A Different Kind of B

Rating: 7/10 (7 July 2008)

"The Happening" is a very hard movie to review. But I'll try.
The first thing to be said is that M.Night made something really different. It's a disaster movie in which the disaster is quiet, intelligent and vengeful. It's a movie in which events all happen outside, as opposed to the likes of "The Mist" and specially "Lady In The Water". It's not like "War of The Worlds", despite some similarities. And it's not really a horror, but many horrific events take place - some more shocking than the most gory horrors out there, but it's all done in a way to - dare I say it? - detach the viewer from the experience.
Yes, that is it. There is no backstory to the characters we follow, and a good deal of mystery. However, would you really care about these silly things if your life was on the line?
Haters say that the acting is bad. I respectfully disagree. There are many little details in this movie, and the main characters' odd and childlike behavior is just one of them. The weird scene cuts, the exaggerated and unexpected gore, even the improbable enemy. Shyamalan himself said that this was supposed to be a "good B-movie", and if that was his intention, he did it.
As an Entheogen Enthusiast, I loved the main concept. I would suggest to anyone who liked this movie to visit Lycaeum and Erowid on the web and learn more about our fauna.
I think "The Happening"'s real flaw is its very uniqueness. It can't be easily defined in a genre, because M. Night once more decided to play with the very way movies are shown. The ending, however, was great, and thank God, not really a "twist".
All in all, a good film, a relevant subject, and a step in the right direction for M. Night.
7/10