Shyamalan wants you to look at this image and see evil. That’s a beautiful thing.
The Happening (2008)
Written & Directed by M. Night Shyamalan
91 min.
Spoiler-free.
There exists a phenomenon in the arts where an artist, or a given work, is so bursting with subtle, glorious aspects that only fellow artists in the field or truly knowledgable critics can pick up on that when ‘civilians’ check it out, they see it as simply empty and stupid and boring. Their untrained eyes are so fixed on the surface elements that they miss the masterful sleights of hand underneath. This happened with The Happening. What’s unique here though is that filmmakers, for some reason, have yet to jump in and defend it and help civilians understand its wonderful aspects—probably because, for the most part, they themselves are just as clueless.
Continue reading The Happening: A Filmmaker’s Film
