What's new

*** Official THE HAPPENING Discussion Thread (1 Viewer)

MikeRS

Screenwriter
Joined
Jul 17, 2002
Messages
1,326
Worth seeing for the Betty Buckley sequence. Night riffs/rips off "Psycho" awesomely. Hell, I'd say the tension there surpasses his best scare set-pieces in "Sixth Sense" and Signs" - and that's saying something.

The film is in a way Night retreating back to his "Signs" well - but without the serious suspense and tension of that film (other than the Buckley scene). I don't think Night was interested in going there. It's all about unnerving you with R-Rated suicides as Marky Mark and Zoey flee. But what he chose to focus on is pretty weak sauce as the script is so far away from satisfying on any kind of emotional/character level.

But the film is not some kind of WORST.FILM.EVER. Don't believe that hype. I found it more satisfying than "The Village" and "Lady In The Water" (not saying much....I know ;)).
 

MikeRS

Screenwriter
Joined
Jul 17, 2002
Messages
1,326

Well, if you're gonna go there, why not mention the 30 million it made overseas as well. ;)
 

Radioman970

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Jul 22, 2006
Messages
8,364
Location
Could be anywhere
Real Name
James Perry
I think people who are dropping him ("waiting for WOM") are doing themselves a disservice. M's films do offer deeper meanings to look for and that can be fun. The Village is a great example of that. I did a fun MST3K treatment of it the first time, but second viewing (bought the film expecting to riff it up again) was totally different. The film has an awesome look. The story really isn't anything new. Sci-Fi TV has done similar for years. There must be a STar Trek episode with the same story line of elders taking care of their own. M's version works really well. The Amish came to mind while watching it. I've learned to really like the film after ridiculing it. That's kind of cool for me.
 

Radioman970

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Jul 22, 2006
Messages
8,364
Location
Could be anywhere
Real Name
James Perry
I'm glad it's making money. I look forward to M's next effort and how this one effects his filmmaking technique. Hopefully he'll never make straight forward film to please the studios or masses. Good or bad his are something different with lots of his personal earmarks to look for. Unlike many, I'll most likely see ALL his films in the cinema from now on. I saw Sixth Sense and The Happening in the Cinema but the rest were home viewings.

We're on the same page. And #3 in your spoiler sounds like a good explanation of that problem.

Isn't amazing how well MNS's film create discussion? Is there a MNS film study course yet in a major university? There should be. :)
 

IanDP

Stunt Coordinator
Joined
Jun 28, 2006
Messages
103
Real Name
Ian
You're not the only who feels that way. It's M. Night's third biggest opening ever. Bottom line: People are still paying to see his movies.
M. Night Shyamalan Movie Box Office Results
Good for him, but I agree, next time I'd like to see him bring back "THE TWIST". If everybody is going to bash his movies anyway, he might as well make them how he wants to make them. If you've seen him in interviews, you know he's not a cocky guy. He just wants to make his kind of movies. He takes risks, and breaks the rules. You know what you're going to get from him. It will be strange, and unusual, unique and certainly different from anything else out there. :emoji_thumbsup:
 

IanDP

Stunt Coordinator
Joined
Jun 28, 2006
Messages
103
Real Name
Ian
I was thinking that too. How bad can a film be, if it creates so much discourse. Internet advertisers must love it when his movies come out, because every movie blog and forum is alive this morning with discussion of The Happening (for better or worse). You watch, this thread and the Review thread will go onto being some of the most lively ever.
 

Radioman970

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Jul 22, 2006
Messages
8,364
Location
Could be anywhere
Real Name
James Perry
Good deal! Although I never thought in a million years this would be the end of his filmmaker career like some seem to think.

Non-twist films from him don't bother me. But he's definitely of the Twilight Zone school of filmmaker. The Happening is very much like a Tales from the Darkside.

I haven't viewed too many of his interviews. The ones I did see had me thinking his ego was utterly huge. I've stated before I'd like something to "Happen" that would humble him a little. I felt it would improve his filmmaking. Maybe my dream came true...? ;)
 

Todd H

Go Dawgs!
Senior HTF Member
Joined
May 27, 1999
Messages
2,269
Location
Georgia
Real Name
Todd
I loved Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, and Signs. Heck, I even liked The Village. I've always though M. Night was a pretty talented director and I'm a big fan. But to me The Happening was just a terrible movie all around. I haven't walked out of a theater this disappointed since Kasdan's Dreamcatcher a few years ago.
 

Radioman970

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Jul 22, 2006
Messages
8,364
Location
Could be anywhere
Real Name
James Perry
Oops. I liked that one too. But again, not a great film...I just happened to look around its problems and find a genuinely enjoyable film. I think it was much the same with the Happening, expected the worst and didn't get it for either film. Luck would have it, I paid $2 for Dreamcaster the day after Thanksgiving. Gotta love those sales!

