What is so bad about the movie The Happening?

[CogDiss]

Plants producing some kind a neuro-toxin that makes people kill themselves isn't THAT crazy compared to other things in entertainment and comic books. Superman, the Flash, the Green Lantern. Some plants and fungi actually do produce toxins that can be very harmful to people. I really don't think its too crazy for fiction.

Or is that not why people disliked this movie?

 

[davidmc1158_v1legacy]

The two things I have always heard people complain about wasn't the premise but the needless focusing on gory deaths and the slow pacing.

The framework of the film really needed work, from my perspective I've never actually seen more than a few minutes of the movie at a time because it puts me to sleep. I see no suspense in it and the actors don't hold my attention. But that's just my own aesthetic viewpoint.

 

[The Wykydtron]

Actually that concept sounds interesting. I guess if it's not well liked by the community the presentation was off or the pacing was bad or the acting or similar.

There's a huge difference between having a great concept then putting it to paper.. Film. Whatever.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

The premise of the movie isn't why the movie is awful. It's possible to make a good movie about anything if you're committed to it. The problem with the movie is that not only was it terribly written and horribly paced, it also tried to hit you over the head with environmentalist messages in the most poorly thought out way possible.

But yeah, the movie's premise also just isn't conducive to the kind of movie that was made from that premise. Because there isn't any kind of tangible threat or enemy in the movie the entire thing is just shots of people running from NOTHING and screaming "oh god the wind is going to get us."

Had the movie been made more like "Contagion" or something similar it might have at least been watchable, but it ends up being directed and acted out more like a slasher movie where the killer is NOTHING.

 

[Jux]

http://www.damninteresting.com/mind-controlling-wasps-and-zombie-spiders/

http://www.cracked.com/article_19384_the-5-creepiest-ways-animals-have-mastered-mind-control_p2.html

http://listverse.com/2009/07/29/10-fascinating-cases-of-mind-control/

Thread got me to thinking about whether parasites could mind control their hosts. Found these if anyone is interested, this is some really cool stuff.

 

[Revnak_v1legacy]

Because this sequence exists. That is all that it takes to make this movie worth hating, let alone all the other terrible scenes.

 

[ItouKaiji]

Dirty Hipster covers most of the big problems with the film, but there's also the fact that Shyamalan is very bad at directing actual people. This isn't just with the happening but he always manages to get his actors to be flat and wooden, even actors that are otherwise talented. The thing is with the Happenings pacing and terrible dialogue this is even more noticeable than usual. Good actors given proper direction can sometimes pull off shitty lines, but Shamalan somehow robs actors of their ability to act so the lines sound especially terrible given their wooden, lifeless delivery.

Of course the movie had all the warning signs of a stinker when it came out, but the biggest one is the main point of advertising was "this is M. Knight Shyamalan's first R rated movie so there will totally be gore in it." They didn't focus on telling about the movie, or the actors or giving any idea about the movie other than it was going to be more violent than his usual stuff. That's pretty much all they had to sell the movie on.

The thing is Shyamalan isn't talentless, but his talents lie in knowing how to compose a compelling shot. As much as I dislike most of his movies after Unbreakable I still can deny they are beautifully shot most of the time. The Village is visually stunning. Avatar looked bad but that's more due to the forced 3D conversion, but in general the man has a good eye for composition. The problem comes in that he's not good at directing actual actors and he's a terrible writer. He had one or two good movies in him, but after that he would have been better off adapting other people's scripts and maybe bringing in someone else to work with the actors and maybe get someone else to edit the movies. So I guess really he should only be working the camera....

 

[CogDiss]

Because this sequence exists. That is all that it takes to make this movie worth hating, let alone all the other terrible scenes.

But scene is only designed for comedy!

 

[Queen Michael]

Avatar looked bad but that's more due to the forced 3D conversion, but in general the man has a good eye for composition.

Avatar's a James Cameron movie. You're thinking of The Last Airbender.

 

[Revnak_v1legacy]

Because this sequence exists. That is all that it takes to make this movie worth hating, let alone all the other terrible scenes.

But scene is only designed for comedy!

And it is ultimately a bad joke. Sure, it's quotable, but the atmosphere, the delivery, the length, it all sucks. If it's a joke it's a bad joke, if it's serious it is absolutely horrible at being serious.

 

[Random Argument Man]

Because this sequence exists. That is all that it takes to make this movie worth hating, let alone all the other terrible scenes.

But scene is only designed for comedy!

And it is ultimately a bad joke. Sure, it's quotable, but the atmosphere, the delivery, the length, it all sucks. If it's a joke it's a bad joke, if it's serious it is absolutely horrible at being serious.

I think the key to find the The Happening "fun" is to expect it to be "horrible to the point of laughter". Bring beers and a few friends who would enjoy poking fun at a movie. I did had chuckle at that clip.

