The Happening (2008)★★☆☆☆

This is a bad movie. Just…epically bad. Well, not epically bad (I did give it two stars, after all), more like run-of-the-mill bad, but bad nonetheless. It might be my least favorite M. Night Shyamalan film?

Which is so disappointing, because I like Zooey Deschanel! I even mostly like Mark Wahlberg! And John Leguizamo is in one of my new favorite horror movies!

But this movie is so pointless. I truly tried to go in with an open mind like “maybe this movie isn’t as bad as I remember it being!” …but it’s worse.

(I’m probably going to spoil things, I guess?) I guess the twist is, there is no twist? It’s plants! It’s plants! Maybe it’s not plants! No, it’s plants!

And then the movie just…ends. Lots of people are dead, but not everyone, and I guess enough of “not everyone” survived to go back to partly normal life super quickly?

Also, I like Zooey Deschanel, but her character was awful in this. No one seemed fully realized, but Alma least of all. I just…this is a bad movie.

I’ve been reading a lot (including from Zooey Deschanel herself!) that says M. Night Shyamalan was trying to make a “B Movie,” something old-school stylized, but it’s just NOT silly enough. I think if it committed to taking itself less seriously, it could be a B Movie classic, but…as it stands, it’s just not there.