Battle of the the's: Thing or Happening

[the midnight watch baboon]

So! When I get home from work should I watch the Happening which looks entertaining in a bad=fun way, or should I watch the Thing, which I know many people love but I have never seen. Or should I play Scrabble on facebook and wait for life to happen.

[El Unicornio, mang]

The Thing is perfect Saturday night viewing. do it.

[the midnight watch baboon]

Thanks! Sorted. Night watch half tonight and the rest after tomorrow night's shift as I get sleepy at midnights.

[Santa's Boyfriend]

The Thing is an infinitely superior film, The Happening should never be watched without the Rifftrax commentary attached as it's simply too painful.

[the midnight watch baboon]

The Happening's trailers for its showing on 4 tonight were tempting me to watch it for reasons I can't quite come to grips with! Just looked a misguided attempt at a film which somehow got through several green lights.

[gmoney]

The Thing scared my friend so much when she was a kid that when she moved in with her boyfriend, she made him take it off the DVD shelf because she didn't want to have to look at the DVD case when she walked past.

[the midnight watch baboon]

:O two heads! Normal set of organs though.

[Harpo Speaks]

I watched The Happening. There's actually some effective scenes, and I think you could make a good film with this concept, but this isn't it.

The Thing on the other hand is great.

[the midnight watch baboon]

I hope I'm not The Thing. I have shot my dog just in case.

[small_world]

Hmm. I never thought of this until reading this thread. What if The Happening was a troll? I mean, it couldn't have been a real attempt at a movie could it?

Oh, and my girlfriends review of The Happening "It's not happening". Although she wasn't too keen on The Thing either[nb]Or she may have said, "The Thing is."[/nb].

[SavageHedgehog]

Quite frankly I would say The Happening is the best of the film Shyamalan's has made post-Signs (yes, yes, I know) but that's more of a damning indictement of his stratospheric fall than anything

[rudi]

I'm waiting for the sequel: "You've got another Thing coming..."

[the midnight watch baboon]

I managed to stay awake and watch it all in one go, and enjoyable fayre it was too. Think tonight I shall watch "The Straight Story". Or "Atonement". Basically I need to clear my V box so I can record other things onto it.

[Harpo Speaks]

Hmm. I never thought of this until reading this thread. What if The Happening was a troll? I mean, it couldn't have been a real attempt at a movie could it?

I have actually seen people suggesting this before, using that 'You deserve this' billboard as a tentpole for their case.

As I said above, there are some effective scenes

Spoiler alert

e.g the people falling from the buildings at the start for example. But these are counterbalanced by ones such as the chase sequence in which a group of people attempt to outrun the wind, or Mark Wahlberg talking to a plastic houseplant.

[close]

There's also a ridiculous overuse of CU shots, and the least said about the dialogue the better - 'there appears to be an event happening'.

[SavageHedgehog]

I think Shyamalan described it a "deliberately campy" B-movie in the style of Irwin Allen or soemthing, which doesn't quite ring true for the film as a whole.

[the midnight watch baboon]

I genuinely liked Signs after not falling for T'Sixth Sense, Signs seemed to be lighter in tone and not as poe faced as something featuring a religious fellow losing his faith could have been. Even The Village carried a dollop of unnervingness. Well, a slightly creepy wolf-rabbit costume anyway. I have been warner off Lady in the Water though I'd still like to see Paul Giamatti larking around with a mermaid, who wouldn't?!

[Monkeyman1138]

At the risk of being ridiculed, I quite enjoyed Lady in the Water, bar the Shyamalan-as-messiah and critics-are-shits stuff.

[small_world]

Village and Signs, had a few good bits.
Something he does extremely well is the long shock thing. In Signs it the alien seen in the knife under the door. In a usual horror, you'll get a shock that'll last for a second, but it's drawn out here.
Same as The Village, there a re a few similar drawn out shock bits in that. Although it's been ages since I've seen it.

Lady in the Water lacked a lot of that, and he had loads of chances to put something like that in...

I don't know, I sometimes wish someone would just take control of him, shake the good ideas out and put back in a lot of the fairytale/twee but creepy ideas that overwhelm most of his stuff.

[lazyhour]

Watched The Happening the other day. It is a stunning piece of work. Really and truly, everyone should see it.

For all its 'how on earth did this get made'-ness, it does succeed in being unrelentingly bleak and gruesome, which is a giggle. It's also fun to watch Zooey Deschanel dream her way through the whole film and deliver every one of her lines unconvincingly.