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M. Night Shyamalan's film career thus far is as erratic as any working filmmaker in Hollywood today his first three features, The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable and Signs were received to considerable acclaim, whilst his most recent pictures, The Village and The Lady in the Water, received less than stellar responses. As Shyamalan's latest film hits screens, The Happening, which dictates a world in crisis following a global natural disaster, he strives to break the unfortunate rut he seems to have run himself into.

The Happening certainly begins promisingly, as a suicide epidemic begins sweeping northeast America, with droves of humans hurtling themselves from the roofs of buildings, and shooting themselves in the streets. Unfortunately, from the outset, the acting and script are an utter mess, and are responsible for numerous moments of unintentional hilarity throughout, as opposed to genuine terror. Mark Wahlberg has faced scathing criticism for his performance, but it is more Shyamalan's script that fails the actors than anything. Wahlberg is strong-armed into delivering dire lines from start to finish, and is accompanied by a plethora of actors who evidently must be in the film only to complete the final payment on their new house, most of all the horrendously miscast John Leguizamo as a Maths teacher.

The film is at its best for the brief moments in which it leaves the audience (as well as the film's subjects) in a confused frenzy. As the stunned observers attempt to gather their marbles, it is theorised that the suicide en masse is the cause of a terrorist gas attack, whilst news networks attempt to provide scientific explanations for the atrocity occurring. The accompanying slew of violent suicides aids in ratcheting the tension up, although Shyamalan rarely capitalises upon the film's R rating enough to exclaim this tension.

The cut-and-dry explanation for what is happening is revealed a mere 20 minutes into the film, although you would be forgiven for missing it, given that it is followed by a wealth of dialogue-driven scenes which range from idiosyncratic to simply inane. From a man discussing the merit of hot dogs (claiming hot dogs get a bad rap), to Leguizamo's character asking a panicked woman maths questions to calm her down, Shyamalan has evidently lost whatever knack he had for compelling, or even tolerable dialogue.

Shyamalan's film even fails in depicting realistic human behaviour - his characters frequently leave their cars despite the fact that it

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