The Happening - even Rifftrax could not save it

[Wendel]

Watched "The Happening" this weekend with the Rifftrax and even THAT could not save this film.
When I look at all the movies that never got a green light I wonder how this one managed to slide by.

It is bad.
It is really bad.

It makes Plan 9 look like Gone with the Wind.

Even the great efforts of Mike Bill and Kevin could not save this tar pit of a film.

[FordPrefect]

Watched "The Happening" this weekend with the Rifftrax and even THAT could not save this film.
When I look at all the movies that never got a green light I wonder how this one managed to slide by.

It is bad.
It is really bad.

It makes Plan 9 look like Gone with the Wind.

Even the great efforts of Mike Bill and Kevin could not save this tar pit of a film.

Really? My friends and I loved the riff for this movie, but to each his own.
If you think you can brave it again, you can always check out the Quiptracks riff for this movie and see if you like it any better.
http://quiptracks.com/zencart/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1&products_id=7&zenid=9b7b601aa3e03612b627c44432e59009

As for how this film got made, M. Night originally had a spec script called "The Green Effect" and showed it to various studios, but none of them thought it was interesting enough to purchase. Presumably, Disney and Warner Bros. knew better from previous experience. Using ideas and notes from those meetings, he rewrote it and gave it a different title. 20th Century Fox greenlit the project, probably because they were remembering his films that did well, and ignored his last two films that didn't. Although the movie didn't perform that well at theaters in America, it made quite a bit more in the overseas market. It probably helped that an India-based company, UTV, co-financed fifty percent of the film's budget and took care of the distribution there. It was also a top DVD rental the week it came out. I'm sure you'll be happy to know that Paramount has signed him on to write, direct and produce a trilogy of live action films based on "Avatar: The Last Airbender".

Speaking of Shyamalan movies that got made, how about some that didn't? He was offered to direct the first Harry Potter movie, but the project conflicted with the production of Unbreakable. He's still interested in directing one of the last Harry Potter films. He was also in early talks to write the script for the fourth Indiana Jones film!

[PsypherPunk]

He was also in early talks to write the script for the fourth Indiana Jones film!

"Wh'are you eyeing maaa polycrystalline cranium?"

[Wendel]

The rift was as good as it could be, but the movie was so bad that they had little of great merit to work with.

This seems to be the direction of  M. Night's work.  Each film is a little less interesting than his last.

I know with Hollywood a reputation is all that is necessary for a green light, but I do wish someone would say, "Nah, this one just is not up to par."

By the way, have you ever seen the ORIGINAL "The Happening"?

[Asbestos Bill]

I don't know, man... I haven't seen the Rifftrax yet (I saw the movie so many times while I was riffing it that I can't bring myself to watch it again so soon) but The Happening was perfect riff fodder.

[gbeenie]

The rift was as good as it could be, but the movie was so bad that they had little of great merit to work with.

This seems to be the direction of  M. Night's work.  Each film is a little less interesting than his last.

I know with Hollywood a reputation is all that is necessary for a green light, but I do wish someone would say, "Nah, this one just is not up to par."

By the way, have you ever seen the ORIGINAL "The Happening"?

Why, yes, I have:

[Invisible NanoGhost]

Hmm, did either of the riff tracks include some lines from the Supremes' song?

[jollyreaper]

I thought the riffing was pretty good on this one. It truly was an awful movie. I tend to divide movies into two classes, the kind that are awful in retrospect and the kind that you know are awful as you're watching them. Of the ones riffed here that I've seen, the ones that fall squarely into "awful when you're watching" are Transformers, Battlefield Earth, Crystal Skullfuck, Matrix sequels and the Star Wars prequels.

M. Night movies are more frustrating because you don't really have an appreciation for how awful they are until afterward. Sixth Sense was the only good movie he's ever made. The rest of them I've seen, you keep watching because you think something good might be happening until you get to the end and, having experienced the entirety, realize its entirely awful, even the parts you first mistook as entertaining. Its kind of like drinking heavily all night and not quite realizing until the chunks are flying that however good a time you were having, its not a good time anymore.

The thing that was so deceptive with the advertising of the Happening is that I thought the whole bit was about scary floating bodies. We saw legs dangling in the trailer, not knowing they were suicided lawn workers hanging from trees. We saw the construction worker bodies falling from the building. It looked a whole lot cooler and mysterious than plant nerve gas. And I'll admit that I'm a total sucker for disaster horror movies like this, I was totally sold on the premise alone. But wow, this ended up being exactly like the awful B-movies from the MST3K days.

My favorite part is the low-rent villain, a big fan off-screen blowing at trees. Shit, I'm going to write my own spec script called "The Invisible Monster Nobody Can See Who Kills You Not With Expensive Gore Shots But By Having You Writhe On The Ground Like You Were Dosed With Nerve Gas Which Can Be Accomplished With Crappy Acting." So we'll just have the camera track nothing across the room while cutting to reaction shots of scared actors, dub in some pig squealing that's been reversed and reverbed so it'll sound demonic. The actors will scream and fall and play dead. It'll be the cheapest movie ever.

