The Happening (2008) - Shyamalan's out-there, unsettling, undervalued sci-fi horror

♥♥♥♥

 

+ Best Mystery of the Year + Best Sci-fi Horror of the Year

 

Something is clearly completely off in the world on this blue-tinted poster for M. Night Shyamalan's The Happening

 

Out of the blue, trees begin to send out a poison that makes people commit suicide, and that is leading people out into grotesque and frightening situations all around the world.

 

The Happening is written and directed by Indian-born American master filmmaker M. Night Shyamalan (Praying with Anger (1992)), whose 8th feature it is.

Widely ridiculed and unappreciated, this film is mainly a problem for audiences who lack imagination. It is a kind of modern version of Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds (1963) and similarly unsettling, - if one has the capacity to be taken up by it. James Newton Howard's (Detroit (2017)) excellent score only adds to this dimension of pleasant genre recall. Shymalan mixes horrific images of events not related to the core story; a couple with a girl, who also fight with the logic of making sense of the strange phenomenon. 

Mark Wahlberg (The Italian Job (2003))  has one of his better, charming roles as a physics teacher. Also good are Zooey Deschanel (Yes Man (2008)), John Leguizamo (Sisters (2015)) and Betty Buckley (Oz (2001-03)) as the old, crazy lady. The Happening at times is a bit out there and wacky, to be sure, but it remains a scary dose of existentialism, and to me it is (strangely) very anxiety-provoking.

 

Related posts:

 

M. Night Shyamalan: Glass (2019) - Shyamalan buries past effort in ominous superhero nonsense 

2015 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]

The Visit (2015) - Shyamalan's creepy mini-comeback

2008 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]  

 

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: Reportedly 60 mil. $

Box office: 163.4 mil. $

= Box office success (returned 2.72 times its cost)

[The Happening premiered 10 June (New York) and runs 90 minutes. Shooting took place from August - November 2007 in Paris, France, New York and Pennsylvania, including in Philadelphia. The film opened #3, behind fellow new release The Incredible Hulk and holdover hit Kung Fu Panda, to a 30.5 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent one more weekend in the top 5 (#5) and grossed 64.5 mil. $ (39.5 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were France with 12.1 mil. $ (7.4 %) and Japan with 11.3 mil. $ (6.9 %). Roger Ebert gave the film a 3/4 star review, equal in rating to this one. In 2010 Wahlberg said in a press conference for The Fighter (2010) that The Happening was a "really bad movie." The film accrued more than 22.3 mil. $ on video sales in North America. Shyamalan returned with The Last Airbender (2010). Wahlberg returned in May Payne (2008). The Happening is rotten at 18 % with a 4.00/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of The Happening?

Carrie (1976) or, Don't Bully the Strange Girl!

♥♥♥♥♥

Sissy Spacek's transformation from prom queen to avenging angel in Brian De Palma's Carrie

QUICK REVIEW:

Carrie is a young girl with a loony-religious mother. She gets bullied in high school in the crudest ways, and at the prom, she loses control of her telekinetic powers.
Brian De Palma (Obsession (1976)) elbows himself into the American 'big league' with Carrie and shows his visual masterfulness very clearly here. The film is packed with neat and innovative camera-work, (by cinematographer Mario Tosi (Resurrection (1980)).
Carrie is an exceptional youth horror classic, - and a film with some fine women in the leads: Sissy Spacek (The Straight Story (1999)) is a marvel as the fragile, eerily gifted Carrie, Piper Laurie (The Hustler (1961)) is memorable as her zealous mother, (they were both Oscar-nominated for their performances), and Bette Buckley (The Happening (2008)) is sympathetic as the nice gym teacher.
Pino Donaggio's (Passion (2012)) score is co-responsible for the overwhelmingly operatic quality that radiates from Carrie's 2nd half.
Before the finalizing shock (SPOILER with Carrie's hand), De Palma has fired up a tragedy of Biblical proportions, especially with SPOILER the death of the mother. The only slight disappointment with Carrie is to find that behind all the powerful uses of multifarious effects which are at work in it, no real statement or faith rests, besides the belief in these strong scenes. These, however, can't be taken away from De Palma or the film.
Carrie was Stephen King's bestselling first novel and the first to be adapted, (now his writings have resulted in more than 100 films and TV-productions.) The rights were bought for just 2,500 $, and King was thrilled with the finished movie.
The trailer wrongly announced that Carrie sees John Travolta in his first feature role, which is untrue, because he also stars in the phenomenally strange The Devil Rain (1975), in which SPOILER he melts!
De Palma is getting old, but he's still active, with two movies optioned; the Émile Zola-adaptation Therese Raquin and a film called Happy Valley. The same goes for Spacek, who will star in an untitled KZK/Sony TV-series, debuting next year.

Related review:

Brian De Palma: Carlito's Way (1993) - De Palma's best gangster movie

Piper Laurie made a comeback as Carries mother, having been out of film and TV since the mid-sixties, in Brian de Palma's Carrie

Puberty and getting your period for the first time has rarely been scarier than it is for Sissy Spacek's character in Brian De Palma's Carrie

Brian De Palma's Carrie involves a delicious sense of evil that we almost partake in, because we know what will happen to poor Carrie, whereupon most audiences will relish her revenge

Watch the original trailer here

Cost: 1.8 mil. $
Box office: 33.8 mil. $
= Huge hit

What do you think of Carrie?
Seen the sequel and/or the TV or feature remake?
If so, sum them up, please