[Snippets] The Happening

The Happening, di M. Night Shyamalan (USA, India 2008)


A movie that belong to the apocalyptic genre (apocalyptic = more than catastrophic). I never completely like Shyamalan, I think he often starts moving in interesting directions and then stops quite early (see for example the criticism of science that he presents in a way that lacks any detail and argument in this movie); but he has nice intuitions.

In particular in this 'The Happening' S. in my opinion plays quite well the ambiguity card on what could exactly be the cause of the disaster that is striking the East Coast of the US - I try not to overdo the spoliers but there is a quite ingenious mechanism by which the enemy appears to be nature but at the same time danger is most acute when many people are gathered together; it seems then that it is necessary to split and stay as far as possible from each other, but this leads the protagonists to be isolated in the midst of nature, that is, this leads them in the arms of the enemy. S. is able to take advantage neatly of the indeterminacy and the potential blind alley in which the protagonists are to create an intriguing atmosphere of subtle tension.

The rest of the movie is, as people usually say (but do they????) uneven in quality - but I wanted to underscore this aspect of its and there you go.