The Happening (2008)

As a fan of several of Shyamalan's films, I can't say that he's on a roll lately. The rumours around the writer/director's arrogance might be true after having watched his take on nature's revenge on humanity.

A chemical or a frequency released upon crowds of people neutralize their sense of survival and they kill themselves, en masse, and in very gruesome ways. In essence, New England becomes host to suicide-fest. The film is another in a series of apocalyptic films geared towards the north-easter United States produced recently.

Visually, Shyamalan is definitely a master of suspense, but he overdoes his 'point the camera at what isn't happening' so much that we get tired of watching. That said, most of the film is very well crafted photography-wise. The denouement is probably the worst that I've seen in a long, long time.

I was reminded of Hitchcock's The Birds with its openendedness and use of a terrifying natural phonomenon. 

Truth: We ought not assume that we know everything that there is to know about nature and there are perhaps threats to humanity that we have not been exposed to yet.

Official Site | IMDB

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