By Jacelle Ramon-Sauberan

Save your money, folks, “The Happening” is just not happening.

M. Night Shyamalan’s movies are either a hit or a miss, and this film missed. I went into the horror movie thinking I would get a good scare. Instead I got a love story with people killing themselves in the background.

Elliot Moore (Mark Walhberg) is a high school science teacher in Philadelphia who tries to figure out why people are arbitrarily killing themselves. Meanwhile, his wife Alma Moore (Zooey Deschanel) has lied to him about going to dinner with another man. She confesses to Elliot with the line, “I-just-wanted-you-to-know-in-case-we-die.”

Throughout the movie the couple goes back and forth about how each feels. Elliot cannot get over his anger that Alma lied, so he decides to lie to her. He tells her he met an attractive pharmacist. He made a point to ask where the cough syrup was even though he didn’t have a cough. As Alma’s blue eyes fill with tears, she asks Elliot if he is lying – and Elliot nods his head.

The movie focused so much on Elliot and Alma’s feelings for each other I forgot people were killing themselves. I actually had to look at my ticket stub and make sure I was in the right movie.

I expected that people might turn into zombies or that a crazy old man would explain the mystery.

Instead the scene jumps to three months later. We see Alma and Elliot in their apartment, and it seems as if the mysterious killings had never happened. Alma is taking a pregnancy test and learns she is pregnant but that’s not the end. Suddenly, the movie cuts to two men, strangers to us, who begin talking French. It seems the arbitrary killings are about to happen in France.

The movie lacked a beginning, middle and end. Without those three essentials you don’t have a movie. Take Shyamalan’s 2002 hit “Signs.” That movie had a plot and kept you entertained and scared. Not to mention, it sold $60.1 million in its opening weekend, according to Box Office Mojo.

Since its June 13 release, “The Happening,” has earned $30 million, according to Fandango web site.

If you love to watch movies with no plots in whicih people kill themselves left and right, then this movie is for you. If not then go rent Shyamalan’s “Signs” or “The Sixth Sense.” Those are definitely two movies worth watching.