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Movie Overview
Cast
• Mark Wahlberg
• Zooey Deschanel
• John Leguizamo
Director
• M. Night Shyamalan
MPAA Rating
R - for violent and disturbing images
The Happening (2008)

REVIEWS
NEWS
INTERVIEWS
OTHER
OFCS Rating: 30% Rotten
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"'The Happening' may not be M. Night Shyamalan's best movie, but it's his most provocative one."  ReelTalk Movie Reviews  Betty Jo Tucker

1/5
"one of the worst attempts at end-of-the-world ominousness since the Robot Holocaust battled the Ninja Apocalypse"  Filmcritic.com  Bill Gibron

1.5/5
"While not as laughable as the narcissistic Lady in the Water ,it fails just as miserably as narrative and even more miserably with its flat characters and tone deaf dialogue."  CinemaBlend.com  Brian Holcomb

C
"Happening promises a change of pace, but the magic only lasts for a few moments, then it's all open acre isolation, media blackouts, and mysterious threats with extended, mouth-agape pauses."  BrianOrndorf.com  Brian Orndorf

D
"One-hit-wonder M. Night Shyamalan further galvanizes the nickname given him by his detractors ("Shyamalama-ding-dong") with yet another pretentious movie."  ColeSmithey.com  Cole Smithey

2/5
"'The Happening' works in early spurts, but apparently Shyamalan ran out of ideas once he came up with his uniquely insidious killer."  eFilmCritic.com  Dan Lybarger

2.5/4
"Undoubtedly M. Night Shyamalan's weakest thriller to date..."  Reel Film Reviews  David Nusair

C
"Might be perceived by some as all peaches and cream for entertainment value even if everything else about it is not happening."  Ozus' World Movie Reviews  Dennis Schwartz

2/4
"Were the first 45 minutes of The Happening not as rattlingly effective as they are, one could chalk the film up as mediocre. There is such untapped potential, though, that the dishonest places Shyamalan chooses to take his audience are maddening."  TheMovieBoy.com  Dustin Putman

1/5
"Un nuevo fiasco de M. Night Shyamalan, que sigue siendo un director con ideas interesantes (tanto argumentales como visuales) pero que necesita urgentemente la ayuda de un buen guionista."  Uruguay Total  Enrique Buchichio

D
"There's never an ounce of suspense, mystery, or surprise."  EricDSnider.com  Eric D. Snider

0/4
"The greatest excuse yet to get that anti-M. Night petition started. The last thing we want is a future of Shyamalan films with the knowledge that we all could have done something sooner."  eFilmCritic.com  Erik Childress

4/4
"Works as an effective and brutally horrifying antithesis to the usual explosive summer fare..."  Cinema Crazed  Felix Vasquez Jr.

C+
"A comeback for the director, but not quite enough of one...an almost equal combination of genuine creepiness and absolute foolishness."  One Guy's Opinion  Frank Swietek

4/5
"An impressive thriller which acknowledges the mystery that lies behind the marvels and the terrors of the natural world."  Spirituality and Practice  Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat

B+
"Wrapping global warming (and more!) anxieties in 1950's B-movie atmosphere, The Happening is simultaneously the most serious and most fun piece of post-Inconvenient Truth filmmaking that America has yet produced."  Cinepinion  Henry Stewart

1.5/4
"We don't care. It doesn't matter if they live or die, if there's a happy ending, or some kind of twist. The Happening is a movie to walk out of, sleep through, or -- best of all -- not to bother with."  ReelViews  James Berardinelli

"Shhht. Don't say it out loud, but we actually kinda liked M. Night Shyamalan's latest movie . . ."  Sci-Fi Movie Page  James O'Ehley

3/5
"Shyamalan crafts a somewhat chilling cautionary tale; it just might have been more chilling if he had been a little less cautious."  Cinematical  James Rocchi

3/10
"More than anything, what bothers me about it is a sense of cheapness that ... centrally comes from a concept mainly built for shock value."  Window to the Movies  Jeffrey Chen

2/4
"Writer-director M. Night Shyamalan's eco-thriller starts with a clever premise and degenerates into spooky atmospherics, portentous pacing and stiff dialogue."  Big Picture Big Sound  Joe Lozito

1/5
"mia ap' tis pio akompses, proheires kai hontrokommenes doyleies poy mporeis na petyheis se aithoysa"  Movies for the Masses  Joseph Proimakis

2/5
"Shyamalan is a master at a visual iconic moment - but the "filler" (you might have learned about it in English class by this name: "story") gets weaker and weaker every film."  Cinerina  Karina Montgomery

"The Happening suggests [Shyamalan's] (con) artist's touch is waning a bit."  UGO  Keith Uhlich

0.5/4.0
"... M. Night desperately needs to find that special someone whose opinion he'll listen to when they say,'No! BAD writer-producer-director! NOT a good idea!'"  MovieCrypt.com  Kevin A. Ranson

B+
"just damned creepy"  Film School Rejects  Kevin Carr

3/4
"Minor Shyamalan, but still well worth seeing."  Montreal Film Journal  Kevin N. Laforest

B-
"The suicides are mostly very originally staged and creepy as hell...Mark Wahlberg is OK, but a scene where he 'forgives' his wife's indiscretion is just plain weird, as is Zooey Deschanel throughout."  Reeling Reviews  Laura Clifford

1.5/4
"Both silly and preachy."  TV Guide's Movie Guide  Maitland McDonagh

"Maybe Shyamalan didn't mean for The Happening to be exciting and dramatic: perhaps the writer-director intended the film to be an exercise in sucking all the life and emotion out of fictional characters."  Flick Filosopher  MaryAnn Johanson

3/4
"While there are certainly ideas behind it, the film lacks the bloated self-importance that plagued the director's last two efforts. This time, Shyamalan seems content merely to entertain us, and that's enough."  Aisle Seat  Mike McGranaghan

B-
"M. Night Shyamalan is one of the most talented film-makers working today. But he seems to be running out of ideas."  Beliefnet  Nell Minow

1.5/4
"Shyamalan is far better at setup than payoff, and the Sixth Sense director's latest once and for all cements that reputation."  Slant Magazine  Nick Schager

1/5
"Só podemos deduzir que o próximo projeto de Shyamalan será melhor do que este Fim dos Tempos porque sabemos que ele (ou qualquer outro cineasta) dificilmente seria capaz de fazer algo pior."  Cinema em Cena  Pablo Villaca

1/5
"The actors try and fail to look terrified at things that simply aren't that terrifying to look at, unless you are one of those people who considers "Days of Heaven" to be a relentless excursion in gut-wrenching horror."  eFilmCritic.com  Peter Sobczynski

2/5
"Shyamalan creates another urban myth with this slow burning thriller. But it never quite comes to life, due to stiff directing and acting"  Shadows on the Wall  Rich Cline

"Only half good cinema, seemingly the result of its maker's stunted belief/determination in both himself and his audience."  House Next Door  Rob Humanick

D+
"Another case of elegant filmmaking kneecapped by a thunderingly stupid concept."  Flipside Movie Emporium  Rob Vaux

C+
"The film does manage to build some tension, since the survival of the group remains in question right up to the end."  Laramie Movie Scope  Robert Roten

2/5
"Where the hell is Act III?"  FEARnet  Scott Weinberg

"In his latest ominous opus, M. Night Shyamalan offers up low-intensity thrills that fail to match the shivery shudders of his best work (THE SIXTH SENSE, SIGNS). His patented approach - mixing domestic drama with horror - plays out on a much larger canvas"  ESplatter  Steve Biodrowski

3/10
"A creepy cautionary eco-thriller than neither cautions nor thrills. Instead of being full of dread, it's just dreadful."  SSG Syndicate  Susan Granger

2/10
"Other than its ripe possibility for mockery, I cannot think of anything that makes the film really worthwhile."  Antagony & Ecstasy  Tim Brayton

2/4
"Shyamalan's essentially made a sociopathic movie."  Film Freak Central  Walter Chaw
OFCS Rating: 30% Rotten
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