Random rant on Signs, what I learned from the movie: if I ever get my own flying saucer, it would make sense for me to get my friends together and go invade a planet where hydrochloric acid rains from the sky, where oceans of the stuff lay between the continents, where the very creatures I seek to enslave are 70% acid by mass .And then I'll invade this planet naked. Makes about as much sense as these aliens invading a planet filled with the stuff that makes them go all Wicked Witch of the West.

[ninjacat11]

The great thing about The Happening is that I didn't even need the Rifftrax in order to laugh at it. It definitely helped a lot, though.

The Happening really is the next Plan 9.

[Bob]

I thought the riffing was pretty good on this one. It truly was an awful movie. I tend to divide movies into two classes, the kind that are awful in retrospect and the kind that you know are awful as you're watching them. Of the ones riffed here that I've seen, the ones that fall squarely into "awful when you're watching" are Transformers, Battlefield Earth, Crystal Skullfuck, Matrix sequels and the Star Wars prequels.

M. Night movies are more frustrating because you don't really have an appreciation for how awful they are until afterward. Sixth Sense was the only good movie he's ever made. The rest of them I've seen, you keep watching because you think something good might be happening until you get to the end and, having experienced the entirety, realize its entirely awful, even the parts you first mistook as entertaining. Its kind of like drinking heavily all night and not quite realizing until the chunks are flying that however good a time you were having, its not a good time anymore.

The thing that was so deceptive with the advertising of the Happening is that I thought the whole bit was about scary floating bodies. We saw legs dangling in the trailer, not knowing they were suicided lawn workers hanging from trees. We saw the construction worker bodies falling from the building. It looked a whole lot cooler and mysterious than plant nerve gas. And I'll admit that I'm a total sucker for disaster horror movies like this, I was totally sold on the premise alone. But wow, this ended up being exactly like the awful B-movies from the MST3K days.

My favorite part is the low-rent villain, a big fan off-screen blowing at trees. Shit, I'm going to write my own spec script called "The Invisible Monster Nobody Can See Who Kills You Not With Expensive Gore Shots But By Having You Writhe On The Ground Like You Were Dosed With Nerve Gas Which Can Be Accomplished With Crappy Acting." So we'll just have the camera track nothing across the room while cutting to reaction shots of scared actors, dub in some pig squealing that's been reversed and reverbed so it'll sound demonic. The actors will scream and fall and play dead. It'll be the cheapest movie ever.

Random rant on Signs, what I learned from the movie: if I ever get my own flying saucer, it would make sense for me to get my friends together and go invade a planet where hydrochloric acid rains from the sky, where oceans of the stuff lay between the continents, where the very creatures I seek to enslave are 70% acid by mass .And then I'll invade this planet naked. Makes about as much sense as these aliens invading a planet filled with the stuff that makes them go all Wicked Witch of the West.

I wonder if we can get the studio to put this on his official movie posters?

[gbeenie]

The great thing about The Happening is that I didn't even need the Rifftrax in order to laugh at it.

Oh yeah. We were laughing our asses off in the theatre (much to the consternation of our fellow patrons).

[RoninFox]

The great thing about The Happening is that I didn't even need the Rifftrax in order to laugh at it.

Oh yeah. We were laughing our asses off in the theatre (much to the consternation of our fellow patrons).

I watched it out of curiosity a couple days before I got the riff, and laughed several times, though that was mostly at the thought of "Oh, they're going to tear this movie apart and it will be great."

[Nunyerbiz]

I rented this movie via Netflix with the idea of watching it unriffed first... you know, because I was silly enough to think M.Night might make another decent movie at some point. Well, never got around to watching it with the riff... and eventually sent the movie back because I wanted other crap from my queue. So yea, I have to rent The Happening AGAIN at some point... I'm not the sharpest knife in the drawer. 

As far as the movie, I thought it was bad... but at the time it didn't strike me as being that much worse than most M.Night movies. I guess I was expecting lame from the get-go, so the fact that it was lame didn't phase me that much...

[JimJ]

The great thing about The Happening is that I didn't even need the Rifftrax in order to laugh at it. It definitely helped a lot, though.

The Happening really is the next Plan 9.

100% agree with that.  The Happening is a cheesy B movie with mainstream actors and a bigger budget.  I love it for that reason.  The riff just made it so much better and to date it's the best Rifftrax I've watched.

[KathleenJL]

I think it's not so bad 

Watched "The Happening" this weekend with the Rifftrax and even THAT could not save this film.
When I look at all the movies that never got a green light I wonder how this one managed to slide by.

It is bad.
It is really bad.

It makes Plan 9 look like Gone with the Wind.

Even the great efforts of Mike Bill and Kevin could not save this tar pit of a film.