The Happening

The Sixth Sense director M Night Shyamalan's follow-up to Lady in the Water is a daft marriage of disaster thriller and 1970s eco-horror. It begins intriguingly enough with American cities afflicted by a sudden and inexplicable breakdown in human behaviour. But unlike 28 Days Later..., the violence comes in the form of self-destruction, as people are driven to suicide in a variety of shocking ways. Philadelphia science teacher Mark Wahlberg and his wife Zooey Deschanel hope to avoid the chaos by heading for the country, but soon find they can't be safe if they don't know who or what is causing the attacks. There's nothing exciting about this drawn-out tale of collective paranoia among an oddball group of survivors. Shyamalan's arch script moves from reasonably thoughtful hysteria to just hysterically funny - with Wahlberg conducting a lunatic conversation with a plastic pot plant. It's further evidence of the director's descent from the master of the paranormal plot twist into utter silliness.