It’s June 19th, and here’s that new posting—but it's not an entry because there’s a lot of other writing to do this week. We’ll have our act together for a proper entry on
Monday Tuesday. (We
can't even keep track of our new schedule. Anyway, it seems Tuesday's
entry will be referring back to this posting.)
But for now, let’s quickly discuss
The Happening. We weren’t as offended as others were by M. Night Shyamalan’s eco-thriller. The ending is kind of creepy, especially with that whole notion that having babies is like attacking the planet. We were still more disgusted by the writer/director’s desperate pandering.
The Happening—in which plants inspire people to commit mass suicide—is clearly Shyamalan’s bid to get back in Hollywood’s good graces with a good Leftist tale.
He might have had additional inspiration. While filmgoers were being disappointed at matinee screenings of
The Happening, we were spending a Friday afternoon reading a
Shock! compilation by Richard Matheson. The legendary horror writer published a few
Shock! collections. We were reading a first edition from 1961. By then, Matheson was already known as a master of the chilling ending. Not necessarily twist endings—such as Shyamalan often attempts—but chilling endings.
We’re pretty sure Shyamalan also knows about Matheson’s reputation. The second story in this
Shock! collection is called “Lemmings.” It’s a very short piece about two cops watching as millions of people commit suicide by walking into an ocean.
“Don’t think about it,” says one. “It’s happening. What else is there?”
The creepiest thing about “Lemmings”/
The Happening, though, is what doesn’t happen in the movie. We don't recall a single scene of mass drownings. That would seem like the most logical shot to expect in the film. We’re thinking there’s a good reason that Shyamalan decided that kind of thing would be too obvious.
This isn’t meant to be some grand indictment, of course—though it wouldn’t be so bad if Matheson’s estate looked into the matter. This is really just a reminder that
The Happening isn’t merely moronic. The film also suffers from laying on the Leftist moralizing. Matheson does much more with just two pages of story.
