The Happening (Thriller/Horror, 91 minutes. Mark Wahlberg, Zooey Deschanel, John Leguizamo, Ashlyn Sanchez. Written by and directed by M. Night Shyamalan. Playing at Blitz Megaplex and 21 Cineplex)

Science teacher Elliot Moore (Wahlberg) and his pal, Julian (Leguizamo), an affable maths teacher, find themselves caught up in a national calamity when it's reported that people in New York are being struck ill by a mysterious toxin.

The friends decide to get out of the city and make their way to the train station, collecting Elliot's wife (Deschanel) and Julian's young daughter (Sanchez) on the way. The toxin and its effects are soon cutting a swathe across the northeast of the United States.

If you enjoy George Romero zombie films or science fiction like Day of the Triffids, you're probably going to like The Happening. It's eerie and disturbing, but with a mild, wry humor surfacing from time to time.

The conceit of such films, that it's human behavior you really have to watch out for, comes through effectively here, and with a slightly new take on idea of "the enemy within".

The film's strength is in making the ordinary seem suddenly menacing. Some well crafted minor characters can't entirely compensate for the central couple's lack of chemistry. This is a valiant effort.

***1/2 (out of *****)

-- Briony Kidd

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