The Happening

I never heard about this movie before. I really like reading the summary or the synopsis of any movie before I decide watching it. Watching The Happening is one rare occasion that instead of reading reviews first, I watched it first.

The Happening is set in New York, in Central Park to be exact. A women sitting in a park suddenly kills herself. In a nearby location, another one shot himself to death. And in aconstruction site, workers started to jump to commit suicide. There is something going on and it is spreading. People suddenly lost their senses and started killing themselves. A teacher from Philadelphia together with his wife raced with the “virus” as they try to find out what it is. It was soon found out by the authorities that there is a toxin released by plants. It is their defense mechanism and they only release it when they fell threatened by a large group of people. They also theorized that the toxin is somewhat similar to the ocean algae toxin where it reaches its peak after 24 hours and quickly disappears. It explains how as the day progress, smaller group of people were affected by it. As it turns out, around 9 am the next day, the toxin had its peak. This time, even if one is alone, the plants feels threat on the person and releases the toxins. Months after what happened in the US, another phenomenon is happening and this time it is in France.

Morbid is one word that I can use to describe the movie. It was too graphical. I know that its goal is to present it in the gruesome way but they could make it in a more artistic way. The actors and the actresses lacks the “acting capability” give their situation is very alarming. Even the musical score of the movie is not worth remembering.

If there is one thing that I liked about the movie is how they come up with the story line. The scientific explanation of The Happening is really cool.

This movie is not for kids, so don’t try to watch it when the kids are still awake.