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Ok. I just saw the movie "The Happening" tonight. Yes, I am a fan of horror movies, and being in my normal new movie hunger, I went to go see "The Happening".

Now, let me say that I have seen bad movies before. Very, very bad movies. But...I have never felt lied to. When you see the trailer, you would think it's a horror movie. Maybe a creepy one, maybe not. But at least you would believe that they truly thought it was creepy. Never once have I watched a movie that made me feel as though the producers just gave me the bird to my face.

What is so wrong with it? For one, it's funny. Partially in the way they intended, and partially in a way that just seems bad; like an Ed Wood movie bad. Some of the lines are obviously intended to be anti-climactic, and to break any amount of tension the movie may have built. Also, the ending was terrible. I don't even know why I am putting the ending into "spoiler coded format", since you would thank me if I spoiled it and you did not go to see it



After leaving the theater, I felt something was out of place. So, I rushed back home and went to YouTube. I watched the trailer again, and sure enough, there were scenes in the trailer that were not in the movie. It is not in the actual trailer, but in the TV commercial, there was a scene of people's legs floating above the ground as though the people were hovering. This scene does not occur anywhere in the movie, nor does anything happen that could even cause the scene. In the theatrical trailers on YouTube, there is also a scene that is cut together to sound like a news broadcast fuzzing out into hard static, and a small girl is holding her ears, and then it shows Mark Wahlburg's character covering his ears as well, as the static gets louder. This would hint to the idea that maybe something is coming over the airwaves that is causing the crisis. It's not. There is not even the picture of the static TV in the movie, and the scene with Mark Wahlburg is actually him putting his hands on his head. I could go on and on about all the things that are "creatively" edited in the commercial and trailer, and all the scenes that did not even happen in the movie (nor did they even have any place in it).

Sorry, but I had to get this off my chest. I can let a bad movie go, because at least you can generally know that the producers did the best that they could with what they had. This left me puzzled, feeling as though I just witnessed a multi-million dollar prank.

ya i heard terrible things about it. whats with Shyamalan's movies now? they all just plain out suck. yet, we get sucked into his universe of suckiness. he rips us off. worse than a credit card company with hidden fees and the likes. after the amazing 'six sense' we become his fans and will watch anything he does. the guy is a joke. this movie reminds me of 'The Andromeda Strain' but the book (or movie) actually presented the subject as being believable. this, however is something a 5th grader would come up with. sorry to hear you wasted your money. but thanks for the heads up.

I like all of his movies because I appreciate the thought and effort that went into creating the story itself. I thought The Happening was great up until the very end.



The first 90% of the movie was really, really good, though. So if you don't mind wasting 1/10 of the price of a movie ticket, I say go see it.

Also, if you're a fan of Alfred Hitchcock's movies you should DEFINITELY go see it.

I've gotta say, Shamalayan has been slipping lately. Sixth Sense was a timeless masterpiece that still bugs me out today, Signs was a great film because of the anonymity of the aliens- instead you see more of how people react to the near-invisible phenomenon instead of calculated action sequences. The Village is good, but not very scary. Now it seems like he's stepping away from his psychological roots and drifting into the punter-pleasing sea of mediocre horror flicks that lack the provocative and thoughtful nature of his previous works.

Ed Wood movies are great, you just need to be drunk or in an insane moment to see the beauty of them.

Ok, I take back the Ed Wood comment. It's like an Ed Wood movie, but take out everything that give them their charm. The whole theater was dying laughing at The Happening last night, and most of it was during the "scary" parts. I have to admit, it was so bad it was funny at times (like Mark's character yelling "Jaaaaaaaake!" and diving in super slow motion. The way that only cheesy commercials do). All in all, avoid. At all costs.

The film took 44 days to shoot, which began on August 6, 2007. This is exactly nine years to the day since the start of production of The Sixth Sense (1999).

The short shoot time may be one reason for the crappy end result.

I really can't find any acceptable excuse for it, though. I feel cheated, as though they knew that they were being manipulative and deceiving with the trailer, just to get those opening weekend ticket sales. There were some cool parts to it (most of the deaths were), but the lines were written and flowed like a tongue-in-cheek college film. I just can't say enough bad things about it, and how angry it made me. Some people told me that the movie actually had to be toned down a bit, which is why some of the scenes in the trailer were not in the movie. Sounds to me like it was time to make an emergency trailer. I really wonder if false advertising comes into play in a situation like this. Is there anything to stop me from making a trailer that looks awesome, and then the movie is something entirely different?

Thanks for posting this, Erios......

I was planning to go see this with my mates, I think we'll give it a miss, maybe we can go see "Prom Night", that looks scary.....