He may have managed to salvage his career and reputation by rebooting himself as the purveyor of modestly-budgeted psychological terrors that can always be relied on to do a turn at the box office, but it was The Happening that first hinted M. Night Shyamalan was on the verge of descending into self-parody.
The polarizing twist of The Village and the self-indulgent excess of Lady in the Water hinted that there may be such a thing as too much creative freedom, but it was the dreadful hybrid of horror, thriller, and environmental parable that blew holes in his status as one of cinema’s most intriguing and exciting voices.
Make no mistake about it, The Happening sucks, and it sucks hard. However, it didn’t take too long for the four-time Razzie nominee to latch onto a second lease of life, with the accidentally hilarious straight-laced story becoming an ironically appraised slice of accidental comedy.
Shyamalan may have started leaning into the film’s status as a figure of fun, but there’s absolutely no way that was his intention. No offense to the filmmaker, but funny has never been his strong suit. Either way, it’s been 15 years since Mark Wahlberg first spoke to plants, and an appreciatory Reddit threat has underlined that The Happening remains as inadvertently excellent as ever.
Watch it as a comedy in the vein of Airplane! where the ridiculous is delivered with the utmost solemnity and there’s plenty to enjoy, but despite what Shyamalan says, there’s not a chance that was how it was supposed to be interpreted from day one.