DVDs: 'The Happening'

90 minutes. Rated R.

It's a big-budget apocalyptic horror movie that has plenty of shocks but no showy special effects -- a movie that relies on suspense, the cumulative effect of its unsettling premise and the suggestion of what's happening off screen to raise the hair on the backs of our necks. It opens on a calm morning in New York's Central Park, when suddenly people stop what they're doing and look for the easiest way to kill themselves -- a horrific moment the media immediately assume to be a terrorist attack through the release of a neurotoxin. Soon, more "events" occur, civilization and human psychology break down, Mother Nature is on the warpath and a high school science teacher (Mark Wahlberg) is left to make sense of what's happening. The DVD extras include deleted scenes and several featurettes.

-- William Arnold

Also new on DVD this week: "You Don't Mess With the Zohan," "The Visitor," "Normal," "The 7th Voyage of Sinbad," "Ray Harryhausen Collection," "30 Rock: Season 2," "The Simpsons: The Eleventh Season," "How I Met Your Mother: Season Three," "Martin: The Complete Fifth Season," "The Beverly Hillbillies: The Official Second Season," "The Munsters: The Complete Series," "Touch of Evil," Brotherhood: The Complete Second Season," "Kimora: Life in the Fab Lane Season One."

-- P-I staff and

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