When a deadly airborne virus threatens to wipe out the northeastern United States, teacher Elliott Moore and his wife Alma flee from contaminated cities into the countryside in a fight to discover the truth. Is it terrorism, the accidental release of some toxic military bio weapon -- or something even more sinister?
All that's missing is the head alien of Plan 9 From Outer Space dropping by to lecture the populace for disrespecting nature: 'Your stupid minds! Stupid! Stupid!'
– David Edelstein,
New York Magazine/Vulture,
16 Jun 2008
fresh:
It almost dares you to roll your eyes or laugh at certain scenes that are supposed to be deadly serious. But, you know what, I appreciated this creatively offbeat, daring sci-fi mind-trip.
– Richard Roeper,
Ebert & Roeper,
16 Jun 2008
rotten:
For a movie with the potential for so much global-warming electricity, it's disappointingly low on voltage.
– Rex Reed,
New York Observer,
18 Jun 2008
rotten:
The Happening is an awful letdown, yet it leaves you with something new, as a gently waving tree -- that classical image of pastoral tranquillity -- mutates into a harbinger of doom.
– Anthony Lane,
New Yorker,
23 Jun 2008
rotten:
[A]n astonishment, so idiotic in conception and inept in execution that, after seeing it, one almost wonders whether it was real or imagined.