While hardly his worst work, this film is so far off his high water mark that it begs the question of whether M. Night Shyamalan will ever truly return.
Comment
06/13/08
The Happening (2008)
18
%
Tomatometer
How does the Tomatometer work 
Reviews Counted:169
Fresh:31
Rotten:138
Average Rating:4.1/10
Consensus: The Happening begins with promise, but unfortunately descends into an incoherent and unconvincing trifle.
Runtime: 1 hr 31 mins
Genre: Action/Adventure
US Box Office: $64,384,941
Synopsis: M. Night Shyamalan directs this thriller about a science teacher (Mark Wahlberg) who tries to escape with his wife and friend's daughter after an apocalyptic event. THE HAPPENING costars Zooey... [More]
Starring: Mark Wahlberg, Zooey Deschanel, John Leguizamo, Betty Buckley
Director: M. Night Shyamalan
Reviews for The Happening
1 - 20 (sorted by critic A-Z; Australian critics are listed first)
Top CriticExcluding moments of chilling effectiveness, this could fairly be called his worst film. Even his saving grace of keen directorial acumen visibly loses cohesion on screen.
06/12/08
Top CriticMaybe Shyamalan has been plugged into those other worlds for too long. Judging from what is on offer here, he needs to become more acquainted with the emotional language of this one.
06/13/08
Top CriticA tantalising, sometimes frustrating parable about the menaces that human beings might face from unexpected quarters.
06/13/08
Top CriticAnother disappointment from M, despite some disturbing violence and chilly moments.
06/13/08
Top CriticThe movie is a bummer, from beginning to end.
06/13/08
Top CriticThere are some creepy moments but overall The Happening is a bit of a non-event.
06/20/08
Top CriticSadly for Mr. Shyamalan, the ideas that have been coming to him since his brilliant first hit The Sixth Sense are progressively worthy of less merit and more deserving of ridicule.
06/10/08
Top CriticNothing happens. Shyamalan has finally taken an ax to his Golden Goose.
06/12/08
It's an interesting premise for a doomsday thriller, but Shyamalan botches it from the get-go.
06/13/08
Basically a junior version of sci-fi disaster films ranging from The War of the Worlds (1953) to last year's The Mist
06/12/08
I'm shaking my head now like a caring teacher grading a poor assignment written by a bright student.
06/20/08
Shyamalan sve lo%u0161ije reagira na gubitak statusa holivudskog bo%u017Eanstva
07/15/09
In a Hollywood summer otherwise dominated by comic-book superheroes, blazing action spectacles, snickering teen sex comedies and computer-generated fantasy, M. Night Shyamalan's The Happening is something different -- and a pleasant surprise.
06/13/08
It's a great idea. A silent, unknown killing machine knocking people off while a science teacher tries to figure out why. But it just didn't work.
08/27/08
Shyamalan's ideas might have more impact in a half-hour 'Twilight Zone' episode, where they would be shorn of some of the pretensions that seem to be mandatory in the feature-length work of a one-time Best Director Oscar nominee.
06/20/08
It's a shame that the movie is such a tonal failure, because it does many other things right.
06/12/08
We don't care. It doesn't matter if they live or die, if there's a happy ending, or some kind of twist. The Happening is a movie to walk out of, sleep through, or -- best of all -- not to bother with.
06/13/08
The true disaster on display in The Happening is Shyamalan's career hitting rock bottom.
06/16/08
M. Night Shyamalan offers up low-intensity thrills that fail to match the shivery shudders of his best work (THE SIXTH SENSE, SIGNS). His patented approach - mixing domestic drama with horror - plays out on a much larger canvas.
07/04/08
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June 16, 2008:
WNYC RADIO: A numbing polemical morality tale in dreary doomsday thriller clothing, this dull downer for all its mass panic attack high alert mode, may be more effective in unintentionally boring people to death. 
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