Poorly written, directed and conceived... save your money.

Rating: 1/10 (22 June 2008)

That just about sums it up... I'm fully in favor of a filmmaker taking on multiple roles, because it's often key to how the film is understood by viewers. and M. Night (as we've seen with "Sixth Sense," among others) has had his successes.
but in this case, "The Happening" falls flat on its face on all the merit points, and actually gets me wondering if M. Night has "yes men" around him who aren't giving him accurate feedback about which of his movies should get made. this one, despite a passable performance from Mark Wahlberg, should not have been. it is pedestrian nonsense, from start to finish, and has laughable dialog just to push along a thinly conceived plot.
It's not even worth risking a spoiler because I'm hoping you'll satisfy your curiosity about this film's characters' dark actions (if you must) on DVD... rather than sitting through theater agony.