There’s a large part of me that can’t understand why Shyamalan’s tense eco-horror movie is getting such a critical drubbing except that much of the critical establishment likes drubbing him in the same way they liked drubbing Spielberg back in the 1980s. Granted, not all of the film works perfectly, and some of the thematic material is laid on with too heavy a hand. But, as far as generating tension and depicting a world gone mad without giving us cliched shots of panicked crowds, The Happening is effectively unnerving and casts quite a spell if you can buy into the reason for the madness. And, even if you think the last half of the film is too meandering (which I don’t), it is hard to deny that the film’s opening 10 minutes are not as haunting and terrifying as anything Shyamalan has ever done. (Hollywood Jewel 16, Waco, TX)