Movie Review - The Happening

Love them or hate them, M. Night Shymalan movies always manage to generate strong reactions from critics and audiences, which is one of the reasons I look forward to them in a world of cookie cutter horror films and action hero stories. I can honestly say I've never met a Shymalan movie I didn't like in one way or another (yes, I even enjoyed parts of "Lady in the Water"). His latest, "The Happening" is no exception. In fact, this one deserves a place among the best of his movies with its disturbing mix of fear, paranoia and good old fashioned scariness as the northeastern portion of the United States suddenly experiences a terrifying, mysterious phenomenon in which people become disoriented and then commit suicide with whatever happens to be at hand. At first it's assumed that terrorist attacks are responsible for the rapidly mounting death toll as incidents begin popping up in Manhattan, Philadelphia, Princeton and then smaller and smaller towns throughout the area. Gradually it becomes clear that some sort of natural phenomenon is responsible for the devastation. The opening scene in Central Park is a zinger, setting us up nicely for some serious fright as it's quickly followed by a very disturbing incident where construction workers begin walking off the top of a building and crashing to the ground.

Mark Wahlberg stars as an appealing every man, a science teacher namd Elliot, who leaves Philadelphia with his wife Alma (Zooey Deschanel), friend Julian (John Leguizamo) and Julian's daughter Jess (Ashlyn Sanchez) as hundreds flee the city in a blind panic after hearing about the rapid spread of the phenomenon. As usual, one of Shymalan's slyest and most effective weapons is his ability to make his characters human beings with whom the audience can become involved. Elliot and Alma are a somewhat bickering couple whose marriage is shaky. One of the people who gives the group a ride after their train leaves them in the middle of nowhere (Filbert, Pennsylvania) is a nursery owner (Frank Collison) who goes on at length about his choice of hot dogs as the perfect road trip food. Betty Buckley makes a very scary appearance as a woman whose isolated farmhouse becomes a brief haven for Elliot, Alma and Jess. There's plenty of good, dark humor throughout the movie, and we need it to balance out the increasingly grim reality the story dishes out. The musical score is also used to great effect, although there were a couple of times when it was a bit overdone for my taste. It's difficult to go into much detail without giving away plot points, but suffice it to say that Shymalan is back on his game in a big way. Like the best horror movies, "The Happening" leaves us with plenty to think about and one more scare up its sleeve.

Things to love about this movie: Shymalan has managed to recreate that group paranoia feeling that Hitchcock used so well in "The Birds"; the ecological message of the film is awesome; Mark Wahlberg gives the typical "leading man" role some extra fun, as does Zooey Deschanel as "the wife"
Things to hate about this movie: Without revealing too much, an annoying event involving the couple (Elliot and Alma)
Pleasant surprises: The ending I wanted to see (though maybe not a big surprise or plot twist, it had a nice punch just the same)
Unpleasant surprises: The always great John Leguizamo could have used more screen time