The Happening
Posted by
nightskysf
Posted on: 07/22/08
The Happening
"The Happening"Directed by M. Night Shyamalan
I am personally a big M. Night Shyamalan fan. However, he often makes the mistake of mis advertising his films. He's often made the mistake of advertising something as a horror film, such as "The Village" or "Lady in the Water". Audiences pile into theaters, wanting and expecting a scary movie, and leave disappointed. I personally loved both these films, but as fantasy films, not horror.
In the case of "The Happening", it actually was the scary movie that it was advertised as! This film had the audience nervous and on the edges of their seats the whole way through. I don't scare easily, and I'll admit that I flinched a few times. I definitely appreciate Shyamalan's ability to scare audiences without resorting to a lot of blood and gore.
The concept for the film is great. In short, there's some sort of chemical that's been released into the air in specific areas, and it makes people kill themselves. The great thing about this plot is that the "monster" is something that threatens everyone. No one is safe, no place is safe, and every one is on the same team. I also like that this inhuman villain causes people to be their own worst enemies. Rather than a typical horror movie, in which we're watching characters being chased and slaughtered by a murderer, we're witnessing people being villains to themselves. This movie makes suicide scary in a completely new way.
There were a few disappointing elements, however. For the most part, I was disappointed with the story's lack of movement. I felt like once the conflict and characters were established, the rest of the film was just people running from death. There were no significant twists or surprises, and everything that the characters expected was what happened. There weren't enough close calls, not enough surprises, and I thought that the ending explanation for the whole disaster was a bit weak.
As a whole, I thought the movie was good. However, I do feel like there are pieces missing, and left the theater not feeling completely satisfied. There were things that should have happened that didn't, but ever scene that was in the movie was very good. Definitely worth seeing!
nightskysf
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