like a dream, functioning, at times, on an almost subliminal level. It would be interesting, indeed, to see what Shyamalan could do with one of the hundreds of novels or short stories written by the likes of Richard Matheson (I AM LEGEND) or Charles L. Grant (HOUR OF THE OXRUN DEAD) or Charles Beaumont (THE HOWLING MAN) or Harlan Ellison (FLOP SWEAT) or Shirley Jackson (THE SUNDIAL) or H.P. Lovecraft (THE COLOUR OUT OF SPACE) or Robert E. Howard (PIGEONS FROM HELL) or Edgar Alan Poe (THE OBLONG BOX) or Henry Kuttner (THE GRAVEYARD RATS) or... You get my drift. (THE MIST, by Stephen King, was turned into a decent movie, by the way.)