For reasons still unknown, Shyamalan wrote the dialogue this stiffly, and instructed his performers to act like they'd never said words or interacted with each other before.

| Jan 30, 2017

The Happening is his first hilariously awful film.

| Original Score: C | Apr 17, 2015

At first, a great deal happens, then nothing much happens for quite some time, then something so underwhelming happens that one is left wondering, 'Did that really just happen?'

| Original Score: 2/5 | Nov 16, 2011

[A]n astonishment, so idiotic in conception and inept in execution that, after seeing it, one almost wonders whether it was real or imagined.

| Sep 22, 2008

The Happening is an awful letdown, yet it leaves you with something new, as a gently waving tree -- that classical image of pastoral tranquillity -- mutates into a harbinger of doom.

| Jun 23, 2008

There are some creepy moments but overall The Happening is a bit of a non-event.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | Jun 20, 2008

For a movie with the potential for so much global-warming electricity, it's disappointingly low on voltage.

Full Review | Jun 18, 2008

It almost dares you to roll your eyes or laugh at certain scenes that are supposed to be deadly serious. But, you know what, I appreciated this creatively offbeat, daring sci-fi mind-trip.

Full Review | Jun 16, 2008

All that's missing is the head alien of Plan 9 From Outer Space dropping by to lecture the populace for disrespecting nature: 'Your stupid minds! Stupid! Stupid!'

Full Review | Jun 16, 2008

The Happening suggests [Shyamalan's] (con) artist's touch is waning a bit.

Full Review | Jun 14, 2008

Feeble gust of an environmental horror story.

| Jun 13, 2008

Woeful clunker of a paranoid thriller.

| Jun 13, 2008

A patchy, uninspired eco-thriller whose R rating (a first for Shyamalan) looks more like a B.O. hindrance than an artistic boon.

Full Review | Jun 13, 2008

Shyamalan tries to give the events a scientific underpinning. But his logic is spotty, so what are meant to be eerie moments are not convincing.

| Original Score: 1.5/4 | Jun 13, 2008

Shyamalan seems to have lost his sense of the fine line between the disturbingly grotesque and the outright ridiculous. The film even seems to be a parody of the scientific method.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Jun 13, 2008

The whole solemn concoction is preposterous and not always in a fun way -- even at 99 minutes' running time, the movie provides plenty of opportunities for watch-consultation in the dark.

| Jun 13, 2008

The screenplay is a mess, filled with unfunny moments of intended humor and funny moments of unintended humor.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Jun 13, 2008

It's an entertaining movie, which is half the game, but it's not scary, which it should be. Neither is it something to be taken seriously, though it's intended to be.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Jun 13, 2008

Shyamalan's such an eager recycler, grinding out the same ideas and images again and again. The man who showed such promise less than a decade ago has been leaving a diminishing creative footprint ever since.

| Jun 13, 2008

No one will watch any of Shyamalan's recent films twice. A movie that features Wahlberg suggesting everyone try to outrun the wind can barely be watched once.

| Original Score: 1.5/4 | Jun 13, 2008