Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)
Rachel Harkin is all set to marry boyfriend Nicholas “Nicky” Cunningham at his family home, but she starts to feel that something very bad is going to happen even before the couple arrive at Nicky’s place. And once she meets the Cunningham family, the feeling that she is not welcome in their world only keeps growing worse, to the point that she begins to think they might want to murder her. But are her fears real or imagined?
Created by Haley Z. Boston, ‘Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen’ spans eight episodes and stars Camila Morrone (‘Daisy Jones and the Six‘, ‘The Night Manager’) as primary protagonist Rachel, a beautiful young woman, not too keen on getting married, but says ‘yes’ to boyfriend Nicky (Adam DiMarco) out of love.
Titled ‘Never Get On One Knee’, episode one of ‘Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen’ opens with Rachel and Nicky undertaking a very long drive to his secluded family home, which by the way, turns out to be a lavish mansion filled with creepy taxidermy mounts and an eerie imposing painting of the entire clan, with some space left to add Nicky’s future wife. Along the way, the couple makes a few detours, including a creepy bar where Rachel is accosted by an old man, who asks her if she is sure Nicky is the one for her.
Over the course of next few episodes, Rachel gets familiarized with Nicky’s eccentric family, which includes a theatrical attention-seeking sister called Portia (Gus Birney), a stand-offish older brother Jules (Jeff Wilbusch), who happens to be married to Nicky’s ex-girlfriend Nell (Karla Krome). Jules also has a son, Jude (Sawyer Fraser), from a previous marriage, and the little boy believes in the legend of a local supernatural monster crawling in the woods around their house, which manages to spook Rachel.
The Cunningham family is exaggeratedly mysterious, to the point of seeming more pretentious than anything else. Despite meeting Rachel for the first time, everybody in the family acts weirdly around her, with not a sliver of warmth or welcome extended to the bride-to-be. This makes watching ‘Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen’ extremely challenging in the first few episodes. Although Rachel’s growing doubts over whether she should marry Nicky are very legitimate.
So here’s my advice: if you don’t mind slow-burn stories, stick around until the fourth episode of ‘Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen’ to decide if you want to watch it further. It is at this point that the creators deliver a creepy found-footage-style flashback about a couple (Victoria Pedretti in a great cameo) who travel to a cabin in the woods, not far from the Cunningham mansion, and experience an awful tragedy. This episode flips the script on the show, finally explaining what might really be happening while introducing a fantastic folk-horror element to the tale, complete with gore, blood, and all.
Camila Morrone delivers a memorable performance as an uncertain bride-to-be, growing increasingly frantic over being targeted in the dark, imposing Cunningham mansion. But instead of moping around, or losing her sanity, she starts to investigate what really is happening around her, leading to dark, unsettling revelations about not just her future in-laws, but her own roots. The fact that Rachel is a problem-solver, and not a typical helpless shrieking pretty face, makes her the most relatable character in ‘Something Very Bad is Going to Happen.’
Adam DiMarco (‘Overcompensating’) is infuriatingly entertaining as Rachel’s flaky fiancé, Nicky. His character constantly makes both Rachel and the viewer wonder: is this spineless rich dude really worth all the trouble? Nicky does the bare minimum to make Rachel feel welcome at his family home, while the series gradually reveals him to be the overprotected, overpampered golden child of the Cunningham clan. Right from episode one, something about him feels shady and insincere. Adam reminded me a lot of Bollywood actor Vijay Verma (‘Jaane Jaan’, ‘Darlings’), which was distracting, because at first, I couldn’t understand why he looked so familiar!
Anyway, the other characters that leave a strong impression in ‘Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen’ are Gus Birney as the drama queen Portia, who behaves as though she is the one getting married and obsessively fixates on everything needing to be “perfect” for the wedding. Portia’s character is the only person who brings some mild dark comedy to this otherwise somber show about family baggage, marriage, soulmates, monsters, and curses.
Jeff Wilbusch, as the eldest brother Jules, feels incredibly self-centered too, but as the show progresses, he turns out to be a lot more dependable than the rest of his family. Karla Crome’s Nell turns out be a refreshing character as the show resists turning her into the stereotypical bitter ex or scheming sister-in-law; instead, she’s the one person consistently willing to stand by Rachel when things go off the rails.
For the sake of keeping this review spoiler-free, I will not explore some of the more interesting things that take place ‘Something Very Bad is Going to Happen’, but the show does have a much stronger second-half. The climactic episode is fantastic, delivering a dramatic wedding day, packed with fear, frustration, confusion, and ultimately an extremely violent end, the kinds that absolutely justifies the title.
Slow, atmospheric, and laden with existential questions, ‘Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen’ pairs bloodied deaths with one big question: how do you know you’re marrying the right person? Because sometimes, saying “I do” to the wrong one can be a fate worse than death. Definitely watch the series if you enjoy stories that save their biggest reveals for the end. The journey may be a little tedious, but the destination is full of surprises for horror fans.
Stream ‘Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen’ on Netflix.
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