The Happening (2008)

User Rating:

5.2/10   

Director:

M. Night Shyamalan

Writer (WGA):

M. Night Shyamalan (written by)

Release Date:

13 June 2008 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Horror | Mystery | Sci-Fi | Thriller

Tagline:

We've Sensed It. We've Seen The Signs. Now... It's Happening.

Plot:

A strange, horrible and unprecedented crisis begins in Central Park. A high school science teacher, his wife and a young girl do what they can to survive it.

Plot Keywords:

Park | Teacher | Crisis | Young Girl | Disappearance

Awards:

1 win & 4 nominations

Cast

Mark Wahlberg	...	Elliot Moore
Zooey Deschanel	...	Alma Moore
John Leguizamo	...	Julian
Ashlyn Sanchez	...	Jess
Betty Buckley	...	Mrs. Jones
Spencer Breslin	...	Josh
Robert Bailey Jr.	...	Jared
Frank Collison	...	Nursery Owner
Jeremy Strong	...	Pvt. Auster - MP
Alan Ruck	...	Principal
Victoria Clark	...	Nursery Owner's Wife
M. Night Shyamalan	...	Joey (voice)
Alison Folland	...	Claire - Woman Reading on Bench with Hair Pin
Kristen Connolly	...	Woman Reading on Bench
Cornell Womack	...	Construction Foreman

Also Known As:

Green Planet (USA) (working title)
The Green Effect (USA) (working title)

MPAA:

Rated R for violent and disturbing images.

Runtime:

91 min

Country:

USA | India

Language:

English | French

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

SDDS | Dolby Digital | DTS

Certification:

South Korea:18 | Finland:K-15 | Ireland:15A | Norway:15 | Hong Kong:IIB | Singapore:PG | Australia:MA | New Zealand:R13 | Philippines:R-13 (MTRCB) | Brazil:16 | Italy:VM14 | Switzerland:14 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:14 (canton of Vaud) | Argentina:13 | Spain:13 | UK:15 | USA:R (certificate #44343) | Taiwan:R-12 | Japan:PG-12 | Germany:16 | Portugal:M/12 | Germany:16 (cut) (theatrical version) | Sweden:15 | Austria:14 | Denmark:15 | South Africa:16LV | Canada:14A | India:A (cinema release) | New Zealand:R16 (DVD re-rating) | Singapore:NC-16 (DVD rating) | Spain:15 (DVD rating) | Iceland:16

Filming Locations:

100 W 18th St, New York City, New York, USA

Company:

Blinding Edge Pictures

Trivia:

7 out of 9 named characters starts with "J".

Goofs:

Errors in geography: In Philadelphia, the characters board a train to Harrisburg, which is in south central Pennsylvania. It stops in Filbert soon after. Filbert is south of Pittsburgh, far west of Harrisburg.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Woman Reading on Bench with Hair Pin: I forgot where I am.
Woman Reading on Bench: You're at the place where the killers meet to decide what to do with the crippled girl.

Movie Connections:

Features Halo 3 (2007) (VG)

Soundtrack:

Black Water

Nature Reaction

When people start to kill themselves in the Central Park and then three blocks from the original location, the government announces a terrorist attack and evacuates New York. In Philadelphia, the high school teacher Elliot Moore (Mark Wahlberg), his wife Alma (Zooey Deschanel), his colleague and best friend Julian (John Leguizamo) and his daughter Jess (Ashlyn Sanchez) embark in a train to Harrisburg, but the service is disconnected in Filbert, still in Philadelphia. Sooner they see on the news that the government denies a terrorist attack, and that the affected area has spread out to Rittenhouse Square Park in Philadelphia and then to the Northeast of the United States of America, from Philadelphia to Boston. Julian decides to take a lift to Princeton to seek out his wife Yvette and leaves Jess under the care of Elliot and Alma. The trio moves to a lonely area in the Arundel County where they meet the lonely and weird Mrs. Jones (Betty Buckley), who lodges them. But sooner the nature reaches them…

I had good expectation with "The Happening", but unfortunately it is another mediocre work of the overrated director M. Night Shyamalan that became famous with "The Sixth Sense", a good movie that uses the twist of "Haunted" (1995) in a great screenplay. "The Happening" has an intriguing beginning à la "Night of Living Dead", i.e., something is happening to the population of the East Coast of the USA forcing them to kill themselves, and the media is only speculating what might have happened. Therefore, the suicides in this movie are very similar to the zombies in George A. Romero's classic – the menace does exist but nobody knows why. The development is reasonable, in spite of the absolute lack of chemistry between the miscast Mark Wahlberg and the gorgeous Zooey Deschanel. However the conclusion is simply awful and of course disappointing. As mentioned in the title of the review below, "Shyamalan needs to stop!" or at least to rethink his career. My vote is five.

Title (Brazil): "Fim dos Tempos" ("End of the Time")