THE HAPPENING ain't Happenin'.

M. Night Shyamalan peaked early in his directorial and writing career. He started with the shocking THE SIXTH SENSE...then it slowly de-evolved from there. He's tackled aliens afraid of water (SIGNS), monsters who turn out to be ourselves (THE VILLAGE), and polar opposite super humans (UNBREAKABLE). This time in THE HAPPENING Shyamalan engages the environment...poorly.

The environment gets as angry at humanity as I did towards Shyamalan for taking an interesting and clever premise and executing it so terribly with stilted acting, illogical storylines, and a weak ending. Shyamalan consistently shows Hitchcockian promise with his unique ideas mixed with an amateur director mentality who doesn't have the chops to pull it off (with the exception of THE SIXTH SENSE).

Not even Mark Walhberg, normally a half-decent and entertaining actor, can save this dretch. I am uncertain if the actors chose an over-the-top cardboard style or this was just the director choosing the worst possible take of every scene in post-production. Whatever the choice, I was thankful that the environment killed off these characters in Stephen King style (i.e. guy gets chopped up laying in front of a ride-on lawnmower).

THE HAPPENING never achieves the climax it foreshadows in the beginning (the first thirty minutes is excellent and suspenseful). As soon as we learn the cause of the suspense, all momentum of this movie fades left with nothing but bad acting, poor directing, and a mediocre script.

5 kicks to the groin out of 10.