“Are you sure he’s the one?”
Picture it: It’s your wedding day and of course, you’d prefer everything to go according to plan. The inevitable tardiness of a guest, the flower arrangements in the centerpieces not looking pristine, and the possible cold feet of a weary groom go without saying that no wedding has ever gone perfectly. But no matter how bad one might think it could go, no wedding has ever measured up to one put on by the Cunninghams.
Rachel Harkin (Camila Morrone) is experiencing what it is like to marry into the wealthy Cunningham family firsthand in the Netflix limited series “Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen.” As if the series’ title were an omen for the horrible things that will surely befall Rachel and her love story, first-time showrunner Haley Z. Boston and producers Matt and Ross Duffer (“Stranger Things”) make it clear that this horror epic remains bizarre from beginning to end.
As Rachel is about to marry the love of her life, Nicky Cunningham (Adam DiMarco), strange events throw wrenches into the couple’s plan as it seems the universe is screaming at Rachel that Nicky is not the man she believes him to be.
The series begins with the wedding in question, though it quickly jumps back five days to Rachel and Nicky’s long-distance road trip to his family’s vacation cabin in the woods, around the corner from the middle of nowhere, USA. Along the drive, the happy couple discovers a baby abandoned at a rest stop on the side of the highway. Quick-thinking Rachel goes for aid in the cold darkness of night, while Nicky stays behind with the child, though she is confronted by local townies who are more eerie than helpful. One of them tells her not to trust Nicky, and when she returns to the rest stop, Nicky claims the baby’s family came back for it.
This should have been Rachel’s first exit point, but she brushes it off as a weird occurrence.
Nicky is not forthcoming about the sprawling mansion his family uses as a second home, which serves as a setting filled with strange noises, dark shadows, and backs up to a vast forest full of trees and odd backstories. When the family arrives, Nicky’s sister (Gus Birney) tells Rachel the story of The Sorry Man, a figure who roams the woods seeking brides to murder — just what every woman wants to hear a few days before her wedding. “Don’t let The Sorry Man see your insides,” a warning Rachel takes seriously as the rest of the family seems unbothered.
The spirit of the series comes in the form of Nicky’s mother Victoria (Jennifer Jason Leigh), a hella-rich woman who delights in her eccentricities while leaning into menace when Nicky is not in the room. She forces Rachel to wear her old wedding dress, continues the warning that Nicky isn’t the man Rachel has come to know and love (won’t anyone just tell her why?), and harbors secrets of her own. Everything inside of Rachel is telling her to flee this weird family she’s about to marry into, and yet, Nicky always comes back into the picture to calm her worries.
It isn’t until Rachel receives an anonymous note at the cabin that reads “Don’t Marry Him” that things get even more confusing.
“Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen” is not just the title of a horror series dark enough to spark curiosity among its streaming viewers — it’s an ominous call that explores the themes of second chances and regret. Rachel is a character without a family of her own, and it’s apparent from the jump that the Cunninghams are not a replacement for the loved ones she once lost. As she confides in her fiancé about all of the quirky things that keep happening to her, Nicky seems unfazed and provides excuses for every little thing that comes up.
The series devolves with soothsayers and continuous oners, long takes that fill the screen with uncomfortable music and tension that rarely pay off. Rachel’s experiences mirror those of the film “Ready or Not,” a family welcoming a new bride into the mix, albeit without the hide-and-seek game and blood-filled explosions. Every episode introduces a new peculiarity that makes Rachel second-guess every decision she’s made since leaving Chicago for a forest-set wedding, yet the constant questions about whether she is in danger or simply paranoid grow tiresome over time.
Much of the series’ tension relies on atmosphere rather than narrative progression. Rachel’s growing isolation should make for an unnerving descent into dread, but the show often confuses heart-pounding music for suspense. Prolonged stretches of ambiguous encounters suggest a looming payoff that never quite materializes, leaving viewers waiting for a twist that feels forever out of reach.
Morrone delivers a committed performance as Rachel, effectively conveying the anxiety of someone who realizes too late that she trusted the wrong people. Jennifer Jason Leigh is a worthy adversary, chewing through every scene with deliciously sinister energy as the enigmatic mother-in-law-to-be. Yet even their performances can’t overcome a premise that seems reluctant to go the distance in a Netflix series that resumes an awful trend of making the screen so dark it’s difficult to see anything on a TV or phone.
By the eighth and final episode, “Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen” lives up to its threatening title, but perhaps not in the way Boston and the Duffer Brothers intended. Rather than delivering a satisfying horror resolution, the series ultimately left me feeling like I’d been invited to a wedding filled with drama that never fully conveys a couple’s trust in one another. What begins as a promising slow-burn psychological horror gradually collapses under the weight of its own mystery.
“Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen” is now streaming on Netflix.
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