The Happening

Watching movies during the day is supposedly a risky decision. I say this because the only movie on the just above basic cable package was "The Happening" with Mark Wahlberg and Zooey Deschanel. This horror movie has a weird genetic mutation in plants reaping havoc in the north east. Nobody can explain what exactly"it" is but it is killing entire populations in the northeastern part of the country. The story has a struggling married couple (Wahlberg and Deschenel) rediscovering their love through this dramatic experience. Basically the most cliche plot to a horror movie possible.

It wasn't the terrible plot that turned me off from this movie. Instead it was the terrible special effects that they used to simulate "the happening". Due to the fact that this air poison was supposedly transmitted through plants, every time another area would be infected this howling wind would sweep through the area and love everything dead in its trail. That was the best simulation you could come up with? A big breeze like the one that happens right before a rain storm starts? For a movie with two big name actors as leads and a proven director, you would have thought they could come up with something that wasn't so cheesy. It was just a terrible attempt to sell the mutation that really took away from the scariness of the movie.

The one thing this movie has going for it was the added layer to the plot that comes into play at the end. The movie ends up being a metaphor for what we are doing to our environment as scientist chalk up "the happening" to the plants reacting to the pollution in the air. So in the end the movie had a good message which made it a little bit more than just another cliche thriller. It saved what was a terrible performance by Mark Wahlberg and just a cheesy all around horror movie.