The Happening

RuailleBuaille

So have you seen it yet? Did it live up to your expectations?
I went last night and I have to say it gave me a deliciously creepy feeling, couldn't shake it for ages. Very subtly done but effective.
For those of you that havn't seen it, you'd laugh if I told you what the 'happening' is, but when you watch it, it's very creepy!
So glad Shymalan (sp?) gave us something worthy this time round.

Neo#

I didnt like it at all. I was laughing through most of it and thought Marky Mark was taking the p**s half the time! Some of the death scenes are excellent but there was something seriously wrong with this film and im surprised by the amount of good reviews its getting here. I was expecting it to get ravaged!

RuailleBuaille

Kind of agree about Mark Wahlberg, he had that plaintive thing going on like when he was the young Dirk Diggler and his GF had the same wide-eyed wonder look on her face all the way through the movie.
Was it the cause of the happening you didn't like? Or were you expecting more gore?
I thought the scariness was very understated which meant it was building throughout.
Two travellers sitting in front of me walked out before the end: 'The Happening is it? Nothing fucking happeneing here!'

Fysh

There's a thread about it in the Film Reviews section here. Most people seem to have thought it was godawful crap, and I'm one of them.

I quite like horror/thrillers where there are some things left unexplained, but this was a terrible example of how to drop the ball on it. Not one of the characters seemed three-dimensional enough to carry a film, and the shocking moments didn't work for the most part either. Except for maybe

the two lads getting shot at the house towards the end

.

This film felt like a perfect example of a film where someone came up with a concept they thought was great, then made up a story and characters in the next five minutes to wrap around it and just left it at that.

CyberGhost

It's one of those movies where you are expecting something to happen but nothing ever happens.

I guess, hence the name.

garytuohy

Film was terrible and it has nothing to do with expecting great things of it.

The film itself was badly presented, no atmosphere, no suspense, bad acting, bad script...bad everything.

i wasn't expecting anything and I got nothing. It was comparable to a straight to TV Stephen King adaptation!!

TerrorFirmer

I thought it was brilliant - it takes skill to turn something so elementary into a perceived convincing and frightening entity. Acting was fine; no oscar winners but definitely not crap, though I will cede there was some hammy dialogue in there, particularly towards the end.

For anyone who's seen it, what's the deal with

the girl at the start and the guy at the very end: are certain people immune to it? That in itself was so horribly terrifying; imagine seeing 100's of people around you simply stop and slowly start to kill themselves!

The more I think about it, the more I loved the film, so intensely creepy.

Fysh

TerrorFirmer wrote: »

I thought it was brilliant - it takes skill to turn something so elementary into a perceived convincing and frightening entity. Acting was fine; no oscar winners but definitely not crap, though I will cede there was some hammy dialogue in there, particularly towards the end.

Sorry, but I just have to disagree here. The script didn't help matters any, but the acting from the leads was TERRIBLE. Yes, entire-word-in-capital-letters terrible. Mark Whalberg's portrayal of a teacher was absolutely rubbish; while he managed to sound just-about-convincing in the "science bits", his interactions with pretty much every other character in the film did nothing to suggest that he was competently able to perform a job that involves keeping a roomful of people under control and interested in whatever he was talking about. Zooey Deschanel's performance was, more than anything, reminiscent of watching that Chris Crocker "Leave Britney alone!" video on youtube with the sound off - all she seemed to do was look like she was about to cry, look like she was about to cry some more, fail utterly to explain why she was about to cry or whether there might be something more to it, cry a bit, stop crying, then look like she was going to cry some more. She made Elijah Wood's rendition of Frodo look like a stoic and manly Nordic deity, fer crying out loud.

TerrorFirmer wrote: »

For anyone who's seen it, what's the deal with

the girl at the start and the guy at the very end: are certain people immune to it? That in itself was so horribly terrifying; imagine seeing 100's of people around you simply stop and slowly start to kill themselves!

Yeah, I'd assume so. Although the stupidity of that entire aspect of the film annoyed me enough to not be able to take it seriously.

Seriously, plants magically start producing something that interacts in a very specific way with the human brain, and the evolutionary jump happens across the board in a few days? Sounds to me like a certain scriptwriter was taking the idea of morphic resonance a bit too seriously...

Aldebaran

I thought it was a ridiculously bad movie, I cringed every time that

the camera cut to an image of a tree blowing in the wind and then a character looking terrified, oooh scary trees!

Jack B. Badd

God awful piece o' tat!

