the Happening

Tonight Kara and I went out to dinner and saw M. Night Shyamalan's new film - the Happening. I've been a big fan of Shyamalan's writing from day one. But I've tended to be drawn towards his less "successful" films. Unbreakable? Awesome! Lady in the Water? Loved it. The Sixth Sense? Yeah, that was alright. For some reason Shyamalan's skill at pulling off the twist ending has been like crack for audiences. They just want more. It's unfortunate, but he has quickly become typecast as the guy who does twist endings. And then he went out and made a wildly intelligent film like Lady in the Water and people were pissed! The same can be said for The Happening, people will not like this film and not because it's not a good film, but because it's not a "good Shyamalan film." Can we just judge him on the quality of his writing and not on whether or not he's still in the tiny box we found him in... 9 years ago!?!

If you take this film for what it is - a modern day paranoia suspense film - you can begin to appreciate it. If you just want to see the Sixth Sense again, then just go watch that film again. In fact, stay home, and keep watching it over and over again and stop going to Shyamalan movies and talking during them about how different they are than the Sixth Sense! Yes, dudes one row behind me, I'm talking to you!

[spoilers ahead!!!] The Happening is a paranoia film. Suspense from something so commonplace, so ordinary that it is inescapable. Ever see a little Hitchcock gem called The Birds? Suspense films don't have to be about insane serial killers, aliens from outer space, or ghosts... some of the most adrenaline inducing suspense films find their villans in the ordinary. And what could be more ordinary, what could be more inescapable than plants!? Or is it the plants? We don't know. Could it be? It seems like it might be. The questions about who or what is causing "the event" are nerve wracking. And then what happens to you once you are "infected" or whatever... you loose your survival instinct. In fact it is reversed! The thought that a chemical in the air could cause you to turn on yourself and willfully find a way to end your own life... now that's terror. And if that chemical came from some kind of a plant... well you'd have a hard time finding a safe place.

Why would plants do that? It's not even possible is it? "Whatever it was, it was some kind of act of nature and we'll never be able to explain it." I love that line. There's no need to explain what and why and how "the event" happened. First, because the characters in the film don't really know. They make some guesses, some hypothesis, but no one really knows. So we are left to wonder ourselves. And sure, in the midst of the suspense we might just stop to think about our impact on the environment. But if I was a little kid and I saw this film... I'd have a new "boogey man" to worry about...

the tree in my back yard...

the grass on my lawn...

the hanging plant in the hallway!!!

Labels: Film