THE HAPPENING review

The Happening is M. Night's worst movie.

The Happening is the worst movie I've seen this year.

The Happening is the worst movie I've seen in two years.

I had to back to 2005 to find a worse movie: Cursed.

SPOILERS FROM HERE ON OUT














Plants are releasing toxins into the atmosphere that cause humans to commit suicide. It's a full blown assault from nature since the plants and the wind are in cahoots. You know you're about to be poisoned because there's a gust of wind before it happens. There are things you can do to prevent from being poisoned. In one scene the 'toxin-filled wind' blows over our players and they're fine bc they do something specific. Then, in the cheapest ever way to produce tension, the thing they do to keep from being toxified doesn't work anymore--no explanation why it did and now doesn't is deemed necessary. Characters make decisions that no human ever would in order to simply propel the story. For no reason, The plants suddenly stop releasing their toxins. Movie over. Insert predictable 'It's happening again' 'twist'. Credits.

The acting is horrible. The screenplay is hilariously bad. M.'s new card for this film is the 'R-rated let's see some gruesome suicides', but the context within which we view them (someone running, freezing midstep, staring blankly, slowly walking to the gun to shoot themselves, or slowly jabbing the knitting needle into their throat, or slowly turning your car wheel into path of a tree, etc) is executed so poorly that you can't help but chuckle into your popcorn.

If Lady in the Water was M.'s career getting into the coffin, The Happening is the first nail.