Although Marky Mark's "Oh no...How will I express shock and horror when I only have two facial expressions (scrunchy and super-scrunchy)?" moment in the field was kinda funny.

garytuohy

TerrorFirmer wrote: »

I thought it was brilliant - it takes skill to turn something so elementary into a perceived convincing and frightening entity. Acting was fine; no oscar winners but definitely not crap, though I will cede there was some hammy dialogue in there, particularly towards the end.

For anyone who's seen it, what's the deal with

the girl at the start and the guy at the very end: are certain people immune to it? That in itself was so horribly terrifying; imagine seeing 100's of people around you simply stop and slowly start to kill themselves!

The more I think about it, the more I loved the film, so intensely creepy.

I am not one to challenge someones opinion's but this film pissed me off so much because I invested so much time into it.
if you saw nothing wrong with the acting and you felt there was an intense creepy(nees) in the film...then I really think you need to watch more films..I am not saying this in a bad way at all and I am not having a go at you. I actually think you might enjoy some other films, esp if you thought that was a good film. You will find joy watching something else....

for a good atmosphere, end of world, glimmer of hope type film..Watch Children of Men

The Happening is the biggest load of bollox that has been released in the cinema in a very very long time...it deserves no credit on any level....opinions or not..a microphone coming into shot is a simple thing to cut! a camera man in the mirror just took the biscuit..bloopers and **** acting..doesnt get any worse.

m83

garytuohy wrote: »

......a camera man in the mirror just took the biscuit..bloopers and **** acting..doesnt get any worse.

Wow! I didn't notice that at all, that's insane! Then again I was too busy laughing my head off at the awfulness of this movie - it was genuinely terrible, but entertaining because it was so bad!!

JangoFett

God damn m night..shamamymlanmanlyaman really has dropped the ball, a few really good films and then BAM...he gives us lady in the water, I didn't go see it but a friend did and I got mad while he was expalining it to me, I can't imagine what actually watching it would have been like

ivan087

this is really one of the worst movies i have ever seen in the cinema.

usually i can be at least entertained by most movies out there. there is usually something good you can look at - a good performance, an interesting idea, good camera work, or an interesting twist.

but this movie had nothing - the plot had so many holes in it, the acting was TERRIBLE and it just wasnt creepy.

0/10

the biggest question about the movie is:

where did the wind come from? do plants have control over wind?:mad:

smcgiff

garytuohy wrote: »

a microphone coming into shot is a simple thing to cut!

So, I wasn't seeing things! Oh man, for this to happen in a cinema release film is beyond belief. Everyone involved in this film from producers down to the tea lady should be black balled.:D

garytuohy wrote: »

a camera man in the mirror just took the biscuit

No way! :D:D

humanji

Man, I think I want to see the film now. It sounds like Shamalamadingdong wants to be the next Ed Wood,

garytuohy

smcgiff wrote: »

So, I wasn't seeing things! Oh man, for this to happen in a cinema release film is beyond belief. Everyone involved in this film from producers down to the tea lady should be black balled.:D



No way! :D:D

pretty much after the scene with the fake wine and mic...the camera man pops into the corner of a mirror!!

Paligulus

humanji wrote: »

Man, I think I want to see the film now. It sounds like Shamalamadingdong wants to be the next Ed Wood,

Its funny you you say that. When I was watching this I was convinced that M-Night was trying to make an ironic, big budget B-Movie as a kind of tribute to the type of film Ed Wood might have made, had he the money. If that was the intention, the M-Night is a genius.

Indie18

Paligulus wrote: »

Its funny you you say that. When I was watching this I was convinced that M-Night was trying to make an ironic, big budget B-Movie as a kind of tribute to the type of film Ed Wood might have made, had he the money. If that was the intention, the M-Night is a genius.

don't kid your self m-night shambles has only ever made one good movie sixth sense after that his movies took a major turn for the worse signs, the village, lady in the water need i say more.

johnny_ultimate

Also thought it was dreadful. One thing I need some clarafication on:

Where did those two teenagers come from? They were running with their parents / other group at one point, then they just showed up with the others? What the hell happened? Bad editing, or just 'the event' being inconsistent again?

But overall, one of the weakest films released in some time. Just a very lazy film: the deus ex machina overuse in particular was rather annoying. Got the feeling even M Night didn't know what was going on, making it up as he went. Especially depressing is Zooey Deschancel: usually great in stuff like All the Real Girls, here just embarrasing.

