I’m not generally a fan of horror movies, but I am a fan of M. Night Shyam—look, I’m just going to call him Shazam, okay?—so I went to see The Happening. As with most of Shazam’s previous work, the atmosphere is expertly crafted—this is an effectively creepy movie. It’s also his first R-rated venture, and it deserves that rating, if only for the very disturbing content—if you’ve seen the trailer, you’ve got a good idea of what to expect. Unfortunately, while Zooey Deschanel and several of the other actors put on a good show, the movie is somewhat undermined by a poor performance from lead Mark Wahlberg, miscast as a high school science teacher. He does well in a couple of the more comic scenes and the “epiphany moment” is played pretty well too, but I think there are other actors that would have been better suited to the role. Unlike Shazam’s other work, there’s not necessarily a big reveal at the end—instead, the film revels in its own mystery. While the director doesn’t make his habitual onscreen cameo, à la Hitchcock, keep an ear cocked for his voice in a minor role and look for the ever so brief tip of the hat to his next project.