Streaming services these days are stuffed with murder mysteries, swoony romances, pulp fantasies, and feel-good sitcoms. So if nothing else, give the Netflix miniseries Something Very Bad Is Going To Happen, which was co-executive produced by the Duffer brothers, some credit for being hard to define. Created by Haley Z. Boston, a writer on the similarly unusual Brand New Cherry Flavor, the show is part psychological thriller, part social satire, and part existential mystery. Picture the “elevated horror” of a movie like It Follows mixed with rowdy pulp like Ready Or Not, then peppered with a bit of Twin Peaks. From start to finish, the series stays true to Boston’s dark vision…sometimes to a fault but always in ways that crackle with originality.
Camila Morrone plays Rachel Harkin, an intelligent, independent, complicated young woman who’s a week away from marrying Nicky Cunningham (Adam DiMarco), a nice enough guy, if somewhat insubstantial. The ceremony is set to take place at the Cunningham family’s vacation home on a remote stretch of snowy countryside. Rachel has never met Nicky’s folks, but since her own mother is dead and she’s estranged from her father, she goes along with the big rural wedding plan. What could go wrong?
Something Very Bad Is Going To Happen starts answering that question in its terrific first episode, which sets a high bar that the rest of the miniseries never quite reaches again. As Rachel and Nicky drive out into the middle of nowhere, she begins feeling unsettled about the marriage. That intuition is exacerbated by some strange experiences. The pair finds an abandoned baby at a rest stop. Rachel has a jarring interaction in a near-empty dive bar with an old man (played by Zlatko Burić), whom she stabs in the hand. And then when they arrive at the house late at night, Rachel has awkward first encounters with the Cunninghams, including Nicky’s frail mother Victoria (Jennifer Jason Leigh), his fussy father Boris (Ted Levine), his flighty and opinionated sister Portia (Gus Birney), and his sullen brother Jules (Jeff Wilbusch), who is married to Nicky’s ex-girlfriend (portrayed by Karla Crome).
The cumulative effect of all of these odd moments is to create a sense of free-floating unease, a feeling that something’s off about, honestly, everything. Portia scares Rachel early on with talk of a legendary creature called The Sorry Man, who stalks the surrounding woods and was reportedly seen by Jules when he was a little boy. But for roughly the first half of the series, Boston never fully confirms whether or not there’s actually a paranormal element to this story. That’s because it’s not really important to the show’s overall vibe. If the danger Rachel and the Cunninghams are facing were entirely metaphorical—just a generalized “fear of romantic commitment,” say—then that would be just fine.
Of course, Boston does eventually reveal what’s actually going on here. It would be a spoiler to reveal anything, but suffice to say that it has to do with grim family legacies and that Rachel is ultimately faced with choices that to her seem equally awful. Whether she opts to go ahead with the wedding or not, the miniseries’ title seems fated to come true.
As to how this all plays out? There are highs and lows. This is an eight-episode miniseries that could’ve easily been cut down to six or less, given that each chapter typically runs around 50 minutes, with a saggy pace and only some loose episodic structure. Boston’s team is also overly aggressive with the atmospheric style, relying heavily on faded colors and low, low light. That kind of approach might’ve been distinctive 15 years ago, but it’s become the default for too many genre movies and TV shows. The look saps some of what makes Something Very Bad Is Going To Happen unique.
That said, there are elements to the miniseries’ style that work exactly as intended. The chilly, remote countryside helps create the feeling that Rachel has strayed into some netherworld at the edge of reality. That feeling is emphasized even more by the Cunninghams’ house, with its labyrinthine hallways and its strange central area: an enchanting courtyard surrounded by windows that looks like a museum exhibit. Morrone and DiMarco fit well into this story too. They have a chemistry that makes it easy to buy them as companionable—and also easy to believe that they may not be right for each other.
Also, while it’s tempting to think that a story like this might’ve been better told as a feature film, Boston does use her experience in television to good advantage. She and her co-writers, cast, and directors take the time to let moments and scenes play out at length. The most dramatic example of this comes in episode four, which includes an extended look at a home video that Rachel’s parents shot before she was born. The backstory details in that sequence are significant to the plot, but even more important is the way it shows her folks in a happier time, very much in love—in sharp contrast to Rachel’s own experiences.
The TV format also allows Boston & co. to develop the supporting characters and let some very good actors shine. Leigh is a standout as always, especially in a couple of long, creepy scenes in which she describes marriage as an act of “sacrificing part of yourself.” Levine is memorable, playing a patriarch who has instilled in his children an idea that marriage is an institution worth fighting for—while shielding them from any troubles he and Victoria may have had over the years. And Birney gives the miniseries’ breakout performance. Her hilariously blunt Portia openly chastises Rachel for everything from her downmarket fashion sense to her lack of any social-media presence. She makes a good villain. Portia is mean by nature, an everyday monster.
These strong characterizations matter, because one of the overall themes of Something Very Bad Is Going To Happen is that when couples marry, they gain a passel of new relatives—for better or worse. Early on, before it’s clear whether or not anything truly supernatural is happening in this show, there’s still a sense of creeping dread, as Rachel worries that her future in-laws are manipulating her into being the kind of bride they always envisioned for Nicky and forcing her into the wedding of their dreams, not hers. Even later in the series, after it leans more fully into horror, there’s an especially strong, fairly grounded sequence in which Rachel attends a pre-wedding party and has to explain how she and Nicky met, over and over, to a seemingly endless procession of Cunninghams.
That’s really the gist of Something Very Bad Is Going To Happen, this idea that a wedding—a marriage—is a wrenching process, in which people often have to pretend to be someone they’re not, whether it be for a few days, a few years, or a lifetime. Even the ceremony can feel arcane and not that far removed from a pagan rite. It’s no wonder brides and grooms get butterflies as the day approaches. What Boston gets across here—very effectively—is that sometimes a walk down the aisle can feel like a death march.
Noel Murray is a contributor to The A.V. Club. Something Very Bad Is Going To Happen premieres March 26 on Netflix.
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