Director M. Night Shyamalan recently spoke about how the pandemic depicted in his 2008 film The Happening is similar to the ongoing coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
"Well, you know what’s similar is I guess it’s an unseen enemy, right? It’s a conceptual enemy, which is hard to wrap your head around," Shyamalan said after some similarities between the two pandemics were brought up in a recent interview. "And as you can see, by the way the country reacted to a conceptual enemy, the framing of the storytelling is everything." The director also noted that people's reactions to the pandemic were all over the board in The Happening.
It was then pointed out that The Happening featured news outlets claiming that the pandemic was fake, much like what many people have said about COVID-19. "Dude, no one would believe what happened here in these last four years," Shyamalan added. "No one would believe that any of this stuff could actually play out. No one would believe what we’ve witnessed in these last four years. No one."
The director went on to say that doctors in his own family had dealt with patients who didn't believe coronavirus was real. "They go, 'No, that’s a hoax. What am I really dying from?' That’s being said to the doctor! 'I don’t know what to tell you. You’re dying from the coronavirus.' And it’s incredible."
Released in the United States on June 13, 2008, The Happening showed a world in which a mysterious force was causing people to commit suicide. The film starred Mark Wahlberg as a high school science teacher, who joined with a team of other survivors trying to escape the disaster. Also starring in the film were Zooey Deschanel, John Leguizamo and Betty Buckley.
The Happening failed to land with critics and audience members and was even nominated for four Golden Raspberry Awards. Currently, the film has a score of 17% on Rotten Tomatoes among critics and 24% with audience members. Additionally, Metacritic has the film ranking at 34% with a user score of 5.6%.
Despite the critical failure of The Happening, Shyamalan has since directed several films that did well among critics and audience members, including 2015's The Visit and 2017's Split. He is also working on an upcoming thriller film called Old, which will be based on the graphic novel Sandcastle by Pierre Oscar Levy and Frederik Peeters.
In addition to his work with films, Shyamalan is executive producing the ongoing Apple+ series, Servant. The series began releasing back in Nov. 2019 and is currently in its second season.
Starring Lauren Ambrose, Toby Kebbell, Nell Tiger Free and Rupert Grint, the second season of Servant airs every Friday on Apple TV+.
Source: Uproxx