FAQ for
The Happening (2008)

The following FAQ entries may contain spoilers. Only the biggest ones (if any) will be covered with spoiler tags. Spoiler tags are used sparingly in order to make the page more readable.

For detailed information about the amounts and types of (a) sex and nudity, (b) violence and gore, (c) profanity, (d) alcohol, drugs, and smoking, and (e) frightening and intense scenes in this movie, consult the IMDb Parents Guide for this movie. The Parents Guide for The Happening can be found at http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0949731/parentalguide.

No. The Happening is taken from a script by American director M. Night Shyamalan.

The Happening is a breakdown in individuals' mental state, beginning with mild confusion and memory loss, which then progresses to complete disorientation, mutism, and eventually compels individuals to committ suicide.

What is causing it? As it says at the start of the movie, nobody will ever know for sure. One theory is that is that it is caused by the United States' plant-life revolting against pollution and global warming by developing and releasing toxins as a self defense mechanism. After a sufficient number of humans have been killed, the plants stop developing the toxin. At the end of the film, however, plants in France begin to develop the toxin as well.

Another explanation is that a sort of Karmic effect is taking place. Plants and nature are giving us a warning and, at the end in France, it's the end of the world. The idea was that negative vibes from humans caused nature to react in kind by causing the humans to off themselves.

After the large scale disaster of 2006's Lady in the Water, The Happening isn't the worst received film on Shaymalans CV but it's certainly up there. Rotten Tomatoes scores it with a fairly low 19% approval rating from critics, and Metacritic averages out that the mean score from critics is 34/100, denoting a fairly negative feedback.

Critical quotes:

"This film is so bad that I feel compelled to make a spoiler-laden list of its most laughably terrible parts rather than review it. M. Night Shyamalan's latest movie, The Happening, is not merely bad. It is an astonishment, so idiotic in conception and inept in execution that, after seeing it, one almost wonders whether it was real or imagined." - Christopher Orr, The New Republic, 2008

"If Shyamalan wanted to commit career suicide he couldnt have chosen a more likely vehicle than this laugh inducing 'thriller.'" - Richard Knight, Jr., Windy City Times

"more scary than silly."- Efilmcritic, 2008

"A disaster, representing a number of negative firsts for Shyamalan."- Ryan Stewart, 2008

"You feel like you're not watching the end of the world but the end of a career."- Boston Globe, 2008

" Being risibly bad, The Happening is at least worth a laugh."- Rick Groen

"A movie that I find oddly touching. It is no doubt too thoughtful for the summer action season, but I appreciate the quietly realistic way Shyamalan finds to tell a story about the possible death of man."- Roger Ebert, 2008

" In short, this is a Shyamalan movie minus the bravado"- Justin Chang, 2008

"It's an entertaining movie"- Mick La Salle, 2008

"The Happening is a movie to walk out of, sleep through, or - best of all - not to bother with. "-James Berardinelli, 2008

"A disappointingly slight offering from a filmmaker that we know is capable of so much more. Shyamalan says that The Happening was his easiest film to shoot. Sadly, it shows."- Empire Magazine, 2008

" If what audiences are looking for is a thrill ride, or even a pervasive eeriness, The Happening's just not happening."- NPR, 2008

" An unapologetic B-movie. "- William Arnold, 2008

" divertingly goofy thriller with an animistic bent, moments of shivery and twitchy suspense and a solid lead performance from Mark Wahlberg"- The New York Times, 2008

"Wahlberg turns in one of his worst performances ever"- Chicago Reader, 2008

"The Happening makes you wonder whether Mr. Shyamalan's own switch may have been flipped. How else to explain his film's befuddling infelicities, insistent banalities, shambling pace and pervasive ineptitude? "- Wall Street Journal, 2008