10 Movies That Really Needed A Better Villain
3. The Happening
Much like The Fog, M. Night Shyamalan's The Happening actually boasts a pretty neat premise, but it's undermined by its offputtingly silly presentation.
The idea of the Earth effectively turning on humanity and releasing a toxin which forces humans to commit suicide isn't terrible, but having the transmission medium be plants? Nah.
It doesn't help at all, of course, that Shyamalan conjures up a number of unintentionally hilarious and bizarre moments such as the sequence where Elliot (Mark Wahlberg) ends up talking to a plant which, of course, turns out to be plastic (as if it matters).
With a better script and more assured direction, The Happening could've made Twilight Zone-inspired gold out of Mother Nature turning everything we take for granted against us.
Instead, it came down to the accidental comedy and totally un-cinematic revelation that the plants were the "bad" guys all along.