Tagline: “Without any warning, it will happen…â€
Translation: The Happening will not be screened for critics.
The Verdict: M. Night Shyamalan made one promising movie, then followed it up with four stinkers of extraordinary and increasing terribleness. Is there any reason to believe that sitting through The Happening won’t make us want to kill ourselves? Doubtful, since it’s actually about an environmental phenomenon that causes everyone on the planet to want to kill themselves. This new trailer takes place primarily in New York, but it looks like these are just early scenes and most of The Happening’s action will play out in farm country, where we’ll get sporadic news updates from TV and radio, like in 2002’s apocalyptically boring Signs. Mark Wahlberg reportedly (and hilariously) plays a science teacher who, presumably, uses his understanding of nature to try to save himself, but even the comic potential of that setup may not be enough to get us through two hours of people leaping off buildings and stabbing themselves to death with hairpins. Suggested surprise ending: In a twist, it’s revealed that the true cause of the suicides is watching the film’s previous 90 minutes.