The Cutprice Guignol

Something very bad is going to happen.

Which isn’t a threat, though it might sound like one – no, it’s just the name of a new horror series that came out last week, that I’d very much like to talk about today. Something Very Bad is Going to Happen (one hell of a mouthful of a title, so much so it barely fits into the series’ title card) was created by Haley Z Boston and produced by the Duffer Brothers (clearly trying to make amends for that dreadful final season of Stranger Things), and was released by Netflix.

Something Very Bad follows Rachel (Camilla Morrone) and Nicky (Adam DiMarco), an engaged couple a week out from their wedding, as they go to stay with Nicky’s wealthy family in their holiday home in the woods – only for Rachel to be consumed by the certainty that something terrible is going to happen. And, as it turns out, she’s right.

At first, Something Bad seems like the kind of horror that fits so well in this modern horror landscape – a dark, unsettling, surreal atmosphere, wrapped around a life-changing event that holds as much metaphorical weight as it does literal. And, if that was all it was, I think I’d still have enjoyed it a lot; Boston and her various directors craft a really rich, intriguing backdrop against which this story takes place, the corridors of that beautiful house turned into something sullen and cold by the colour palette and skew-wiff cinematography. The snowy forest beyond leaves nowhere to go but into the simmering familial tensions, and that slow countdown to the wedding gives things a sense of inevitability and unease that serve the horror atmosphere well. Along with Rachel, we’re trying to figure out what exactly the threat is here, if there is one at all, its ephemeral nature almost suffocating in how it permeates just about everything.

But then, at the halfway mark, it takes a hard turn into fantasy horror – as Rachel discovers that she is the carrier of a curse that will condemn her to death if she marries a person who is not her soulmate. Oh, and that will stick her would-be husband with the same curse if she just decides against marrying him at all. In an instant, Rachel has gone from searching for the threat to being the threat, both to herself and the people she cares about; it’s a great twist that gives her something more concrete to work towards and allows the plot some real direction in the final days before the wedding. Zlatko Buric features heavily here, as an immortal “witness” condemned to watch the weddings of the family he once cursed, and his deliciously mannered performance nudges the series occasionally into full-blown fantasy.

 On that note – the character work is, without a doubt, the best part of the show. In a story like this – whose climax revolves around whether or not two people are soulmates – it’s all about relationships, each scene between Rachel and Nicky a chance for the audience as well as Rachel to try and parse just how suitable they are for each other. I think DiMarco and Morrone do an excellent job in capturing that very distinct relationship dynamic, one that is not quite perfect but close enough that it makes no difference unless you’re really interrogating it; there’s warmth and chemistry, but a profound distance between their understanding of each other that eventually yawns into a chasm.

Jeff Wilbusch and Gus Birney as Nicky’s siblings Jules and Portia are, for me, the standouts of this cast, especially Wilbusch, who Boston does a spectacular job unravelling over the course of the show. He starts a cold, callous, and often cruel man, a perma-sneer in human form, but, as we delve in to his trauma and backstory, he makes a tragic and even sympathetic kind of sense. Birney, for her part, is the pitch-perfect high-strung socialite, a joy every time she’s on-screen, coaxing out some levity without breaking the dark tone. Ted Levine and Jennifer Jason Leigh are, predictably, brilliant, but it’s Leigh’s turn that really does it for me here, because I would watch her play a wide-eyed self-involved maniac in a tasteful floral sundress till the end of time. And I wouldn’t be doing my duty as an obsessive fan if I didn’t tell you that, if you liked Karla Crome in this, you need to see her in Am I Being Unreasonable?.

Something Very Bad is Going to Happen is a surprisingly fun familial goth romp with a sense of humour that keeps it from getting too bogged down in its fantasy plotline, and some really engaging characters to fill out its unique world. I’m looking forward to seeing what Boston does next with Netflix – and just how long she’s going to make the title of her next show.

What did you think of this preposterously titled horror show? Where does it rank up against other Netflix horror offerings? Let me know in the comments below!

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(header image via indiewire)