The Happening (2008) Trailer and Trailer Review

The teaser trailer for M. Night Shyalaman’s upcoming movie The Happening is online now. The movie looks pretty good, though I am skeptical after Shyalaman’s last two films (The Village and The Lady in the Water). Lady in the Water was particularly bad, while The Village just failed to live up to expectations set by Shyalaman’s other films.

The Happening stars Mark Wahlberg as a man who takes his family on the run as people around the world begin to die off to what appears to be at first a biological attack, then a natural biological disaster, and then something else much more ominous. The teaser trailer, as it is called despite having a running time of over two minutes, is pretty good. What does “pretty good mean”? It doesn’t capture the attention nearly as much as those for The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable or Signs, as it does not manage to establish the sense of any immediate suspense or thrilling moments. The teaser trail is a tad subdued, perhaps too much for its own good, and at the same time I have to give it to the marketing department for depicting the movie as a little different from Shyalaman’s other films. After all, his credibility has turned from near Spielberg-esque appreciation to muted hesitation, and something other than his name is needed to get people into seats.

The presence of Wahlberg, the different look to the film and the epic scale of the film do favor The Happening, and I am certainly intrigued to see what Shyalaman has in store for us. I’m actually hoping he doesn’t have a twist ending built into this one, though I might change my mind once I’m sitting in the theater. Regardless, I’m intrigued, though the marketing department will have to work hard to convince people that The Happening is more of the old Shyalaman than of the new; good reviews will also be necessary.

By Erik Samdahl
Related categories: Movie Trailers
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