M. Night Shyamalan's Infamous Horror Flop With 18% RT Score Climbing Streaming Charts 16 Years Later (2024)

While it may be one of both the filmmaker and star's worst-reviewed movies in their careers, The Happening is starting to get a second chance at success on streaming. M. Night Shyamalan's 2008 movie starred Mark Wahlberg as high school science teacher Elliot Moore as he and his wife, Alma, race around the Northeastern United States region in the hopes of escaping the mysterious mass suicides affecting the area. Also starring Zooey Deschanel and John Leguizamo, The Happening was widely panned upon its release, holding just an 18% approval rating from critics on Rotten Tomatoes, but was a modest box office success.

Just a couple of weeks after finding a new streaming home on the platform, Shyamalan's The Happening is climbing Hulu's charts. At the time of writing, the 2008 horror movie sits in the No. 3 spot on the streamer's Top 15 Movies Today. The movie is currently sitting behind two new Hulu Originals, the No. 1 spot being held by the children's show satire Mr. Crockett and the No. 2 spot taken by the Sarah Paulson-led psychological period horror drama Hold Your Breath.

Looking at the rest of the chart behind The Happening, the 2008 movie isn't the only Shyamalan title to be in Hulu's Top 15 Movies, with his 1999 classic The Sixth Sense sitting at No. 8 and 2002's Signs at No. 15. The rest of the chart has largely been dominated by fellow horror titles Ready or Not at No. 4, The Purge at No. 5, The Purge: Election Year at No. 9, Sting at No. 12 and The Nun II at No. 13.

The remaining few spots in Hulu's Top 15 are primarily those of the action genre, including Bad Boys for Life at No. 6, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl at No. 10, The Hitman's Bodyguard at No. 11 and The Day After Tomorrow at No. 14, though Anne Hathaway's The Princess Diaries has snuck in at the No. 7 spot.

Is The Happening Worth Streaming?

One Should Temper Their Expectations For The Movie's Tone

Considering just how poorly received the movie was at the time of its release, it may come as somewhat of a surprise that The Happening is performing so well after making its Hulu debut. Critics weren't the only ones unimpressed with Shyamalan's 2008 horror film, as it holds a dismal 24% score from audiences on Rotten Tomatoes, as well as a dreaded D on CinemaScore. Even still, with this surge in popularity, some may be wondering whether The Happening is worth streaming.

The Happening Key Facts

Budget

$48-60 Million

Box Office

$163.4 Million

RT Critic Score

18%

RT Audience Score

24%

Metacritic Critics Score

34

Metacritic User Score

4.1

CinemaScore

D

As someone who became disappointed by Shyamalan's 11-year-run of poorly received movies, it's certainly hard for me to fully recommend The Happening. The concept at the heart of its story is certainly a novel one, and there's definitely a case to be made that it's an excellent B-movie much in the way of such '50s classics as The Blob. That said, the movie's overall tone is still too far inconsistent to even fully defend it from this point of view, something that Shyamalan himself has admitted in the past when reflecting on the film.

Related

10 Best Movies Like The Happening

From the environmental thrills of The Bay to the M. Night Shyamalan twists of Knock at the Cabin, there are many great movies like The Happening.

However, one reason why one could consider watching The Happening is if they enjoy movies that are so bad that they're thoroughly entertaining. Fans of films like Tommy Wiseau's The Room or even Ed Wood's Plan 9 From Outer Space will find themselves delighted by Shyamalan's movie, namely for just how awkward some of its dialogue is delivered.

Our Take On The Happening's Streaming Success

Shyamalan's Recent Resurgence Is Likely A Main Factor

M. Night Shyamalan's Infamous Horror Flop With 18% RT Score Climbing Streaming Charts 16 Years Later (2)

As to why The Happening is suddenly finding success on streaming, one of the likeliest reasons is that Shyamalan has enjoyed something of a career resurgence in recent years. Though the James McAvoy-led Split was his big return to fame, his subsequent titles of Glass and Old failed to resonate in the same way, even if the former proved to be one of the filmmaker's highest-grossing movies to date. Between the critical success of 2023's Knock at the Cabin and mixed-to-positive response to this year's Trap, it's clear viewers are willing to watch his work again.

2024 also marked the release of The Watchers, the feature directorial debut of one of Shyamalan's daughters, Ishana, which he produced.

The other likely factor why The Happening is performing so well on Hulu is that it's now the Halloween season, and audiences are subsequently looking for horror-driven things to watch. This seems no more evident than the fact that, of the streamer's Top 15 chart, two thirds are populated by horror-related titles. Should this late success lead to interest in Shyamalan's other movies on the platform, he may just find himself completely dominating Hulu's charts for the rest of the month.

Source: Hulu

M. Night Shyamalan's Infamous Horror Flop With 18% RT Score Climbing Streaming Charts 16 Years Later (3)

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M. Night Shyamalan's Infamous Horror Flop With 18% RT Score Climbing Streaming Charts 16 Years Later (4)

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The Happening

R

Adventure

Drama

Sci-Fi

Writer/director M. Night Shyamalan presents The Happening, a thriller that centers around a strange unexplained phenomenon that begins to cause human beings to commit suicide in waves. Initially believed to be an international terrorist attack, science teacher Elliot and his wife Alma head to Boston with friends to escape the chaos. Soon enough, they realize that the effects have spread further than they thought - possibly across the entire world.

Director
M. Night Shyamalan

Release Date
June 13, 2008

Studio(s)
20th Century , Dune Entertainment , Spyglass Media Group , Blinding Edge Pictures

Distributor(s)
20th Century
Writers
M. Night Shyamalan
Cast
Mark Wahlberg , Zooey Deschanel , John Leguizamo , Ashlyn Sanchez , Betty Buckley , Spencer Breslin

Runtime
91 Minutes

Budget
$40-60 Million
M. Night Shyamalan's Infamous Horror Flop With 18% RT Score Climbing Streaming Charts 16 Years Later (2024)
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