Oh, OT, the X-Files preview trailer preceeding the Happening has me excited. Looks better than I thought it would. REally can't wait to see that one. I think it will capture the flavor of the TV show moreso than the first film did. Although I liked it too.
 

Jari K

Senior HTF Member
Joined
May 16, 2007
Messages
3,288

I read one recent interview with him (from "Empire") and his message (one of them) in that was pretty clear; I´ll do films in my way. Not all people have to like them. He knows, that they´re not for everyone. But, they have made some good business.. It´s not that people won´t go to see his movies at all or his films are "flops". Even in this thread, most people paid to see "The Happening". ;)

Some people even hated "The Sixth Sense" and "Signs", so they´re probably also going to hate "The Happening"..
 

Neil Middlemiss

Premium
Reviewer
Senior HTF Member
Joined
Nov 15, 2001
Messages
5,320
Real Name
Neil Middlemiss
While I found the film to be heavy handed at times and not nearly as sharp as the films Night has made in the past, I liked it. I did sense at times that what I was watching was a film by a man who had his confidence knocked. But, having said that, he found wit in ways that I honestly believe people missed. He was still able to ratchet up the tension at times, but the payoff wasn't as powerful because he had failed to build up an emotional resonance. We were side by side with the characters in his other films (and yes, I am even talking about LiTW which is perhaps the most drastically underrated film of the past few years, IMHO) - but here we are nothing but spectators and that left the ending a little cold for me.

The funny thing about the two leads here is that they reminded me of his other lead characters - odd, awkward and a little peculiar all the way. I don't think Zooey and Mark pulled it off as cleanly, but I enjoyed their awkwardness and liked their simplicity.
 

Malcolm R

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Feb 8, 2002
Messages
25,141
Real Name
Malcolm
Because foreign distribution agreements can very wildly and there's no similar rule-of-thumb percentage.

They could have similar percentage breakdowns, or they could be very different. For instance, New Line sold off all the foreign distribution rights to "The Golden Compass" last fall (to partially finance production of the film). So even though that film made over $300M internationally, none of that gross came back to NL.

For the most part, if the studio maintains the foreign rights, they probably receive a breakdown of the foreign rentals similar to the domestic percentage.

Sounds like CinemaScore is running in the C-/D range, so I'd expect at least a 70% drop this weekend (and that may be a bit conservative).
 

todd s

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Jul 8, 1999
Messages
7,132
Wait...the trees fight back because of pollution? Yet, have had no problem with us cutting them down for thousands of years??? LOL ;)
 

Josh Steinberg

Premium
Reviewer
Senior HTF Member
Joined
Jun 10, 2003
Messages
26,274
Real Name
Josh Steinberg

What do you mean, "whole story"?

It was a pretty subtle cameo, Zooey Deschanel's character gets a phone call early on from a guy named Joey, and it's Night's voice on the other end of the call. I'm not sure what the aural equivalent of "blink and you'll miss it" is, but it was that quick.
 

JediFonger

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Feb 2, 2006
Messages
4,241
Real Name
YiFeng You
1. do u think there is a director's cut to salvage this? (which i can't possibly imagine how).

2. did fox "force" him to change it to a crappier movie? any1 know the politiks behind this? just wanted to place some blames. it's sooooooooooooo unlike M to do a movie this crappy.
 

Qui-Gon John

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Oct 2, 2000
Messages
3,532
Real Name
John Co

Actually, I did miss that.

But by "whole story", I read somewhere, maybe this thread or one of the reviews it links to, that the studio would not let him do a cameo on this one. Since he was listed as not only Director but Producer, seems strange he couldn't have one if he wanted. (One where he actually appears). I like the "Ray" in Signs cameo the best. Kind of a pretty important part, even though just a little screen time.
 

DavidPla

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Jan 15, 2004
Messages
2,357

There's a few reviews of the script when it was known as "The Green Effect" and pretty much every one of them is very positive. From Aint-It-Cool-News to Latino Review. I haven't seen the film yet so I don't know how close he kept to his original draft (which I think was written around when Signs was released)

- Script Reviews - Latest Movie Reviews and trailers

Further reading into this, M Night shopped this script around and was rejected by all the major studios despite claims that the script might've been one of his best. He asked for notes from the various studios and made the necessary changes in a re-write until it was eventually bought by Fox. Take that as you will.
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Latest Articles

Forum statistics

Threads
356,818
Messages
5,123,889
Members
144,184
Latest member
H-508
Recent bookmarks
0
Top