The Happening
The Happening
R | 13 June 2008 (USA)
The Happening Trailers

When a deadly airborne virus threatens to wipe out the northeastern United States, teacher Elliot Moore and his wife Alma flee from contaminated cities into the countryside in a fight to discover the truth. Is it terrorism, the accidental release of some toxic military bio weapon -- or something even more sinister?

Reviews
Roy Hart If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.
Ariella Broughton It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.
Portia Hilton Blistering performances.
Cheryl A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.
mcguinnessjames The beginning act is honestly fairly good and there are multiple performances which didn't make me question WTF I was watching. It had a decent buildup yet failed to execute in every way. Every suicide we see is fake looking and honestly embarrassing. Yet the concept is intriguing yet is bogged down by clichés of all manners with a ridiculous plot point about the plants and communication it just bores and loses you. Yet it's entertaining and if you're bored give it a go with some parts being downright hilarious. Such as the zookeeper being torn apart and the building site.
Gubby-Allen The review would usually reflect a 1/10 film. I only give it more as it was an interesting premise, started off ok and kept me fully intrigued and guessing throughout.But that was alway in the knowledge, that it was horrendous as film and as a story. The actors looked completely bored and uninspired throughout and as if they did not really have a clue what was happening either. It has also dated so quickly as a film amd.could pass as a film from the 1980's, although it looked like they attempted a Hitchcock style.It made little if any sense. A few of the people in the opening scenes, did not seem to be affected by the virus, when all rounds them were, but that never went anywhere. The attacks all seemed to stop in a perfectly straight line down the entire U.S but nobody was able to get through the line. I never really understood the exact number of people that need to be in the group to make it safe or unsafe and how group of people are all affected and another group in the same field, were not.
tbecarey A complete waste of time, sadly. One of the most disjointed and incoherent screenplays ever written.
Mike Boyd Or, instead of a speech therapist, maybe all Mark Wahlberg films should come with free subtitles.The only good thing about this film is that he doesn't have a lot to say.Actually the film isn't that bad and I liked the ending, but please all you directors, especially the casting directors, can't you make it a clause in Wahlberg's contract that he has to undergo speech therapy? Unless you honestly believe that his script is not worth a dime, then it doesn't matter.But if you remember his performance in The Shooter where he plays Bob Lee Swagger, he was pretty much unintelligible. So if you don't care about his words then, fair enough, hire him.Otherwise, for goodness sake get him to move his lips when he talks.