The Happening

Don't Believe the (adverse) hype, 22 June 2008

Author: gary-444 from United Kingdom


*** This review may contain spoilers ***


The critical kicking that this picture received upon release was such that I almost gave it a "swerve". I am glad that I didn't.If you want the bad news read pretty much every other review,if you want the good news read on.

The premise of this film, a natural "event" that causes humans to kill themselves is compelling and intriguing.A 91 minute running time makes for a pacey, if inevitably compressed storyline, which hooks the viewer from start to finish.The combination of an "unseen killer", the natural "Rush and rustle of leaves and branches" and the human carnage that results is genuinely spooky.

Lead actor Mark Wahlberg guides us perfectly competently through the story with Betty Buckley playing a genuinely disturbing cameo as hermit Mrs Jones.The plot does require "suspension of disbelief" in several respects, but hey this is a story not a history.

Not a classic, but a good yarn nonetheless let down by an absurd, frustrating, corny, commercial "ending" which had me howling in disapproval