THE HAPPENING
SORRY NOT NOWADAYS Mr. SHAYAMALAN
by Vishal Verma

Rating:

What a tragedy. It's hard to discuss. The man Shyamalan (The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, Signs), who knew how to create an atmosphere of fear, but here he commits hara-kiri. A cinematic suicide. Ever since his audacious debut with The Sixth Sense, we have come to expect the unexpected from M. Night Shyamalan.

The big surprise in his latest feature, The Happening, is . . . there isn't one.

Night Shyamalan mixes "The Birds" with "War of the Worlds," but the premise is too thin to deliver any real chills. 

His approach here is unusual. Instead of shocks, we get moments of tension, suspense and violence between stretches of running scared.

To add to the woes further, the actors seem to be disinterested and on top of that there isn’t any technical wizardy either to be worth mentioning.      

Wanna know what happens in the happening…

 Though there is a mystery but ironically both in its premise and solution. The story begins in Central Park, where the wind picks up and people suddenly are walking backward and acting strangely. Wanting to stay away from open windows and sharp objects.

Meanwhile, Elliot Moore (Mark Wahlberg) is teaching science in a Philadelphia school. He asks his students: Why are bees disappearing? Moore's school is evacuated as a precaution; it's assumed that the weirdness in New York was caused by a terrorist attack. Soon, Elliot is on a train out of town with his wife, Alma (Zooey Deschanel), fellow teacher Julian (John Leguizamo) and Julian's daughter, Jess (Ashlyn Sanchez).

But trouble follows. The entire northeastern United States is being affected. Why? If only we had access to.

Oh dear, what a pity. From a thumping start in the career with The Sixth Sense to critical welcome and exile, the rise and fall of public perception towards M. Night Shyamalan as a filmmaker has been a fascinating story over the past few years - a kind of a Shakespearean tragedy.