The Happening [2008]

[Cross-posted on the Bad Movie Night Facebook page.]

Oh, M. Night Shyamalan. I'm not sure if there's ever been a director who started out a career on such a promising high note only to become a name synonymous with bad movies. After two good movies and then a steady decline into bad, "The Happening" marks the moment his films went from "not good" to "amazingly terrible". After this he directed "Avatar: The Last Airbender", which united fans of the television show with first time watchers in mutual hatred, and "After Earth", one of, if not the most, panned movie of 2013 with the surprising twist that M. Night Shyamalan directed it (he really managed to keep that one secret; oh, uh, spoiler alert). While either of those are perfect candidates for a Bad Movie Night, I doubt they could compare in sheer hilarity to "The Happening."

"The Happening" is when people suddenly start feeling the need to kill themselves and it starts in large populations, moving on to smaller and smaller groups. It is caused by some airborne toxin but no one really understands it and they make a point of foreshadowing that. We follow Elliot and his somewhat estranged wife Alma as they spontaneously get custody of Elliot's friend's daughter and wander around Pennsyltucky, not really sure how to protect themselves from the trees. They encounter a hippie and his wife who are really passionate about hot dogs, an MP private who swears with the phrase "cheese and crackers!", and two weirdly confrontational middle schoolers. The main event, however, is when they end up at the house of a crazy old lady who doesn't believe in electricity and asks deadpan questions like "Why you eyein' my lemon drink?" and "Planning on murdering me in my sleep, are you?" while still inviting them for dinner and offering a room. This movie was a unanimously voted future rewatch,

While you are watching the movie, it's easy to get hung up on how terrible the acting is as most lines are delivered with no feeling (Mark Wahlberg) or entirely too much feeling (John "DON'T TAKE MY DAUGHTER'S HAND UNLESS YOU MEAN IT" Leguizamo) but if you look past that it's pretty clear that the true enemy is the script which is full of unfathomable lines no one actually says in real life, nonsensical plot points, and aimlessness. You wouldn't care about your acting either. 

Other Quotes:
(while watching a video of lions ripping off a man's arms) "What kind of terrorists are these?"

Adam's Grandma's Review: "It was good. I liked it."