The director takes full responsibility for the mixed responses to his 2008 psychological thriller.
Some actors aren’t afraid to publicly bash one of their movies, and that’s certainly the case when it comes to Mark Wahlberg and “The Happening.” M. Night Shyamalan’s 2008 psychological thriller stars Wahlberg as a high school science teacher trying to protect his family against an environmental threat forcing those afflicted to kill themselves. The movie was ripped to shreds by film critics (it has an 18% on Rotten Tomatoes), and not even Wahlberg tried to defend it in the years that followed.
Speaking at a press conference for “The Fighter” in 2013, Wahlberg was asked about meeting co-star Amy Adams. “We had actually had the luxury of having lunch before to talk about another movie and it was a bad movie that I did,” the actor said. “She dodged the bullet. And then I was still able to…I don’t want to tell you what movie…alright, ‘The Happening.’ Fuck it. It is what it is. Fucking trees, man. The plants. Fuck it. You can’t blame me for not wanting to try to play a science teacher. At least I wasn’t playing a cop or a crook.”
