Life is full of horrors, both obvious and obscure. For example, I’d say having a masked killer try to murder your loved ones is clearly scary. But, seemingly joyous life milestones, like having a baby, can become quite the horror show. As a person who has carried two children and given birth, I find pregnancy and childbirth to be painful, confusing, bloody, and dangerous, among other things. And after watching Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen, I’d dare say that getting married can be a horror show as well, whether there are forces beyond human control at play or not. This Netflix series by showrunner/creator Haley Z. Boston with the infamous Duffer Brothers as its executive producers is a terrifying slow burn towards a bloody and satisfying conclusion that mostly hits the mark along the way.
I was immediately drawn to the show’s broad yet intriguing premise from day one. While my journey leading to marriage was far less chaotic than my one towards parenthood, it still had its horror tinged moments. The questioning of whether I was making the right decision with my life and future. The anxiety of dealing with a barrage of opinions, schedules, and managing personalities. It was all quite overwhelming from an emotional standpoint. So, when I saw that Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen would examine marriage from a horror lens and have, well, something bad happening from that choice, it totally made sense to me.
The series follows Rachel (Camila Morrone) and Nicky (Adam DiMarco), a recently engaged couple who are getting married in a week. They are on a long road trip to Nicky’s childhood home, where the ceremony will take place. It doesn’t take long before Rachel’s joy over their impending nuptials wanes as anxiety and a sense of dread multiplies. And it’s for good reason. Red flags littler their journey long before they arrive at the Cunningham estate, where his unsettling (to put it mildly) family awaits.
At first, you feel like you know what journey this series is going on. It’s clear that Rachel is on a metaphorical island, with no family, friends, and anchoring forces to guide her through this life-changing decision. That itself is a horror of sorts for a woman, where you feel like you “grin and bear it,” lest you want to be painted as the villain or misunderstood by people whose acceptance you desire. But, when the series unveils the true machinations behind what’s happening, it’s far darker than Rachel (and the audience) could have imagined.
Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen has a lot to say about the intricacies of getting married and the defining factors of a soulmate from a woman’s perspective. And so many of those explorations are both opposing and equally valid, albeit a bit heavy-handed at times. I always welcome the “woman is not believed” trope because it is 1) painfully true IRL and 2) usually doesn’t end well for the idiots who don’t believe her.
To me, the solution to Rachel’s predicament was crystal clear. However, I did have empathy for her journey to make sense of the unbelievable, and even to go to excruciating lengths to remedy a clearly doomed circumstance. That speaks so clearly to the social conditioning that women, specifically those in heterosexual relationships, are barraged with since childhood. Still, that didn’t stop me from wanting to shake the s**t out of Rachel so she’d choose a dark yet infinitely cooler option.
I cannot get into specific spoilers but, in terms of the soulmate option, there was a clearer pathway that I wished the show would’ve had the guts to explore for one hell of a plot twist. Ya can’t always get what you want, right? I could be wrong, but that refusal to steer in a different direction and elements of the hard drive to “make fetch happen” had the scent of Duffer Brothers (read: white straight male) all over it.
Did this series need eight whole episodes to get to its conclusion? Probably not. Admittedly it sags a bit in the middle with a little too much melodrama in some instances. But boy is that finale quite the finish for a new take on a “red wedding.” Haunting, bloody, and chaotic, the conclusion of this story ends in a way that sparks a lot of joy, at least for me. I did find elements of the story to become confusing at this point with some plot holes scattered among the drama, but it wasn’t enough to make it fall flat.
Overall, this series had solid performances from its ensemble, with Gus Birney standing out from the crowd as Nicky’s aggravating, controlling, and vitriolic sister Portia. It delivers on its moody and isolated settings, all tinged in a darkness that accompanies its themes. And the moments of fear and tension play out quite well most of the time, making you question whether love is worth it. So sit back, relax, and enjoy the marathon watch of Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen when it hits Netflix on March 26.