I rewatched this for the first time in almost a decade. However, many years on, I still think The Happening is a spectacular failure that only has value if you watch it for the purpose of laughing at it. It is just shockingly inept and ridiculous as a horror movie, and the one defence of it (that it's a throwback to cheesy 1950s sci-fi/horror movies) I don't think holds up at all. Something like Mars Attacks feels like a throwback to that kind of movie. I genuinely don't think The Happening feels self-aware enough to be credible as intentionally funny. I think Shyamalan just dropped the ball in an unintentionally spectacular fashion.
I tried to give it a chance on a rewatch with fresh eyes, but I still feel as though it's a tragically inept horror movie that's trying to be genuinely creepy, with its premise about deadly toxins in the air that are influencing people to take their lives. The acting is terrible. The dialogue is atrocious, and I don't think I can take anyone who says otherwise seriously (Shyamalan is honestly kind of a bad writer when it comes to most of his output, with comically terrible dialogue in many of his movies, and that's a hill I'll die on).
If you like laughing at inept movies, The Happening is one of the best of the past couple of decades. If you want an actual scary movie, I'd say stay far away from this one, and it's probably Shyamalan's worst, at the end of the day.
I tried to give it a chance on a rewatch with fresh eyes, but I still feel as though it's a tragically inept horror movie that's trying to be genuinely creepy, with its premise about deadly toxins in the air that are influencing people to take their lives. The acting is terrible. The dialogue is atrocious, and I don't think I can take anyone who says otherwise seriously (Shyamalan is honestly kind of a bad writer when it comes to most of his output, with comically terrible dialogue in many of his movies, and that's a hill I'll die on).
If you like laughing at inept movies, The Happening is one of the best of the past couple of decades. If you want an actual scary movie, I'd say stay far away from this one, and it's probably Shyamalan's worst, at the end of the day.