by Sarah Huth

Created on: June 17, 2008

As a current film maker, cinema student, and movie enthusiast, I have to say that "The Happening" is nothing more than a visual manifestation of one of my biggest film-related pet peeves; a movie that has unbelievable potential, but utterly fails due to horrible writing. Due to the success of films such as "The Sixth Sense" and "Signs", Shyamalan's name alone draws in audiences seeking suspense and a dramatic twist ending. That, along with the hook that "The Happening" was to be his first R-rated film and the fact that the movie opened on Friday the 13th (oh, what a clever marketing ploy!), it is no surprise that the film drew in crowds on opening night. My boyfriend and I were torn between going to see this or going to see the new animated film, "Kung Fu Panda". We eventually flipped a coin, and our fate was sealed; we were going to see "The Happening".

Now, I'm going to be fair and preface this all by stating that I am a pretty big fan of M. Night Shyamalan's previous work. I thought "The Sixth Sense" was brilliant, enjoyed "Signs", loved "The Village", and even thought that "Lady in the Water" was pretty good, despite the terrible reviews that it received. However, I am not exaggerating when I say that this is probably the worst film that I've seen all year; and I watch a LOT of movies.

The film starts out with an extremely powerful opening scene. Two women are sitting together in a park on a nice, sunny day; everything seems fine and normal. Suddenly, people begin to freeze where they stand. A baby carriage rolls away from its mother, and someone can be heard screaming, "Is that blood?!" One of the women sitting on the bench turns to her friend to make sure she isn't seeing things, only to find that her friend is also frozen. As she tries to get her attention, the friend reaches for one of the chopsticks that is holding her hair into its bun. Much to the horror of the first woman and the audience, she shoves it into her own throat. We then cut to a group of construction workers that look up to find their co-workers throwing themselves off of the building they are working on. Many of these clips were already shown in the trailer, but we were instantly captivated. Things looked promising for the film already.

We cut to a high school, where Elliot (Mark Wahlberg) is teaching a science class about the disappearance of honeybees. He is called out of the room by the principle, who is organizing a special teachers meeting. She informs them that there has been a terrorist

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