Recent films centering on the end of the world have offered us many choices concerning how humanity's demise will occur. Runaway viruses seem to be the flavor of the day, but M. Night Shyamalan's The Happening presents a more chilling and realistic possibility. This once-lauded director encountered troubled times with his last couple of flicks, and if there were any project to catapult him back into the limelight, it would be this one. The Happening isn't perfect by any means: it's incredibly flawed in certain parts, and yet at heart, it's a modest but frightening little tale about what happens when humans get struck hard by what they take for granted.

A catastrophic event is beginning to unfold in the northeastern United States. People suddenly become disoriented, walk around strangely, and, to grimly cap it all off, commit suicide right on the spot. As the first instance took place in and around New York City's Central Park, authorities almost instantly believe it to be the result of terrorism and biological warfare. As a precaution, science teacher Elliot Moore (Mark Wahlberg) and his wife Alma (Zooey Deschanel) decide to leave Philadelphia behind and seek shelter outside of the state. However, they soon realize that not only are the suicides growing in number, the idea of terrorists being responsible is becoming less probable. The real answer may come from a source no one suspects, a force so massive and far-reaching that Elliot and those others trying to flee the carnage may not be able to escape it.

I suspect one of the reasons so many lambasted The Village and Lady in the Water is that they didn't quite feel as personal as the films that made Shyamalan famous. The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable boasted enormous invention and intensity, yet they remained fairly quiet, working modestly to absorb the viewer instead of growing too ambitious for their own britches. The Happening marks somewhat of a return to form for the guy, which you might not think considering the story's rather epic nature. You can't get much more bold than suicides on a mass scale, but Shyamalan retains that personal edge by showing the events from the perspective of a tiny group of people simply trying to survive. The audience remains just as much in the dark about what's going on as they are, stumbling upon ghastly sights and fielding confusing theories at the same pace. As wild and out-there as the happening's effects can be, Shyamalan never lets viewers forget that innocent and very scared people are at the center of his focus.

Still, even though Shyamalan tries his hardest to stop the gory theatrics from overwhelming the humanity at the story's center, there are times when the shocking acts of violence do just that -- and the results are sometimes memorable for all the wrong reasons. A few of these moments are downright disturbing, the most shocking of which comes not from victims of the happening doing themselves in but from a group of paranoid survivors who turn away Elliot's pleas for help. But others fall victim to a certain inherent goofiness, especially what happens when one affected zookeeper wanders into a lion's den. There are other times when Shyamalan's commentary on society isn't exactly on the ball, resulting in scenes like an extended visit with a crazy recluse (Betty Buckley) that comes across as downright loopy. The acting ranges from the very solid (Wahlberg gives one of his better performances here) to the ridiculously bad (I'm not even sure Deschanel was on Earth at the time of filming).

While The Happening is an imperfect film with some very good stuff going for it, I wouldn't recommend it to those expecting a thrill-a-minute joy ride. It's a very somber picture, not one that fits in with the usual summer fare. However, although this film becomes overwrought with one hang-up too many, it's still got a lot more to say than fifteen blockbusters put together.

MY RATING: ** 1/2 (out of ****)

(Released by Twentieth Century Fox and rated "R" for violence and disturbing images.)