The Happening

Our Ten Second Review

Happening: 1/10. Shyamalan’s decent into the abyss hits all time low with this abysmal eco-horror. Embarrassing on all fronts. Worst film of 2008.






Our 90 Second Review

M. Night Shyamalan has somehow managed to trump the atrociousness of Lady in the Water with a horror so empty of ideas and lacking in any coherence it’s farcical.

Once hailed as possibly the next Hitchcock, finally it is being uncovered that Shyamalan has run out of ideas and maybe he didn’t have many to begin with.

Originally this was tilted The Green Effect, a bad film name I agree, but nowhere near as dreadful as The Happening, one of the worst film titles I can think of, especially when you consider nothing actually happens.

His latest horror offering is about people who inexplicably commit suicide across the East coast of America. Originally thought to be a terrorist virus attack, the true cause of the disaster unfolds as we have to suffer scenes of people trying to escape the ‘virus’ with even scenes of running away from the wind.

Mark Walberg’s performance is possibly the most baffling thing of all. An actor who has been on fine form with cracking performances in films such as The Departed (see clip) and Invincible (see clip) manages to deliver an embarrassing display where it appears he is living in a dream world for the whole film. Although maybe he needed to be in dreamland to get through the awful, shallow script that should never have made its way to a major Hollywood Production.

A film brimming with illogical science, crater-size plot holes, universally bad acting, zero tension and laughable chase scenes, this might just be a contender for the worst film ever made, let alone worst film of 2008. Oh and I have a theory of why everyone decides to kill themselves: They’d just been told they have to sit through The Happening again.

Shyamalan’s next venture is a live action adaptation of Avatar: The Last Airbender, an animated series and surely this change of direction from horror can only be a good thing.

Overall: 1/10. Proof that Shyamalan has fallen from grace since the days of Sixth Sense by delivering the most bewildering, nonsensical shockingly terrible film of the year.