HORROR MOVIES 101

The Happening - Yay or Nay?

I haven't seen it yet so please NO SPOILERS if you've seen it...

From the Trailer it looks REALLY interesting and very creepy.  Has anyone seen a pre-viewing of it and is it worth seeing at the Theater or is it a DVD rental...

Just from the scenes of people falling or stepping off the buiding and the man who lays down in front of the mower and the creepy looking skeleton face woman who looked into the window, very cool images, just gave me the creeps BIG TIME.  But it's like we have known time after time sometimes the Trailer is better than the movie...

Re:The Happening - Yay or Nay?

Love him or hate him, M. Knight has managed to successfully make five great films under the Disney studios. The fact that he has managed to make great thrillers under a ``G`` rating and has been compared to Hitchcock says a lot. This is first R rated film and he is in total control breaking away from Disney. However he is also not allowing any pre screening for the film. Usually when this decision is made, it is bad news.

I would recommend not waiting for a DVD release for several reasons. First he is known for his twist endings. By the time it makes it to DVD, that twist might be spoiled for you. Also this film will be the most talked about film of the summer. I have a feeling people will either hate it or love it. There will be no in between and it sure will make an interesting debate.

Re:The Happening - Yay or Nay?

Thanks for letting me know that.  I agree with you, there are movies that I love that other people hate.  I've heard some bad things about it from critics already but I think I will go this weekend and see for myself. 

NakedLunchRadioShow:

 

Love him or hate him, M. Knight has managed to successfully make five great films under the Disney studios. The fact that he has managed to make great thrillers under a ``G`` rating and has been compared to Hitchcock says a lot. This is first R rated film and he is in total control breaking away from Disney. However he is also not allowing any pre screening for the film. Usually when this decision is made, it is bad news.

I would recommend not waiting for a DVD release for several reasons. First he is known for his twist endings. By the time it makes it to DVD, that twist might be spoiled for you. Also this film will be the most talked about film of the summer. I have a feeling people will either hate it or love it. There will be no in between and it sure will make an interesting debate.

 

Re:The Happening - Yay or Nay?

An interesting thing about M Night that I just posted in another group.

I just looked him up on IMDB and noticed that since The Sixth Sense, every single subsequent movie that he has directed has been rated worse than the previous one.  After six movies, that's not a very promising trend.

Re:The Happening - Yay or Nay?

I saw it today and it's one of the funniest movies I've seen in awhile. The acting and reactions of the characters are just so silly that you have to laugh. I think it had the potential to be creepy but unfortunately it was executed very badly. A good bad film, though.

divinemsjunebug:

I haven't seen it yet so please NO SPOILERS if you've seen it...

From the Trailer it looks REALLY interesting and very creepy.  Has anyone seen a pre-viewing of it and is it worth seeing at the Theater or is it a DVD rental...

Just from the scenes of people falling or stepping off the buiding and the man who lays down in front of the mower and the creepy looking skeleton face woman who looked into the window, very cool images, just gave me the creeps BIG TIME.  But it's like we have known time after time sometimes the Trailer is better than the movie...

Re:The Happening - Yay or Nay?

I recommend it if you're ready to see something ambitious and inept. I saw it with a friend and I'm glad I did; it makes you want to talk about it right away.

Re:The Happening - Yay or Nay?

SkyPilot:

I recommend it if you're ready to see something ambitious and inept. I saw it with a friend and I'm glad I did; it makes you want to talk about it right away.

I'm not about to disagree with you. I immediately got talking with the group of friends I watched the movie with about how bad it was. I'm not about to disguise my dislike of Shyamalan. Somehow Hollywood seems to keep forgetting how bad his movies are. They allow him to keep directing, and folks in the entertainment press seem to think he's alright. I've noticed him on a couple of top director lists, much to my surprise and annoyance.

What really gets to me is that Shyamalan thinks he has the right to be condescending to his audience even though his scripts are some of the worst I've ever seen. A couple of spots in the movie really came close to pissing me off, had they not instead just baffled me. John Leguizamo says his wife is headed to "the town of Princeton" as though the audience isn't aware the place existed. The crazy old bat who allows Mark Wahlberg and family to stay with her mentions the house was used "to hide slaves from slave-hunters" as though we haven't heard about the Underground Railroad. Add this to a script that seems very very rough (surprise surprise) and some sadly stale acting from some usually great actors (again, no shocker) and you've got a serious stinker of a movie.

I think Shyamalan's issue is one of pride and lack of outside advice. He appears to have the same problem as George Lucas. He's alright with concepts, and he's got a good visual sense, but he really shouldn't be allowed to write his movies. As a writer, it actually gives me some hope that  scripts that awful can get greenlighted. I mean, I could do better than that, and my writing sucks. Or, at least, I'm willing to admit that it sucks. We learned from "Lady in the Water" that Shyamalan is not about to cave in and realize what everyone else already knows: He couldn't write his way out of a paper bag.

Re:The Happening - Yay or Nay?

Okay, I finally saw The Happening and I can agree with ALL of you here.  I couldn't believe how bad some of the acting was especially when I have seen them all before in other things and thought they were pretty good, how strange.  Any way, he must have given them the direction to act all wide eyed and innocent and whiney...hmmm, I'm not sure.

BUT I do have to say that there were some parts I really did like.  I thought the beginning was extremely creepy (not when Mark W. was teaching) but especially the construction workers.  There were so many very cool scenes that I got a few chills from.  The part with the old crazy lady made me jump a few times, good shock scenes.  I do agree with Abby too that I thought it was strange how he had to explain some things making me think that he though only uneducated stupid people would be watching this movie...I just don't know.

I did have to say that I figured it out instantly from the beginning, I thought I'm sure everyone figured that out early.  I was hoping he wouldn't think we were shocked by that??  hmmmm.  Anyway, I do have to say that I didn't HATE the film, it creeped me out in several places so that I felt I wasn't totally cheated.  Most of his films I have enjoyed well except Lady in the water and The Village - I thought they were extremely mediocre but the other films were okay.  My favorites of course are The Sixth Sense and Signs - I hope one day he will get back up there to that callibert again if they let him make another movie...

Re:The Happening - Yay or Nay?

Well, now that Ms. June has seen the movie, I can mention what I think "should" have happened (mild spoiler...I guess).

I think if Shyamalan had wanted to make the movie at least halfway redeemable, he might have made the creepy lady somehow responsible for all the weird suicide stuff going on. She tells Wahlberg and family that she doesn't much cotton to people, and then you have that really creepy scene (the best one in the whole movie, as far as I'm concerned) where she's standing outside and the trees are whipping around in a previously nonexistent wind. At that point I thought "Oh my god! It's her!" but no. It wasn't. And I was disappointed.