The Happening (2008) on Netflix
R20081h 31mDramaSci-FiThriller
People in Central Park begin killing themselves, and the behavior spreads across the northeastern United States. Science teacher Elliot Moore and his wife Alma take a train out of Philadelphia.
- Netflix3.0/5
- IMDb5.0/10228,236 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes17%
Trailer
Plot summary
Elliot Moore is a high school science teacher who quizzes his class one day about an article in the New York Times. It's about the sudden, mysterious disappearance of bees. Yet again Nature is doing something inexplicable, and whatever science has to say about it will be, in the end, only a theory. Scientists will bring out more theories, but no explanations, when a more urgent dilemma hits the planet. It begins in Central Park. Suddenly and inexplicably, the behavior of everyone in the park changes in a most bizarre and horrible way. Soon, the strange behavior spreads throughout the city and beyond. Elliot, his wife, Alma, and Jess, the young daughter of a friend, will only have theories to guide them where to run and where to hide. But theories may not be enough.
Cast
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Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Happening (2008)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Following the failure of Lady in the Water, M. Night Shyamalan struggled to sell his next spec script, The Green Effect: by January 2007 several studios had received the screenplay but none were interested enough to purchase it, so he returned home to Philadelphia to rewrite it.
- Stephen King liked the film, giving it the edge over Fox's other summer creepshow The X-Files: I Want to Believe partly because "M. Night Shyamalan really understands fear" and partly because "after Lady in the Water he had something to prove".
- Mark Wahlberg offered his own opinion of The Happening in 2010, saying Amy Adams, who was in consideration for the role of Alma Moore, had "dodged the bullet" by not starring in the film.
- The film was nominated for four Golden Raspberry Awards, including Worst Picture, Worst Actor for Mark Wahlberg and Worst Director and Worst Screenplay for M. Night Shyamalan, and came first in a 2012 SFX magazine poll of "50 Worst Sci-fi & Fantasy Movies That Had No Excuse".
- The Happening is Shyamalan's first R-rated project, and on March 15, 2007 he described it as a 1960s paranoia film similar to The Birds and Invasion of the Body Snatchers.
