Happening Review

"The Happening" is the latest from onetime wunderkind writer/director M. Night Shyamalan, whose creepy, hokey horror movies initially found an audience but whose films in recent years have been mostly met with derision. This one is one of his better ones, though for my money, that's not saying very much.

Mark Wahlberg, fresh from "The Departed" and "Shooter", here plays a Philadelphia science teacher in the middle of a mysterious though not terrifying phenomenon.

A strange wind is blowing over cities and towns in the Northeast, bringing with it some odd element which makes anyone who breathes it commit suicide.  Sort of silly, isn't it?

Zooey Deschanel, ordinarily an intriguing actress, is almost zombie like in her delivery as Wahlberg's wife, as together they mind the daughter of their friend. He's played by John Leguizamo. There are no special effects here and what's up there is static, never scary.

"The Happening" is silly and never really scary. It has a moment or two which might startle you, and I like Betty Buckley's performance, but most of it is nonsense.