The quirky, melodramatic performances in “Happening” have spurred YouTube videos, widespread head-scratching and one of “Saturday Night Live”’s most popular skits in years, but here’s the thing…according to director M. Night Shyamalan, it was all intentional.

The acclaimed director of “The Sixth Sense” and “Unbreakable” tells MTV News that the entire mood of “The Happening” — from the acting of stars Mark Wahlberg and Zooey Deschanel to the plot itself — is rooted in the classic sci-fi films of the 1950s.

“I definitely responded to that whole ‘Invasion of the Body Snatchers’ [thing],” exclaimed Shyamalan. “That feeling that they had in their performances was great.”

The helmer had that in mind when choosing his characters, he said, as well as the story that followed them. “You wanted to have a kind of small town over-reaction feeling to everyone’s performances. I didn’t want complicated people. It wasn’t “complicated, wrestling-with-stuff,” it was very “our normal lives are messed up.”

It was that thinking that also led to Shyamalan placing his main protaganist (Wahlberg) in the shoes of a local high school science teacher.

“I loved that it’s just a regular guy,” said Shyamalan. “A lot of time I get comments of ‘Your protaganists don’t do enough.” [But] really what they do is become awake. Their awakening is what the story is about…it’s not about the solving. I’m not the guy where the point of the movie is that the hero solves it; that’s not my thing. Unless it’s about a particular awakening about him, like in “Signs” where he sees the signs…the water glasses. He doesn’t solve the alien invasion, [so] it’s still a personal discovery.

Fans of the director will next see him tackle a new genre, an adaptation of the popular Nickelodeon cartoon, “Avatar: The Last Airbender.” Stay tuned to the MTV Movies Blog for news on that front, in the meantime you can check out “The Happening” now on DVD and Blu-ray.

Does hearing the 50’s reasoning force you to look at ‘The Happening’ in a new light? Chime in below.