Written by Natasha Clough
Photos from Duffer Brothers
Doomed weddings have become a trend in recent film and television. In Ready or Not, a bride’s wedding night turns into a bloody, ritualistic game that she has to survive as her in-laws hunt her. The film’s sequel was released at the end of March, with the main character Grace (Samara Weaving) still caught up in the terror. In early April, the dark comedy The Drama hit cinemas, and left audiences shocked and divided as discourse spiralled. The plot hinged on a secret that the bride-to-be Emma (Zendaya) reveals to her fiancé (Robert Pattinson) a week before their wedding, throwing their relationship into crisis mode.
In between these two releases, the eight-episode series Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen debuted on Netflix. Like The Drama, the story begins just before a young couple is set to tie the knot (five days before in this case). The series reflects the shift towards weddings being framed as nightmarish. In the show’s pitch, creator Hayley Z. Boston wrote, ‘For someone who’s afraid of commitment, getting married feels like ritual sacrifice’. Something Very Bad examines how doubt in a relationship and the fear of commitment can be the real face of horror.
In the first episode, we meet Rachel (Camila Morrone) and Nicky (Adam DiMarco) on the drive to their winter wedding destination. A small ceremony at Nicky’s parents’ vacation cabin has been decided. ‘It Ain’t Me Babe’ plays on the car stereo as Rachel closes her eyes for half a second, enough to almost swerve into a bus. Narrowly avoiding death, the atmosphere shifts from uneasy to deeply sinister as night falls.
At a rest stop, a baby is found abandoned in a locked car and a dead fox in the nearby toilet block. An almost empty dive bar is where Rachel tries to find help, but she walks into a building that seems haunted, existing in an eerie liminal space. This is a world infused with David Lynch style surrealism, where urban tales of local killers feel more threatening than humorous. Hayley Z. Boston is skilful in building a sense of dread with the language of horror, not afraid to throw the audience into the deep end from the start.
When the couple finally make it to their destination, Rachel becomes initiated into a new family’s customs and traditions. The winding corridors of the house lead to a creepy family portrait she is sure to be painted into – absorbed into the new life that marriage binds you to. Meeting her future brother (Jules) and sister-in-law (Portia) during a late-night kitchen trip does little to settle her nerves. Portia (Gus Birney) is happy to tell her the story of ‘the Sorry Man’, a nightmarish folklore figure said to haunt the woods of the house. On the other hand, Rachel encountering the matriarch of the house feels like the start of an Ari Aster film. This is fitting with Colin Stetson’s unsettling, distorted score – a sound also found in Hereditary. Rachel finds Nicky’s mother (Jennifer Jason Leigh) in some kind of trance in the dark before finding a wedding invitation scrawled with, ‘Don’t Marry Him’. So, not disturbing at all!
Along with the family’s traditions comes their ritualistic approach to marriage. Rachel’s dress fitting feels claustrophobic and sacrificial. With Nicky pushed to find her lost original dress, she is pressured into trying on the one belonging to her future mother-in-law. Dressed up in an old-fashioned gown as large scissors insidiously snip the fabric all around, she can’t help but feel she is being made to fill a ‘bride-shaped hole’. Her own sentimental jewellery is discarded in favour of Cunningham family heirlooms – a pearl necklace acting as ‘something borrowed’ that will ‘ward off bad luck in a marriage’. The series plays with our expectations, setting us on edge alongside Rachel. However, the ‘Something Bad’ is not found in the secret motives of unsettling in-laws like those in Ready or Not. Rather, Boston instils fear through an idea that is bound to marriage: the concept of soulmates.
Paranoia about marrying the wrong person is pushed to the extreme, made horrific through a key plot point: a bloodline curse. Rachel learns that she must marry her soulmate before sundown or die. She could end up dying the way her mother did. The question of whether Nicky is truly ‘the one’ is less important than if Rachel really believes he is. Her fiancé’s parents preach about soulmates and she tries to maintain her belief that she has this: ‘A soulmate is fated. Our souls are connected. The way that we met.’
Without spoiling the show too much, when Rachel’s belief in her ‘fated’ meet-cute with Nicky is shattered, so is the certainty that was tied to the relationship. As the countdown to the curse’s fulfilment becomes more intense, Rachel’s doubts become amplified. Does her belief have to be 92%? 100%? Does she really know the man she is marrying? Can she still trust him? When walking down the aisle and saying ‘I Do’ means life or death, how sure can you be? The series suggests that the antidote to the curse (doubt) is not certainty but belief.
It’s clear that Boston uses a horror lens to tap into contemporary anxieties surrounding ‘making the right choice’: the fear of committing to someone for the rest of your life and it turning out to be the wrong person. These fears seem to particularly resonate with younger generations. Marriage rates have declined globally, with rates significantly declining in the UK since the 1970s. Marriage may not be the institution it once was, but the decline in getting to the engagement stage may also lie in the horrors of current dating culture. Dating apps have commodified connection; your Hinge date might bring you more dread than the latest slasher film.
There could always be someone ‘better’, more suited to you. How would you know if they’re your soulmate? Marriage might also feel less attainable if you haven’t reached stability in your life, whether that’s financial or professional. Uncertain futures are not uncommon for Gen Z. However, if you do find the ‘right person’, can you take that leap of faith? This TV series asks, would you stake your life on it?
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