There have been a few things on my mind this year when it comes to watching and making films. They are creating suspense and the use of restrictive narrative. As I continually ponder how to get kids to tell stories from behind the camera, I keep returning to these two ideas. It just so happens that both ideas appear in M. Night Shyamalan’s new film, The Happening.

I know what you’re thinking. M. Night Shyamalan hasn’t been able to re-create the success of the Sixth Sense. Listen. Forgive him and the forget it. I know, Signs could have been better, but did that “Alien in the Mexican Alley” not freak you out? What about Unbreakable?

Before I go on about this movie, I have to tell you that I did not really care for it as a whole. Knowing the film was only 1hr 30 minutes, I found myself checking my watch to see when the next act was coming. With that said, here are some of my thoughts on the film:

Suspension of Disbelief aka The Unbelievable.
There were some major “Come on…Really?” moments. As much as I love to forgive Mark Wahlberg, I still have a hard time believing him as an actor. Like in other films, the way he delivers some lines takes me out of the movie completely. He plays a science teacher and I think other teachers out there will agree that he needs to work on how he moderates a classroom discussion!?!? I also need to point out that completely ridiculous product placement shot for the iPhone in the diner. Not only did it look stupid, but I am sure that I heard the audience deflate…flat. The video shown on the iPhone leads me to…

Pandering aka Violence in film.
There is so much violence for kids out there that when I teach Driver’s Ed in the summer, I don’t show those gory films that we saw in our Driver’s Ed classes. It doesn’t scare kids. It causes them to cheer. Cheering must be the only reason that M. Night shows the lion cage scene. I allowed myself to believe a lot of things in the film, but come on. You have to agree that some things were a little too much. Kinda like there was a producer somewhere that said, “you need to add some more completely absurd death scenes for all those tweens out there”. For me, it was the first of a few times that I considered moving over to Get Smart in the other theater.

Juxtaposition aka Wide vs. Close Up
I love it when a filmmaker uses wide shots of characters and positions them next to or near close ups. Think of the old spaghetti westerns like A Few Dollars More. I love it in M. Night’s film because it stresses me out. The Happening tells a lot about the “happening” in a wide shot. People in the park. Bodies falling from the sky. Wandering survivors. Each meeting their fate in a gruesome way. Snap to the Wahlberg in a tight shot trying to make sense of it. There were times that I needed the camera to pull out so I can see if danger was coming. This anticipation of gloom is…

Suspense
The master of suspense is Alfred Hitchcock. M. Night uses a number of his techniques including music to tell of bad things to come. Who knew that we could fear the normally peaceful sound of wind and blowing trees? I recently read a great article by one of my favorite film bloggers/authors, David Bordwell. In it, Bordwell talks about our brain on suspense. I thought that The Happening did a nice job in keeping the tension of the unknown out there. When things are shot in the close up, we have to guess at…

Off Screen Action
As I have written before, I really appreciate the use of restricted narration. This is when we are denied information that the character can see. We are denied the long shot or that extreme overhead shot where we see the danger lurking around the corner. In the beginning of this film, we are treated to a variety of wide shots of doom. Cut to a Philadelphia classroom where Wahlberg asks the class to ponder the fate of bees. Each shot closer on Wahlberg. Until we are way too close, uncomfortably close. The shot is too soon. We haven’t digested the horror that is taking place outside those windows. In another shot, our heroes are in an open field just over the ridge from another group of survivors. Then, bang and then another bang. Only the shot of the ridge with a single tree. Another bang. The audience fills the void with there own version of the terror. I appreciate this because I don’t need to see it to know it is happening.

These small techniques make movie-watching fun. They make a somewhat lousy movie more enjoyable. As I sat in that theater, I wondered if others could appreciate or are even aware of the small conscious direction of the filmmaker. I know some people don’t because this movie has been racked over the coals of M. Night haters. For me, this is one of those moments that my appreciation of film works to justify the money I spent.

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