What’s Happening to Horror?

M Night Shyamalan is famous for his spooky storylines usually culminating with an unforeseen twist. The recently released ‘The Happening’ is his latest in a long line of distinctively sinister plots but just doesn’t live up to his previous triumphs.

Making a name for himself in the horror genre, Shyamalan does not conform to the splatter, slasher variety of film but uses an eerier approach. He moulds the audience’s expectations with his less being more technique. So what about his much anticipated latest project ‘The Happening’ released June 2008? It does follow the tried and tested formula but falls a little flat in the required ‘shocks’ department.

When a sudden dramatic spate of suicide sweeps New York and the surrounding areas, the protagonist, Elliot Moore, a straight laced science teacher, played by Mark Warlberg tries to escape. With his estranged wife, Alma (Zooey Deschanel) and his friend’s unaccompanied child, Elliot realises the safest places are those least inhabited (which around New York are few and far between). It quickly becomes apparent that the deaths of numerous citizens are not triggered by what is initially thought to be a terrorist attack but various revelations indicate it could be a force of nature at work.

The acting is unnatural, almost delivered in a comedic fashion. What the big joke is, however, is a mystery. Surely apocalyptic events such as these would trigger a more intensively anxious reaction. The mood remains jovial throughout which just doesn’t fit. Relationship issues are discussed as mass suicide engulfs the characters’ proximity.

A disaster movie it clearly is and it does feel original in plot. The death scenes are well executed, especially the initial scene where builders start falling from the skies as they work up high and a girl on a bench stabs herself in the neck with her hairclip. The build up is effective but the twist and explanation never really arrives. Although it eventually elucidates events, it just feels an anti-climactic finale after following in pursuit of a bombshell.

It just seems the film’s plot is half hearted when the production is classy. It could have been so much better with a more thought provoking surprise. Understandably a director doesn’t necessarily stick to an archetypal arrangement in filmmaking that could be seen as predictable but it just seems in this case an impressive twist or climactic conclusion would have enhanced an all-round forgettable film.