 

[80sboy]

Because it's an M. Night movie and critics have made it there life long mission to give him shit for making Lady in the Water.

Also Avatar fans hate his guts too.

All in all, his movies - like The Happening - aren't THAT bad. But they are pretty bad too.

 

[Revnak_v1legacy]

Because this sequence exists. That is all that it takes to make this movie worth hating, let alone all the other terrible scenes.

But scene is only designed for comedy!

And it is ultimately a bad joke. Sure, it's quotable, but the atmosphere, the delivery, the length, it all sucks. If it's a joke it's a bad joke, if it's serious it is absolutely horrible at being serious.

I think the key to find the The Happening "fun" is to expect it to be "horrible to the point of laughter". Bring beers and a few friends who would enjoy poking fun at a movie. I did had chuckle at that clip.

Well yeah, in that sense it's funny (hilarious even), but if M. Night really thought that he had made comedy gold with that scene he was sadly mistaken.

 

[PoolCleaningRobot]

The thing is Shyamalan isn't talentless, but his talents lie in knowing how to compose a compelling shot. As much as I dislike most of his movies after Unbreakable I still can deny they are beautifully shot most of the time. The Village is visually stunning. Avatar looked bad but that's more due to the forced 3D conversion, but in general the man has a good eye for composition. The problem comes in that he's not good at directing actual actors and he's a terrible writer. He had one or two good movies in him, but after that he would have been better off adapting other people's scripts and maybe bringing in someone else to work with the actors and maybe get someone else to edit the movies. So I guess really he should only be working the camera....

Definitely this. So many of the scenes in Signs were so good at making the relatively harmless looking aliens seem creepy and threatening. I liked Unbreakable but damn, The Village sucked hard

Also according to Cracked.com, he based The Sixth Sense on an episode of Are You Afraid of the Dark he watched on Nickelodeon when he was 26 :/

 

[Marter]

Honestly, I found The Happening to be the most enjoyable (although Unbreakable, Shyamalan's actual good movie, gives it a run for that title) movie directed by Shyamalan. Yeah, it's cheesy and silly and not at all scary, but the unintentional comedy aspect made it so fun to watch. I try to fit it in at least once a year because it's that fun.

And Shyamalan claims that was the intent -- and did so prior to its release. So, either believe him or don't, but that statement is out there.

 

[Random Argument Man]

Because this sequence exists. That is all that it takes to make this movie worth hating, let alone all the other terrible scenes.

But scene is only designed for comedy!

And it is ultimately a bad joke. Sure, it's quotable, but the atmosphere, the delivery, the length, it all sucks. If it's a joke it's a bad joke, if it's serious it is absolutely horrible at being serious.

I think the key to find the The Happening "fun" is to expect it to be "horrible to the point of laughter". Bring beers and a few friends who would enjoy poking fun at a movie. I did had chuckle at that clip.

Well yeah, in that sense it's funny (hilarious even), but if M. Night really thought that he had made comedy gold with that scene he was sadly mistaken.

I don't think M.Night has the capacity of realizing a "so bad it's good" movie even if he had the intention. Actually, I think he's more of "moron thinking himself as a genius". The hilarity is more of an accident. I can comprehend your original point of view. I had a few friends who came out of the theatre rather insulted that they paid for this.

 

[King Billi]

I didn't think it was terrible, it certainly had an interesting premise.

It reminded me alot of movies like "The Birds" actually...

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

I didn't think it was terrible, it certainly had an interesting premise.

It reminded me alot of movies like "The Birds" actually...

The difference between something like The Happening, and The Birds, is that in The Birds the characters are actually running away from something tangible. You get a thrill seeing people run away from the Birds, dodging them, escaping into a house for safety. You can't get the same kind of thrill from The Happening, because the characters are running away from NOTHING.

The Happening is filmed like a slasher movie that's missing a slasher, that's why it's such a failure. It was filmed incorrectly for what its premise is.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Good premise, crap execution. Marky Mark is out of his element, Zooey's weirdo relationship issues are way out of place, the sequences don't add up (the fake house, the two adolescents, the old lady) and there's an awkward narmful feel to most of them (you know them from many YouTube clips). But if I had to pinpoint the problem: the movie is nor suspenseful nor scary. The comparisons to The Birds are apropos, but you will recall in that movie we had a material threat as opposed to some bland abstraction lending itself to poor cinematography. More importantly, it wastes a lot of time and energy trying to justify the reasons for the eponymous disaster, which Hitchcock wisely sidestepped in favor of playing his audience with the fear of the uncanny and inexplicable.

Having said that, I'll admit it's one of the more passable Shyamalan movie post Signs, but is that really such a big compliment?