Savman

Ah some of the deaths were kinda freaky :pac:

But watch out, the wind is comin to get ya...THE WIND!:D:D:D

GoldenArmz

SHOCKIN film, and I had such good expectations for it. Laughed at most of the deaths. Laughed even more at the acting (Especially Marky Marks.) The acting was SO cheesey, a few cheap shocks, but other than that, it's up there for me with the worst sh*t of the year so far!

TheWitch06

Oh and i was gonna go see this movie... Might just go see it to laugh at it.

GoldenArmz

Ok I figured it out...

The part where the two kids thay managed to pick up along the way get blown to bits with a shotgun, and then u have Marky mark talking to one of the dead kids! It came off to me as black comedy anyway! Either that or REALLY REALLY bad film making and acting

Sanjuro

Awful, awful film. Unintentionally hillarious, not at all scary and the scene with

the old woman headbutting her way through the house

, had me in stitches. AVOID!

Jack B. Badd

Savman wrote: »

Ah some of the deaths were kinda freaky :pac:

But watch out, the wind is comin to get ya...THE WIND!:D:D:D

Now, now. For all we know M Night Shabadabadu may have been trying to raise awareness of such serious conditions as terminal flatulence

niallon

Honestly, this film worked for me for one reason:

When all is said and done, and we've all freighted over nukes and chemical warfare and invasion, bacteriea and/or global warming is gonna finish us all off in the end. Once I got that into my head it became all the more terrifying. Shyamalan just went, rather than lack of ozone etc killing us off, with Ol Mother Nature getting pissed at the bad treatment and developing some defense mechanisms. Hell, piss off the yanks and what do they come up with? The nuke!

Jack B. Badd

niallon wrote: »

Honestly, this film worked for me for one reason:

When all is said and done, and we've all freighted over nukes and chemical warfare and invasion, bacteriea and/or global warming is gonna finish us all off in the end.

This sentence makes no sense. Where have we all freighted things to?

niallon

Jack B. Badd wrote: »

This sentence makes no sense. Where have we all freighted things to?

Think I may be phrasing that wrong alright, it was late! :

What I mean is that as regards the auld apocalypse, even though such horrendous things as nukes etc would generally be chalked up as most likely to end the world it is my opinion that it's most likely gonna be a natural thing i.e bacteria.

faceman

i havent seen this yet but i will. As much as Shymamamamamamamalyla is hit and miss, his films are best watched on the big screen.

[controversy]I still think Unbreakable is his best piece of work and will be remembered as that as time goes by[/controversy]

Fysh

niallon wrote: »

What I mean is that as regards the auld apocalypse, even though such horrendous things as nukes etc would generally be chalked up as most likely to end the world it is my opinion that it's most likely gonna be a natural thing i.e bacteria.

That's fair enough, but honestly, you'd need to be borderline brain-damaged to get from "changes in our environment may end up damaging or destroying our current human civilisation" to Shabadabadoo's version, which appears to be

"Hey, let's mix a fascist version of Gaia theory with some morphic resonance, then give plants the ability to control wind and develop airborn neurotransmitters specifically designed to make humans kill themselves in seconds! ZOMG I HAS FORESEEN THE END OF THE WORLD! SAVE US CEILINGCAT!"

Honestly, this film could have been decent. If it had been engaging, had acting worth a damn or even just a few decent creepy/tension-building sequences, it could have been forgivable. As it is, it's just crap, and no amount of "Yeah, but maybe he has a point" or "Ah, but it's secretly ironic or post-modern, or a comment on the state of his bellybutton" can make up for the fact that this is a really badly-made, boring film with no substance at the centre of the narrative, nor any stylistic flair to distract you from this.

Tusky

I think in general, people are FAR too hard on Shamalamalams films. You have to completely suspend your disbelief before you watch them or you will sit there picking plot hole after plot hole throughout.

I like them because there is noone out there making films like his. They feel like bed times stories, or stories you would tell around a camp fire...but on the big screen. They are almost like long episodes of the Twilight Zone or The Outer Limits.

The premise of 'The Happening' is silly. Really silly. If you cant suspend your disbelief you definitely wont enjoy it. I really enjoyed it though. There are some terrific scenes and great tension throughout. It has its faults but I feel people are being far too hard on it.

