M. Night Shyamalan's new thriller hits the screen on Thursday, June 12. 

From director M. Night Shyamalan (The Sixth Sense, Signs) comes a lightning-paced, heart-pounding thriller about a family on the run from an inexplicable and unstoppable event that threatens not only humankind,. but the most basic human instinct of them all – survival.

It begins without warning. In a matter of minutes, episodes of strange, chilling deaths that defy reason and boggle the mind with their shocking destructiveness erupt in major American cities.

What is causing this sudden, total breakdown of human behaviour? Is it some kind of terrorist attack, an experiment gone wrong, a diabolical toxic weapon, an out-of-control virus? Is it being transmitted by air, by water ... how?

For Philadelphia high school science teacher Elliot Moore (Academy Awardnominee Mark Wahlberg) what matters most is finding a way to escape the mysterious and deadly phenomenon.

Though he and his wife Alma (Zooey Deschanel) are in the midst of a marital crisis, they hit the road, first by train, then by car, with Elliot’s math teacher friend Julian (Emmy Award-winner John Leguizamo) and his eight-year-old daughter Jess (Ashlyn Sanchez), heading for the Pennsylvania farmlands where they hope they’ll be out of reach of the grisly, evergrowing attacks.

Yet it soon becomes clear no one – and nowhere – is safe. This terrifying, invisible killer cannot be outrun.

It is only when Elliot begins to discover the true nature of what is lurking out there, and just what has unleashed the force that threatens the future of humanity, that he begins to actually believe his fragile family might be able to escape.

The Happening is rated MA15+ is currently screening at Birch Carroll & Coyle.

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