This film is a bizarre experience. The most of the short running time you're just waiting for The Happening, to um, happen.
The script is confused whether to be a thriller, a environmental statement or just a serious of grizzly deaths. For M. Night Shyamalan this is perhaps rock bottom, or at least until his next movie. The only positive aspect is the short running time, which may indicate that this is a cobbled together version. I can only hope that the extended (or directors cut) manages to piece together a worthwhile film. Somehow I really doubt it.
The trouble with M.Night Shyamalan films is that everyone one seems to expect some sort of huge twist in the tale. The Happening has no such twist and the film is more a tense thriller about an invisible threat that is causing the population to commit suicide on a mass scale. The film concentrates around a small group who flee the city and the thriller element is more focused on the paranoia and fear that surrounds the characters and how they deal with an unseen and unexplained force that could end their lives. Overall, this is a fairly decent thriller, not half as bad as people seem to make out and if you enjoyed Shyamalan's 'Signs' then it's well worth a rental.
Believe it or not, this is even worse that The Lady in the Water, which unfortunately is not just a blip of M Night S's, Clearly it was the start of the end. Don't waste your time with this film, you will be shocked at what a sore disappointment it is.