I would give it a solid 3/5

garytuohy

nothing to do with suspended your beliefs....it wasnt the far fetched story that was bad...

it was everything else. read what people are saying..the acting, script, screenplay all terrible..

you have to have an imagination to watch any film but what can you do if the acting is ****

GoldenArmz

Ya, you can forgive a silly premise to an extent if the film is technically any good. (The Ring and The Grudge come to mind but acting and direction made them work) The happening was SO bad it was laughable. See the reaction of

the foreman when the builders started falling off the roof?

Come ON! And I think Shalalala expected the

jeep driving into the tree

to scare the sh1t out of us but I actually laughed out loud! I'm a fan of Wahlberg but his performance was laughable, as is the case with the rest of the cast! :pac:

Jack B. Badd

Tusky wrote: »

The premise of 'The Happening' is silly. Really silly. If you cant suspend your disbelief you definitely wont enjoy it. I really enjoyed it though. There are some terrific scenes and great tension throughout. It has its faults but I feel people are being far too hard on it.

I can suspend my disbelief and was well prepared to when watching this and I still didn't enjoy it. It's isn't because the storyline is sooooo unbelievable, it's because it's virtually non-existent. It's just a reasonably interesting premise but that premise alone won't carry you 10 minutes, let alone an hour and 20, without an engaging story. The film can be summed up in one line because, ironically, sod all happens in it. As for tension, like the storyline, it's absent. And it's a shame because if someone had put some effort into this it probably could have been a reasonable film.

Demonique

A few scenes were cut for the UK and Ireland release, apparently by the production company because in the UK the censors passed the movie uncut. I suppose they want to make more $$$$$ from DVD purchases by enticing people with deleted/extended scenes.

One of the cut scenes was the scene in the zoo

Oh, and I see dead people...and microphones

smcgiff

Demonique wrote: »

One of the cut scenes was the scene in the zoo

A good scene, but by god not worth paying extra to watch this movie again.

Re deleted scenes - In the trailer did we see

people spontaneously dropping dead, whereas in the movie proper they had to actively kill themselves.

Was that in the trailer or did I dream it up?

Jack B. Badd

smcgiff wrote: »

Re deleted scenes - In the trailer did we see

people spontaneously dropping dead, whereas in the movie proper they had to actively kill themselves.

Was that in the trailer or did I dream it up?

Nope, I'm pretty sure I saw that too but most trailers nowadays seem to sell a completely different film than the one you go to see...

smcgiff

Jack B. Badd wrote: »

Nope, I'm pretty sure I saw that too but most trailers nowadays seem to sell a completely different film than the one you go to see...

Yeah - bit of a trend alright. Piss poor tbh!

irishthump

Terrible, absolutely terrible. Right now, it's wrestling with Indiana Jones for the title of Worst Movie of 2008.

And do you know what really bugged me, it's a small thing but...

Why were the two old ladies sitting at home watching TV the only ones to think of putting on a F*CKING GAS MASK!!! Even the goddam soldiers did'nt have the sense to wear them, and they KNEW the fu*king thing was airborne!

Oh, and while we're at it -

Why did the soldiers kill themselves on the barbed wire, would'nt a gun have been a lot handier?

Ardent

All you folks who are saying this is a good film - are you having a laugh?! Worst film to hit the big screen since, dare I say it, Lady In The Water.

Last film I'll watch that's written/produced/directed by MNS too. Really annoyed because this looked potentially good from the trailers on TV. It's weird - did no-one else working on this film have a word with the director to let him now how bad this was unfolding? Two turkeys in a row now, surely he has used up all his credit in Hollywood?

It's an awful reflection on a movie when, with half an hour left, you don't care anymore and just want it to end. I felt sorry for Mark Wahlberg - he was really good in The Departed but was exposed horribly here with the god-awful story and production.

Those thinking of going to see this out of morbid curiosity - save your money.

1/10 (1 is for the reactions of the foreman on the building site at the start of the movie - the only decent piece of acting in the whole thing).

paularklow

worst film iv seen in months !

Vic Vinegar

This film was tripe really!

This line was so random...

We're packing hot dogs for the road. You know, hot dogs get a bad rep. They gotta cool shape, they got protein.

WTF?!?!

And right at the end.....

The event must've ended before we went out today.

Grrrrrrrr......

Seriously, what the f**k was he thinking!

glenroe2006

I actually liked, not loved this film. This may be because I'm generally a fan of M. Night's stuff (although I steered clear of The Lady in the Water). I did however cringe quite a bit when the wind blew through the trees and was slightly baffled at how Mark Wahlberg, normally quite a capable actor, sounded so hammy.

Phuckmii

Terrible, terrible film :mad: