“The Happening” is the latest suspenseful, spine-tingling
thriller from one of the masters of the genre, the aptly named M. Night
Shyamalan. Mark Wahlberg stars in this newest offering, which in the trailer
teases the audience with Shyamalan’s trademark infatuation with substituting
concrete plot details in favor of projecting an overall sense of vague
eeriness. About all we can gather so far is that America is under attack from
some sort of unstoppable apocalyptic force that is exterminating vast multitudes
of people, generating ominous grimaces from all those involved, and ultimately
defying human comprehension. All of this supernatural madness is somehow
(unless it’s a red herring) connected with a widespread disappearance of bees
around the country that precedes this mysterious assault. Wahlberg is
prominently featured amidst all of the purposely incomprehensible plotting,
earnestly preaching about the inability of mankind to understand the forces in
the process of presumably annihilating the human race. While this film could
easily take its place in the pantheon of the best suspense flicks of all time,
it could just as easily be headed toward the bottom of the cinematic Dumpster.
As with all Shyamalan films, the viewer will have to wait until opening night,
which conveniently falls on Friday the 13th in June.