When one of a director’s early films is so good, every movie after that seems disappointing. This is the curse of M. Night Shyamalan, whose 1999 psychological thriller The Sixth Sense is unquestionably his masterpiece. Subsequent movies such as Signs, The Village, and Lady In The Water often relied on a third-act twist that elicited more groans than thrills. This brings us to 2008’s The Happening, a movie starring Mark Wahlberg in which trees revolt against humanity and put something into the air that causes mass suicides. First of all, the idea of trees killing people is laughable, not scary, which is probably not the reaction you want in a thriller. The movie bombed and even made some “Worst Films Of All Time” lists, although more recently some forgiving fans suggested that we should revisit The Happening as a camp classic. In 2019, Shyamalan said about The Happening, “I think it’s a consistent kind of farce humor. You know, like The Blob.” So maybe it WAS supposed to be funny? What a twist!