Warning: This post contains spoilers for Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen.
At first it seems like one type of very bad thing is going to happen. Then it’s another. By the finale of Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen, the very bad thing that’s about to happen has become all too clear. But that doesn’t mean our doomed protagonists are capable of stopping it.
Created by showrunner Haley Z. Boston (who previously wrote for Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities and Brand New Cherry Flavor) and executive produced by the Duffer Brothers (Stranger Things), the new Netflix horror series, all eight episodes of which are now streaming, spans the week leading up to the ill-fated wedding of engaged couple Rachel Harkin (Camila Morrone) and Nicky Cunningham (Adam DiMarco). After a disturbingly eventful drive out to the Cunninghams’ remote cabin compound, Rachel originally comes to believe her fiancé’s family—who she is meeting for the first time—is planning to sacrifice her in some sort of satanic ritual. But after the Cunninghams’ strange behavior is mostly explained away by the revelation that Nicky’s mother, Victoria (Jennifer Jason Leigh), has a terminal brain tumor they’ve been keeping secret from Nicky, Rachel is forced to contend with the real supernatural danger hanging over her head.
“The first half of the show, Rachel believes the threat is external. Then by the midpoint, she realizes it’s coming from within,” Boston says of the initial bait-and-switch. “She thinks this family is out to get her, that there’s some evil in the woods. Then she realizes it’s actually her. It’s her doubt that’s causing all this anxiety. There’s something interesting about wanting to put the blame on other people but ultimately realizing you have to go deeper inside yourself in order to face your fears.”
An irreversible curse
As it turns out, the…
